These guidance documents published by NHS England and the Local Government Association set out how NHS leaders and organisations will operate with their partners in Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) from April 2022.

Integrated care systems (ICSs) are partnerships of health and care organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined-up services and to improve the health of people who live and work in their area.

They exist to achieve four aims:

• improve outcomes in population health and healthcare
• tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access
• enhance productivity and value for money
• help the NHS support broader social and economic development.

Thriving places: Guidance on the development of place-based partnerships as part of statutory integrated care systems

This co-produced NHS England and NHS Improvement and Local Government Association (LGA) document seeks to support all partner organisations in integrated care systems (ICSs) to collectively define their place-based partnership working, and to consider how they will evolve to support the transition to the new statutory ICS arrangements, anticipated from April 2022.

ICS implementation guidance on working with people and communities

The ICS Design Framework sets the expectation that partners in an integrated care system (ICS) should agree how to listen consistently to, and collectively act on, the experience and aspirations of local people and communities. This guidance sets out 10 principles for how integrated care boards (ICBs) can develop their approaches to working with people and communities, and the expectations.

ICS implementation guidance on effective clinical and care professional leadership

This guidance supports the development of distributed clinical and care professional leadership across integrated care systems (ICSs). It describes ‘what good looks like’ in this regard, based on an extensive engagement exercise involving over 2,000 clinical and care professional leaders from across the country, led by a multi-professional steering group.

ICS implementation guidance on partnerships with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector

This guidance provides more detail on how to embed voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector partnerships in ICSs, for health and care leaders from all organisations in ICSs that are developing partnerships across local government, health, housing, social care and the VCSE sector. The ICS Design Framework sets the expectation that integrated care board (ICB) governance and decision-making arrangements support close working with the VCSE sector as a strategic partner in shaping, improving and delivering services, and developing and delivering plans to tackle the wider determinants of health.

Interim guidance on the functions and governance of the integrated care board

This interim guide covers the expected governance requirements for integrated care boards as outlined in the Health and Care Bill and the Integrated care systems design framework.

HR framework for developing integrated care boards

The HR framework provides national policy ambition and practical support for NHS organisations affected by the proposed legislative changes as they develop and transition towards the new statutory integrated care boards.

Building strong integrated care systems everywhere: guidance on the ICS people function

This guidance builds on the priorities set out in the People Plan. It is intended to help NHS system leaders and their partners support their ‘one workforce’ by delivering key outcome-based people functions from April 2022.

Working together at scale: Guidance on Provider Collaboratives

The ICS Design Framework set an expectation that provider collaboratives will be a key component in enabling ICSs to deliver their core purpose. This guidance outlines minimum expectations for how providers should work together in provider collaboratives, offering principles to support local decision-making and suggesting the function and form that systems and providers may wish to consider.

Integrated Care Systems: Design framework

Guidance on the employment commitment: Supporting the development and transition towards statutory Integrated Care Systems

Over the next five years, through working with partners across Greater Manchester, Dementia United aims to improve the lived experiences of people with dementia, and reduce pressure on the health and social care system. In short, Dementia United is aiming to make Greater Manchester the best place in the world to live for people with dementia.

As part of the government’s historic devolution agreement, new decision making and spending powers are being given to Greater Manchester from April 2016. One of the early health and social care priorities for this work is dementia.

Dementia United is a dementia transformation programme led by Sir David Dalton, Chief Executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, and his team.

Dementia United aims to improve the lived experience for people with dementia and reduce dependence on the health and social care system. To achieve both these objectives it is clear there must be better support for carers, so that they, and those they care for are able to live well with dementia and are not pushed to crisis point.

In the video below Professor Maxine Power explains what’s been happening across the Dementia United team this year.

Tweets by @dementiaunited

This mobile app commissioned by NHS Employers has been created to enable effective culture change within the NHS and will be of interest to anyone interested in improving organisational culture.

The app complements the national ‘Do OD’ (Organisational Development) programme which aims to put OD theory into practice, helping people to connect, share, learn and grow.

