13 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’ 2.5 Transition to a statutory Integrated Care System – 2022-2024 In 2021 NHS England published a national ICS Design Frameworkxvi. This set out how ICS partnerships would align the ambitions, purpose and strategies of system partners; and how NHS Integrated Care Boards would plan, allocate resources, commission services and improve population health outcomes. In anticipation of the new Health and Care Act that year, NHS England undertook a national review of ICS boundaries to explore where these could be more closely aligned to local authority boundaries. Local MPs from the East of England argued passionately for ICS boundaries to remain unchanged during a heated debate in the House of Commons. The review concluded in July 2021 with a decision by the then Minister of State for Health Ed Argar MP, that ICS boundaries in the East of England would remain unchanged; nationally the number of ICSs reduced from 44 to 42. With the boundaries for new statutory NHS Integrated Care Boards confirmed there was a national process to appoint Chairs and Chief Executives for the new statutory NHS Integrated Care Boards. For Suffolk and North East Essex this process resulted in the appointment of Professor Will Pope as designate Chair and Ed Garratt as designate Chief Executive of the new NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board. The Health and Care Act 2022xvii came into force on 1 July 2022, placing NHS Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships onto a statutory footing. NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board was established, replacing the previous three CCGs. A statutory Suffolk and North East Essex ICP Committee was established with three co-chairs – the chair of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB and the chairs of both Suffolk and Essex Health and Wellbeing Boards. Susannah Howard became ICP Director. The new statutory ICS was marked by the very first annual ICS EXPO event which took place at Newmarket Racecourse and was attended by almost 1000 delegates. An interim ‘ICS Integrated Care Strategy’xviii was published at the end of December 2022, setting out the ICS’s direction to improve population health. In 2023 the national ‘Hewitt Review’xix of ICSs recommended greater autonomy for ICSs, shifting investment into prevention, and more multi-year funding. In Suffolk and North East Essex the ICB published its first ‘Joint Forward Plan’, which drew on the ICS Integrated Care Strategy. The ICS also submitted its learning from the pandemic to the national COVID Inquiry. The ICS VCFSE Assembly was more formally established with Kirsten Alderson appointed as Assembly Chair. An innovative ICS VCFSE Resilience Charterxx was coproduced and signed by key partners from the VCFSE sector, the NHS ICB and county councils at a second annual ICS EXPO event at Wherstead Park, Suffolk. The ICS began its innovative ‘Uncomfortable Truths’xxi system learning programme to look more deeply into systemic inequalities and injustice in health and care. In June 2023 Dr. Ed Garratt, Chief Executive of NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB received an OBE in the King’s first Birthday Honours List for his services to the Integrated Care System, particularly recognising his leadership across Suffolk and North East Essex. Fiona Ellis, Chief Executive of charity Survivors in Transition in Ipswich also received an OBE in the same honours list for her services to survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The ICS annual EXPO 2024 was delayed to September 2024 because of the General Election which took place in July. The event took place at Colchester Rugby Club with keynote speaker Sir Terry Waite KCMG CBE – around 1500 delegates attended the event which included the first annual ICS Awards. Picture – Ed Garratt OBE at Buckingham Palace, November 2023
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