New Integrated Care Systems

Older network members may recall that the Housing LIN was first established 20 years ago as part of the Department of Health's then Integrated Care Network (ICN) in the Change Agent Team to support more effective partnership arrangements across health and social care.

This included interventions, including with housing, which resulted in better outcomes for users of services. From joint commissioning of extra care housing services as an alternative accommodation choice to residential care to pooling of budgets to better coordinate intermediate care and hospital discharge arrangements back home or prevent an unnecessary readmission.

Twenty years on, the new Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) - that legally come into force in England today - must learn from these operational improvements and embed them within the 42 local health and care economies that have been created to replace CCGs.

The new ICSs, along with levers set out in the Adult Social Care White Paper to work strategically to generate transformative new models of housing and care, provide an opportunity to systematically plan and achieve more joined-up solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of their populations.