PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Integrated Care Systems (2 April 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the effectiveness of (a) Integrated Care Organisations and (b) pre-existing NHS England arrangements; and what assessment he has made of the effect of those (a) organisations and (b) arrangements on patient care.

Asked by:
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour)

Integrated Care Organisations’ is not a term currently used by NHS England, so the answer below refers to Integrated Care Providers.

‘Integrated Care Provider’ (ICP) is a term used to describe a provider that is responsible for the integrated provision of general practice, wider National Health Service and potentially local authority services, which enters into an ICP contract with the commissioner(s) of those services. The ICP would be a ‘lead’ provider organisation, and so would be contractually responsible for delivering integrated services for local people. An ICP is not a new type of legal entity, but simply the name for a provider organisation awarded an ICP contract. The ICP contract is itself a variant of the generic NHS Standard Contract (which is already used to commission a broad range of NHS services) and has been specifically designed to enable integration through a single contract that could be used to commission both primary medical services and other health and care services.

There are not yet any ICPs in place in England. However, NHS England plans to study the effects of the first ICP contracts that come into being and share learning with others that may follow. Where a clinical commissioning group (CCG) proposes to use the ICP contract in future, proposals will be subject to successful completion of the Integrated Support and Assurance Process, managed by NHS England and NHS Improvement, before the ICP Contract is awarded.

Further information about ICPs is available in NHS England’s package of consultation materials and response to consultation, which are available at the following link:

https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/proposed-contracting-arrangements-for-icps/

Answered by:
Seema Kennedy (Conservative)
10 April 2019