43 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’ 5.6 Maintain a focus on system leadership and culture The importance of system leadership and culture Being a health and care leader in an Integrated Care System involves not only developing and implementing a vision for your individual organisation, but also being part of collective leadership and creating a culture of collaboration within and across organisations, integrating ways of working to deliver seamless care that benefits everyone who needs care and support. The ability of leaders to lean into complexity and uncertainty and collaborate well with partners is therefore the make-or-break factor in the success of ICSs. Stakeholders told us that several specific leadership qualities underpinned these approaches, creating a positive environment for the system to flourish: • Inclusive and compassionate – making people heard, valued, and not alone in trying to solve problems. • Visionary – people in powerful positions championing key issues such as health equity, co-production and parity for the VCFSE. • Transparent – creating a culture of openness in collaborative working which has filtered across different sectors and throughout the workforce. • Strategic – in planning, decision-making and activities. Creating a compassionate leadership culture was a focus for the ICS. Cross sector leaders participating in a masterclass on this theme at the ICS EXPO event in 2024 described their collective vision for this as below: Picture – graphic capture of discussion about Compassionate Leadership at EXPO 2024 in September 2024 Evidence for effective system leadership Developing effective system leadership is not just a contemporary issue in health and care. Across almost all sectors and there is a growing evidence base in this area. In early 2025 the University of Stirling published a qualitative systematic review of 84 peer reviewed journal articles and grey literature reports. Their paper, ‘Systems Leadership: a qualitative systematic review of advice for policymakers’ by Paul Cairney, Claire Toomey, University of Stirling – Jan 2025 – Open Research Europexli set out advice for policy makers around five themes which provide a useful lens through which to consider experiences and the approach taken in Suffolk and North East Essex ICS as follows:
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