47 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’ Stakeholders described a number of common factors that they thought had been important in enabling us to build solid foundations in our system. These include enabling sustainable funding for new projects, data sharing and providing access to linked data, co-location of teams and shared governance arrangements. But they also emphasised that the most important foundations for real transformation are to establish trusting relationships and effective networks, identify strengths and assets in our communities, and ensure that diverse groups and communities have a voice in what happens in our system. Despite progress made, many stakeholders felt that gaps remain in both knowledge and our understanding of key issues. The importance of investing in both knowledge and understanding Suffolk and North East Essex ICS has invested significantly in developing data and population health management and this is helping us to better quantify the health of our populations so we know how to better target resources to meet demand. However, stakeholders highlighted that there remain gaps in population data and lived experience of diverse groups and communities, which compromise the quality of evidence available. Data is not always shared and read in order to improve the coordination of care across all those partners involved in a person’s care. And people’s journeys through health and care services are not always fully understood by commissioners and providers. Community stakeholders were concerned and said that this lack of evidence also impacts the ability of the system to tackle health and healthcare inequalities. As well as gaps in data, the ways that characteristics are recorded does not incorporate intersectionality or the wider determinants of health, so our understanding of inequalities does not reflect the complexities and challenges in people’s lives. A further important issue is the need to better understand the impact of trauma and how this can affect access to and experience of care and health outcomes. Also when the system comes together to make decisions, not all local communities are represented ‘at the table’. Moving to strategic commissioning NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB has been at the forefront of the national move for the NHS towards strategic commissioning. This is a major part of the NHS's 10-Year Health Planiii and the Model ICB Blueprintxliv, both of which reposition ICBs more as long-term system leaders rather than transactional commissioners. The key drivers for this include: • The need for long-term planning and prevention-first approaches • A shift towards neighbourhood and population-based models of care • Increasing integration with local government and addressing wider determinants of health (employment, housing, etc.) Strategic commissioning is described as a continuous, evidence-based process to plan, purchase, monitor and evaluate services over the long term to: • Improve population health • Reduce health inequalities • Ensure equitable access to consistently high quality care From 2026/27, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are expected to lead this approach across every NHS commissioned service, shifting the system from short-term contracting to long-term, population level stewardship. This will require ICBs to be skilled in interpreting and understanding both quantitative and qualitative data including, most importantly lived and learned experience.
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