Health and social care in Derby and Derbyshire will undergo an evolution next month, when a new NHS body takes over the functions of the current Clinical Commissioning Group, strengthening the way the NHS and other health care providers work together to improve the health of people across the county.
The NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) will be established on 1st July 2022 by legislation, replacing the current Clinical Commissioning Group and taking on wider responsibilities for enabling collaboration and partnerships across the health and care sector. It will be the NHS organisation with responsibility for planning to meet local health needs, allocating resources, ensuring that the services are in place to deliver against ambitions, and overseeing delivery of improved outcomes for their population. In a significant change to the existing CCG, the ICB's Board will also include leaders from local NHS Foundation Trusts and local authorities.
The ICB will be part of the Joined Up Care Derbyshire Integrated Care System, continuing to work with partners in local authority, the voluntary sector and others, tackling inequalities in health outcomes, and supporting broader social and economic development.
Chris Clayton, Chief Executive Designate of the ICB, said: "This is an important and positive step forward for the NHS in Derby and Derbyshire and our partners across the wider health and care sector when it comes to improving the health of our population, reducing inequalities, and delivering high-quality integrated health services.
"This is a new body with a new remit, but working together as an integrated care system isn't new to us and is something we've been doing for some time. Whilst collaboration and partnership working has been at the heart of Joined Up Care Derbyshire, the changes in both policy and approach, now established in statute, challenges us to set out an ambitious and exciting future, one which must be rooted in our communities and places. It mandates us to use our collective will to improve the health of the population across Derbyshire."
John MacDonald, Chair of the ICB, added: "We have all been through a difficult two years with the pandemic and what this has meant for each and every one of us. We are focussed on restoring health and care services, reducing waiting times and supporting our staff. However, this must be within a wider mission of improving the health of the population, reducing inequalities, and working together to provide more integrated and streamlined care for patients, as well as addressing the wider detriments of health.
"It's not right that in some parts of Derbyshire people live longer than in other parts, or that people in one area might have a different outcome to an illness, such as cancer, compared to someone in another area of the county. We have the opportunity to work with our partners and the people of Derbyshire to make a real difference.
"The Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group is leaving us a really strong legacy to build on as the Integrated Care Board and I am pleased that many of the people who worked in the CCG will continue their work in the ICB."
The ICB appointed six executive directors in May, all of whom are highly experienced within the NHS and ready to take the new organisation forwards. A further five non-executive directors have also been appointed.