Background
By April 2021 the Long Term Plan (LTP) requires all Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) to become Integrated Care Systems (ICS).
As of November 2019 there is no fixed national blueprint for how ICS should evolve. NHS England and Improvement (NHS EI) have published ‘Designing Integrated Care Systems’ guidance which summarises different approaches that can be taken.
Purpose of this document
This Mental Health (MH) in ICS Implementation Tool aims to act as a self assessment tool for London’s STPs to support the evolution of Integrated Care Systems.
It supports leaders across the system to understand and take a view of the degree to which mental health across all ages is appropriately embedded within their developing ICS architecture.
The starting point for the development of this document was the national Integrated Care Systems Maturity Matrix, and the RCPsych report sharing learning on Improving mental health services in systems of integrated and accountable care. This document builds on this content providing an understand of what steps are suggested in order to fully integrate MH within an ICS.
This Implementation Tool is intended to be iterative and expected to evolve as ICSs learn and mature. It acknowledges that systems will be at different levels of maturity. It is intended as an aid to inform discussions across the ICS and be used as a platform for local action. This is not intended to be a performance management, assurance or RAG rating tool.
A public and service user/client summary has been co-produced with service user/client and carer representatives that provides an overview of the role of MH within an Integrated Care System and how this will benefit the service users/clients. We have produced a two-page summary and 8 page larger print version.