• Download the app from Google play for Android devices
• Download the app from iTunes for Apple devices

The app is based on principles of Dialogic OD and Appreciative Inquiry and aims to help people by asking questions and offers pointers and practice which provide help and advice on culture change. The questions help people think about what is going on in their context, and through conversations, explore what change might look like.

The app is based on the experiences of ten health organisations with academic validation from Southampton University Business School. It aims to do three key things:

• Ask key questions that will help you to think about what you might need to do to change culture.
• Help you identify areas of strengths and areas of development.
• Offer pointers and practice resources which provide help and advice on culture change. At the end of each section you will be given a visual representation of your responses as well as an invitation to share any thoughts that the app has sparked for you.

This report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation explores the learning from the Dementia Engagement and Empowerment Project (DEEP), a national network that engages and empowers people with dementia to influence the services and policies that affect them.

Download Developing a national user movement of people with dementia

The report sets out the work and achievements of DEEP over the past three years, and the priorities for developing this network into a strong user movement of people with dementia. It provides reflections on the process of creating a national network of people with dementia as well as some practical suggestions about setting up local involvement groups.

The report outlines that DEEP has been about inspiration, shared ambitions for wide social change and inordinate local successes in influencing services, strategies, community developments and raising awareness. People with dementia talk about being part of their local involvement group as a job, a role, something that gives them a sense of purpose. People with dementia support each other to gain confidence within their group, and groups are gaining confidence in their influencing work as they connect with other like minded groups.

The report also states that on the national stage, organisations and bodies have seen the relevance of DEEP in increasing the diversity of views and voices that they include in their involvement processes.

Dementia Pathfinders is a social enterprise delivering therapeutic care and support for people with dementia and their families, and programmes of education and learning for people working in the dementia care field.

Dementia Pathfinders seeks to build partnerships with individuals and groups working to understand and meet the needs of people with dementia. The organisation has partnerships with academic institutions, independent providers of services and public sector organisations in health and social care.

Dementia Pathfinders aims to give a voice to people with dementia, and friends and family members who support them. The organisation also represents the perspectives of everyone working in the field of dementia care, particularly those in the frontline of care work, whose experiences and contributions are rarely articulated.

Dementia Pathfinders has four key programmes of work:

1. Therapeutic and Social Support
2. Learning and Development
3. Technology
4. Service User Engagement and Measurement of Impact

Dementia Pathfinders has offices in London and Wolverhampton. The organisation has an experienced network of ‘associates’ and works nationally to deliver programmes of education and support that are designed to enhance the health and improve the quality of life for all people affected by dementia.

Find out more about Dementia Pathfinders from the website at www.dementiapathfinders.org or by downloading the general information leaflet

Tweets by @DPCIC

The Dementia Engagement and Empowerment Project (DEEP) brings together groups of people with dementia from across the UK to influence the services and policies that affect them.

DEEP supports these groups to try to change services and policies that affect the lives of people with dementia.

A full list of DEEP groups is available at https://dementiavoices.org.uk/about-deep-groups.

The first phase of DEEP was a one year project that finished in 2012 but a new, three year phase began in 2013. This will help build the capacity of existing groups, support the emergence of new groups and help develop a network linking these groups together.

DEEP and the Dementia Action Alliance are promoting ‘Call to Action’ around the language used to describe people with dementia.

More information

• DEEP website https://dementiavoices.org.uk
• Read the report from the first phase of DEEP on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website
• View the appendix which contains lots of useful supporting documents and research data to the DEEP main report
• Watch a short film about DEEP on the Mental Health Foundation website

This guidance published by the British Psychological Society aims to promote effective and timely assessment, diagnosis, interventions and support to people with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia.

Download Dementia and People with Intellectual Disabilities: Guidance on their Assessment, Diagnosis, Interventions and Support

The guidance provides a framework for good practice and for the development of multi-agency care pathways. It also offers a set of standards of good practice against which service provision can be benchmarked and audited.

