Wirral Integrated Care System

What are integrated care systems?

Integrated care is about giving people the support they need, joined up across local councils, the NHS, and other partners. It removes traditional divisions between hospitals and family doctors, between physical and mental health, and between NHS and council services. In the past, these divisions have meant that too many people experienced disjointed care.

Integrated care systems (ICSs) are new partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, to coordinate services and to plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups.

Since 2018, they have been deepening the relationship in many areas between the NHS, local councils and other important strategic partners such as the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. They have developed better and more convenient services, invested in keeping people healthy and out of hospital and set shared priorities for the future.

The NHS Long Term Plan confirmed that all parts of England would be served by an integrated care system from April 2021, building on the lessons of the earliest systems and the achievements of earlier work through sustainability and transformation partnerships and vanguards.

With each part of the country now ready to function as an ICS, NHS England and NHS Improvement has asked the Government and Parliament to establish ICSs in law and to remove legal barriers to integrated care for patients and communities. Decisions on legislation will now be for Government and Parliament to make.

Next Steps

Wirral's Integrated Care System will be operational from April 2022. 

More details will be added over the coming months.