Executive Summary Over the past decade, the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) has been recognised for its collaborative, values driven system working. As the ICS concludes in March 2026, partners have reflected collectively on what was achieved, what was learned, and what must be carried forward as stakeholders move forward into the new Norfolk and Suffolk and Essex health and care systems. Beginning as an STP in 2016, Suffolk and North East Essex was one of England’s earliest ICSs, built on strong crosssector leadership, place-based Alliances, and a distinctive “Can Do” culture centred around outcomes, prevention and partnership. Through the pandemic, the ICS demonstrated exceptional agility—mobilising digital tools at speed, coordinating community-led responses, and delivering nationally leading vaccination uptake in underserved communities. Statutory ICS status in 2022 formalised long-standing ways of working, with a strengthened Integrated Care Partnership and a highly rated NHS Integrated Care Board (the only ICB in England rated NOF Segment 1 in 2025). The system continued to innovate in prevention, population health management, digital integration and community voice. Across the decade, partners delivered meaningful improvements through five core areas of action: 1. Bringing partners together in new ways – cross-sector collaboration was embedded at system, through Alliances and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams and professional networks. 2. Sharing resources and data – a system financial approach, shared care records, linked PHM data, and anchor institution commitments improved transparency, efficiency and targeted action. 3. Attracting and enabling new investment – external and internal investment in transformation enabled major digital, estate and workforce programmes and created capacity for innovation. 4. Hearing every voice – the ICS embedded co-production, strengthened lived-experience leadership, and pioneered equity-focused programmes such as “Uncomfortable Truths” and targeted inequalities work. 5. Improving population health outcomes – an outcomes-based approach using the “Live Well” framework supported systemwide progress across Start Well, Be Well, Stay Well, Feel Well, Age Well and Die Well domains. During this time, two enduring challenges shaped progress: • Non-coterminous boundaries created friction, capacity strain and governance complexity. • Demographic and socioeconomic pressures—population growth, ageing, health inequalities, the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis intensified service pressures and widened some outcome gaps. Stakeholders have highlighted seven lessons critical for future systems: • Build the system on shared values, principles and relationships. • Start with purpose (‘Start with Why?’) before designing structures. • Create inclusive spaces that build belonging, trust and understanding. • Actively redistribute power, especially to VCFSE partners and communities. • Focus on leadership culture, not just governance. • Enable transformation to evolve, not be forced. • Nurture a healthy system ecosystem where innovation can thrive. Suffolk and North East Essex ICS leaves a legacy of high trust, strong cross-sector relationships, committed system leadership, and a clear focus on prevention, inequalities and neighbourhood based care. This foundation is vital as new mayoral Strategic Combined Authorities, Unitary Councils and reformed NHS ICBs reshape the landscape. The coming years bring unprecedented opportunity: to align health, local government and wider public services; to shift fully to prevention; and to co-design new models of neighbourhood health and potential Integrated Health Organisations. The lessons from Suffolk and North East Essex—particularly the importance of trust, purpose and shared leadership— provide a strong platform for this transformation. 4 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’
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