The Health and Care Act 2022 mobilises partners within Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to work together to improve physical and mental health outcomes. These new partnerships between the NHS, social care, local authorities and other organisations will only build better and more sustainable approaches if they are informed by the needs, experiences and aspirations of the people and communities they serve.
This is statutory guidance for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), NHS trusts and foundation trusts, and is adopted as policy by NHS England. It supports them to meet their public involvement legal duties and the new ‘triple aim’ of better health and wellbeing, improved quality of services and the sustainable use of resources. It is relevant to other health and care organisations, including local government, to ensure that we work collaboratively to involve people and communities, in ways that are meaningful, trusted and lead to improvement.
The public involvement legal duties require arrangements to secure that people are ‘involved’, and this can be in a variety of ways. ICBs, trusts and NHS England need to be able to demonstrate that they assess whether that the duties apply to decisions about services and, where they do, that they are properly followed. NHS England’s assessment of ICBs’ performance will include how they meet their legal duties. There are also policy requirements for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs), place-based partnerships and provider collaboratives to involve people, including in their membership and when developing plans and strategies. Involvement is a contractual responsibility for Provider organisations, including General Practice, as set out in the NHS Standard Contract.