The guidance aims to promote the development of comprehensive and effective local services and to reduce the number of individuals who are failed by current service provision. It includes practical and clinical suggestions in the day-to-day care of people as well as the evidence base for these actions.

This is a rapidly developing area with new knowledge and practice developing all the time. The report aims to complement other publications and guidance in this area and to provide a way forward for supporting people with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia.

This guide published by the Alzheimer’s Society is designed to help employers provide support for staff members with dementia. It may also be a useful resource for people living with, or affested by, dementia in the workplace.

The guide provides advice on how to become a dementia friendly employer and highlights some of the scenarios which can occur in the workplace with appropriate responses employers can adopt.

It also includes practical tips and examples of situations that managers can use to ensure best practice as well as review existing approaches to supporting people living with dementia in the workplace.

Download Creating a dementia friendly workplace: A practical guide for employers

This project led by by the East of England Strategic Clinical Network, working with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) will evaluate and support co-production between patients, carers  and healthcare providers as equal partners in the East of England.

Download the East of England Co-Production Programme briefing

Coproduction is a way of thinking and working where patients and carers are equal partners with healthcare providers. Together identifying and bringing about improvements to health-based services, strategies or programmes of work. The programme was launched in October 2014.

NDTi (www.ndti.org.uk) is a not-for-profit organisation concerned with promoting inclusion and equality for people who are at risk of exclusion and who need support to lead a full life. They have extensive experience of leading co-production projects with a range of providers, including health and social care agencies. NDTi have a particular interest in issues around age, disability and health. They work across all client groups and have nationally recognised expertise in co-production. For more information on the project please go to their website.

The programme has two elements:

• In-depth support to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to work with patients, carers and families as equal partners on a specified project
• Action Learning Sets – ALS are dedicated days where teams can get together to work on their projects and support others with theirs through a process of listening, reflection, questions and actions.

The in-depth part of the programme is to support three CCGs to work on large-scale service improvement in mental health or long-term conditions, with funding from the SCN and specialist support from NDTi.

The projects and sites chosen were selected from a number of applicants by a Co-Production Steering Group panel, which included equal numbers of patients and carers, and professionals.

In-depth projects

• Putting people diagnosed with progressive neurological disease at the centre of redesign to achieve, person centred and self-care models and principles which support the commissioning of local services (East and North Hertfordshire CCG). To find out more about this project and how to get involved please go to https://www.hertsdirect.org/services/healthsoc/IntCare/WorkTog
• A co-production approach to provide support for people living with dementia and their carers in Luton. (Luton CCG)
• Community Asset Modelling for Mental Health (South Norfolk CCG). To find out more about this project and how to get involved please go to https://www.southnorfolkccg.nhs.uk/news/exploring-mental-health-support-south-norfolk

Action Learning Set Teams

• Co-production of Integrated Mental Health Care Strategy (Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG and West Suffolk CCG)
• Improving Annual Health Checks for People with a Learning Disability in Thurrock. Thurrock CCG, experts by experience, and a local Social Enterprise are trying to identify the barriers that are preventing people having an annual health check and to find innovative solutions in order to increase the take up.
• Co-production of a rare neurological disease pathway. (Luton CCG)
• Bringing together those who use services and those who provide them in order to co-produce a more effective, individualised care pathway that facilitates successful recovery from mental health problem. (Mid Essex CCG)

All projects will be fully evaluated by NDTi, with the aim of measuring the impact of co-production as a method of working. Evaluation will look to capture the outcomes for people using services, service delivery and where possible cost effectiveness.

The evaluation of the programme has two key elements:

• To evaluate the extent to which participation in the programme has led to a change in knowledge, understanding and commitment to co-production for both the professionals and patients and carers involved.
• To evaluate the impact of taking a co-produced and personalised approach to implementing change and/or addressing service issues or challenges

Further updates on the programme will be released in due course.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Victoria Doyle, Quality Improvement Lead for the Mental Health, Dementia, Neurology, learning Disability and Autism SCN for more information on Victoria.doyle@nhs.net