Realising the Potential of Integrated Care Systems

• This research examines the development of ICSs by assessing their efforts to develop system-wide approaches to the recruitment, training and retention of staff. [...] We found evidence of ICSs beginning to build a ‘whole-system’ approach to workforce, in which local organisations work together more closely to tackle shared workforce issues and develop new solutions that better meet the needs of the local population. [...] This has been driven by a recognition that people using health and social care services increasingly need support from multiple parts of the system and that this support needs to be joined up and co-ordinated more effectively. [...] In particular, we wanted to understand the extent to which ICSs are helping local leaders to develop ‘whole-system’ solutions to some of the substantial challenges facing the health and social care system. [...] We chose to focus on workforce issues because these have a significant impact on patient care and often require a co-ordinated response from multiple organisations of the kind that ICSs were designed to enable. [...] What we did We wanted to understand the development of ICSs through the eyes of people involved in the workforce agenda, exploring the successes and challenges they have encountered in attempting to work collaboratively on workforce issues such as the recruitment, retention and training of staff. [...] Overall, we found that ICSs have made progress in supporting local organisations to work together in a more collaborative way on workforce issues. However, this progress has been uneven and has not come easily. [...] But, importantly, changes such as these have been underpinned by the largely invisible efforts of local leaders to strengthen relationships, change mindsets, and encourage different behaviours within their system. [...] Our report describes how ICS leaders can perform these six functions in practice, and the challenges that some are encountering in doing so. How can national bodies support ICSs to succeed? [...] • Give systems greater flexibility to use national funding in ways that best serve their local needs and priorities. Interviewees argued that this is likely to deliver greater impact from the resources available and would help to strengthen the local partnership working on which the success of ICSs depends. What next?