Hands on heart, as I’m not on the Adults & Health committee and this is an area I have struggled to get on top of. This does not mean residents should not get in touch with social care and health care issues I will attend to them, take them seriously and do what I can to help and I am in an equally strong position to try to support residents as if I was on that committee. What I have not been able to find the time to do is read 400-500 page committee documents so I am not entirely on top of the detail.

That said today is the first day of a new more collaborative way of working between health and care and I think this email provides some indication of what is going on.

Dear Councillors and Council Colleagues,

We wanted to share an update with you on the first official day of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System (ICS). It is also the day CCG staff transition to be employed by NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough (our new ICB).

Integrated Care Systems (ICS) are partnerships of organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, and to improve the lives of people who live and work in their area. There are now 42 ICSs across England.

Although it’s our formal launch today, voluntary sector organisations, NHS providers, local Councils and other partners have been working together acting as an ICS for some time now. We are aligned in our purpose to promote, support and improve the health and wellbeing of almost a million people living locally.

Our shared vision is to make a real difference to the lives of local people and communities. To do this we need to work together, better. Together we will focus on reducing health inequalities, creating a system of opportunity, giving people more control over their own health and wellbeing, and delivering world-class services enabled by local research and innovation. We will do all of this whilst being environmentally and financially sustainable with a resilient workforce.

We have a strong Board and Executive team led by John O’Brien as our Chair, and Jan Thomas as Chief Executive Officer. We’ve recruited an excellent senior leadership team for NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, who will together lead the new partnership approach to improving the health and wellbeing of local people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. You can read more about them in the attached update.

You can also keep up to date on latest news and developments of the ICS by visiting the new ICS website www.cpics.org.uk that is packed full of helpful information.