8 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’ 1.3 Approach and methodology This project was never intended to be a rigorous, systematic external evaluation of the ICS, but instead as a way to gather reflections and learning from stakeholders who wished to participate. The project was led and undertaken by the Suffolk and North East Essex ICP team with external support from Professor Ioan Fazey and Dr. Sam Buckton from the University of York and Professor Stefan Cousquer from Hult Ashridge Executive Education. Between November 2025 and February 2026, the ICP team held a series of semi-structured workshops and interviews with stakeholders, explaining the context for the project, an overview of the evolution of the ICS over the last decade, local demographic changes over time, and the emerging future landscape for health and care. All stakeholders were asked two core questions: • What have we learned in Suffolk and North East Essex about enabling effective health and care system working from our experience and our particular local interpretation of working together as an ICS? • What do we consider the legacy from Suffolk and North East Essex to be that should inform a ‘reset’ of how system working is best enabled in the new emerging health and care landscape? A flexible offer was made to join meetings, hold bespoke workshops, or 1:1 interviews depending on choice. In all, we engaged over 200 people. Stakeholders engaged across Suffolk and North East Essex included colleagues from: • Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Partnership Committee • ICP Secretariat Team colleagues • Integrated Care Board leaders and non-executive members • Local government leaders in county social care and public health, and districts and boroughs • Current and past Chairs and elected leaders across local NHS, local government and VCFSE sector • Primary care leaders • VCFSE Assembly attendees and leaders • Social Care providers through the Suffolk Care Association • Healthwatch Essex and Healthwatch Suffolk • Allied Health Professionals Network • Alliances • External consultants who have worked with the ICS • Integrated Care Academy and local universities People who use services were engaged through the ICS People and Communities Assembly and Primary Care Patient and Participation Groups as well as meetings with local Healthwatch. A desktop review was also undertaken of literature and data collated from a wide variety of sources (see later) which included: • National documents including from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England • Reports from leading national organisations including The King’s Fund, National Audit Office etc. • Public health data was drawn from national validated sources e.g. Office for National Statistics • Suffolk and North East Essex ICS publications • Local case studies drawn from existing evidence-based resources e.g. case studies submitted for our ICS awards The analysis of the data gathered from our workshops and interviews has been thematic, guided by the four dimensions for accelerating transformations – Actions, Impact, Enablers and Governance suggested by the University of York and Hult Ashridge Executive Education. The emerging themes from the workshops are reflected in the headings used in this report. These emerging themes were then further tested with stakeholders for their validity and consistency. Drafts of the draft final report were then supplied to five national external reviewing organisations and a range of local stakeholders in order to elicit their comments (see chapters 7 and 8). Those who participated in the project and shared their views and reflections through workshops and interviews are referred to as ‘stakeholders’ throughout this report.
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