The Health and Social Care Act 2022 provided the legislative framework for health and care organisations to work together and deliver joined up care.
With 42 integrated care systems (ICSs) across England now on a statutory footing, there is an opportunity for leaders of social care, health and other services to come together to determine the direction of care in their areas.
The focus of this should begin with the person drawing on care in their local community – encouraging person-centred care and the concept of people ‘only having to tell their story once’, for example. Alongside this, working towards a shared culture across sectors will also be of primary importance. An understanding of one another’s roles, strengths, experiences, challenges and an acknowledgment of historical imbalances across sectors, will be vital in ensuring the success of every ICS.
This page is for anyone working as part of or involved with their local ICS. In particular, the information and guidance will be of use to ICS workforce leads, chief people officers, directors of adult social services, commissioners, chief executives, human resource directors, elected members including adult social care portfolio holders and chairs of health and wellbeing boards.
We’ve included resources to help you with learning more about integration, information about understanding social care and signposting to useful groups that can help you engage effectively with adult social care.
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In this sector briefing, Jeanette Cookson, Programme Head Integration at Skills for Care, discusses the importance of involving adult social care providers in integrated care systems.
Skills for Care workforce data
Our workforce data provides insights into the adult social care sector. We use intelligence provided to us by over 20,000 adult social care providers to create analysis on topics including the number of posts in the sector, vacancy rates, demographics and pay. Our annual reports include information about the overall size, structure and state of the adult social care workforce. They can help you to get a fuller picture of the adult social care sector at both a local and a national level.
Integrated workforce thinking across systems: practical solutions to support integrated care systems (ICSs)
This online guide was developed as a collaboration between Skills for Care, NHS Employers and the Care and Health Improvement Programme. Produced for those working as part of or with ICSs, it introduces workforce thinking, sets out the challenges, highlights the importance of using workforce data and shares advice and examples of best practice.
Culture benchmarking tool for integrated care systems
In partnership with NHS Employers, we have developed a benchmarking tool to help health and care systems audit themselves when working towards building an integrated culture. The tool invites systems to explore and score themselves against six ways to creating a culture for integration. These can then be used as a prompt to consider how culture and behaviour impact on ways of working.
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We spoke to employers to find out how they work with each other and other sectors. Our seven top tips help you build effective relationships and refine ways of working with different organisations in your care system.
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Clarify the functions involved in coordinating care and supports a consistent definition of care coordination for those working at the interface of social care and health.
Groups to help you engage with social care
Nominated individuals and CEOs of adult social care organisations play a vital role in setting the direction of their services and are an important group to engage with when planning across systems.
Skills for Care support networks for these groups across England and they are actively looking to create connections with their local integrated care systems.
Find your local NI or CEO network
Delegated healthcare activities
Skills for Care, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and partners have co-developed voluntary guiding principles to support person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities.