Update 7: 21 January
There have been a number of important developments over the past weeks as the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) Partnership continues its progress to become a thriving Integrated Care System (ICS) in 2022.
The end of December saw the national target date for statutory arrangements to take effect and Integrated Care Boards to be legally and operationally established move from 1st April 2022 to 1st July 2022.
The reason for the delay has been the Heath and Care Bill’s passage through Parliament. With the Bill due to start its Committee stage in the House of Lords on 11 January 2022, If the Lords propose wider amendments to the Bill, it is likely that this will require further debate in the Commons which would leave little time for the Bill to receive Royal Assent by the end of March and come into effect by 1 April 2022.
As a result of this development, a detailed revised programme plan is being developed by the BSW Partnership programme team and programme workstreams. Work has begun on this already and details will be shared as soon as possible. We are keen to maintain momentum as far as possible and expect to continue with much of the work planned by our workstreams for February and March.
Our programme to recruit a number of Non-Executive Directors for our Integrated Care Board continues. Although the application deadline passed on 3rd January, the selection process continues throughout the month.
Our public engagement programme for our new health and care model began on 2nd November and concluded on 14 December. The engagement plan included an online survey, a large number of engagement meetings and workshops and two open public meetings.
We received 915 survey responses and over 1400 people engaged in 51 engagement events. The data gathered during the engagement process is currently being analysed and a report on the outcomes of the engagement is due in mid-February.
Work in our BSW places also continues. After a period of detailed work by partner teams in each of our three places, the BSW Partnership Executive received an update on place developments, including emerging thinking on governance, financial and leadership arrangements. Some areas for further discussion have been identified, but significant progress has been recognised.