Delivering effective governance and accountability for integrated health and care
A new explainer for the NHS and local authorities outlines possible solutions for the governance and accountability challenges brought by the move to integrated health and care.
NHS organisations and local authorities are already working closely together to join up approaches to delivery and this will become even more important as the journey towards more integrated approaches to planning for health and care continues via ICSs, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan earlier this year.
But we know that there are several important differences in governance and accountability between the NHS and local authorities, which creates challenges when seeking to integrate systems and structures.
The NHS Clinical Commissioners’ lay members network, which represents the individuals within CCGs that take responsibility for ensuring effective governance and accountability for decision-making in their local areas, has come together with the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, a national centre of expertise on governance and scrutiny, to highlight the challenges and outlines some potential from solutions from those areas that have been successful in integrating effectively to date, such as Manchester.
It also outlines the enablers for integration that local systems can utilise in their local area as well as three things our members have told us that national bodies need to deliver to support further integration.
