Where once the primary purpose of the health and care system was to provide
episodic treatment for acute illness, it now needs to deliver joined-up and proactive support for growing numbers of older people and people living with long-term conditions and complex needs.
In March 2017, NHS England set out an ambition to ‘use the next several years to make the biggest national move to integrated care of any major western country’. This aim is now being pursued through the development of sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) – local ‘place?based’ partnerships of NHS and local authority organisations. The most advanced local partnerships have been asked to develop ‘integrated care systems’ (ICSs). These systems will take more control of funding and services across local areas.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how ICSs are being
developed in different parts of the country and to identify lessons for local systems and national policy-makers.