John MacDonald has been confirmed as Chair-Designate for the Derbyshire Integrated Care Board when it takes on statutory responsibilities as anticipated from April 2022.
Mr MacDonald has worked in and with the NHS in board-level roles for more than 25 years. He has been the independent chair of Joined Up Care Derbyshire since 2019.
Mr MacDonald said: "I am delighted to have been confirmed as Chair-Designate for the Derbyshire Integrated Care Board when it takes on statutory responsibilities from April 2022. Joined Up Care Derbyshire has an established track record of very strong system working across health and care, with a clear vision to support our residents to live longer, healthier lives.
"The work to date in setting out our service transformation priorities, in delivering a response to the pandemic, in recovering those services which were affected back in 2020 and in working with an increasingly wider set of partners to root out and tackle inequality and variation in people's life outcomes has been built on solid foundations. It will be a great pleasure to help to steer the system in the further delivery of our goals."
Executive Lead for Joined Up Care Derbyshire, Chris Clayton, said: "We welcome the certainty that this announcement brings and look forward to continuing to work with John and other colleagues to make integrated care a reality for the communities we serve and improving care for the people of Derby and Derbyshire. The next stage of this process will be the confirmation of ICB lead designates, with this process expected to conclude by the end of September."
Mr MacDonald's confirmation follows the Second Reading of the Health and Care Bill on Wednesday 14 July 2021. The Bill contains a series of measures which would formally establish Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and give their governing bodies – including an NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) – a broader range of responsibilities, empowering them to better join up health and care, improve population health and reduce health inequalities.
While it is not possible to preempt the decisions of Parliament, the Bill received a positive vote at Second Reading. This means there is a degree of confidence that the measures relating to ICSs will become law. In turn, that means the NHS locally, regionally and nationally has a responsibility to prepare for when those measures are expected to come into effect, which is currently April 2022.
A key element of this preparation is confirming who would be expected to take up senior roles for each NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB), starting with the Chair-Designates.
Following a robust process, NHS England and NHS Improvement have recommended, and the Secretary of State has agreed, that Mr MacDonald should be NHS ICB Chair-Designate for Derby and Derbyshire, ready to take up the post from April 2022 should Parliament confirm the current plans.