Independent review of Integrated Care Systems – take part and share your views

The government has announced a new independent review into oversight of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to reduce disparities and improve health outcomes across the country.

The review will explore how best to cut through red tape and boost efficiency, financial accountability and autonomy, with fewer national targets.

The Department of Health and Social Care would like to hear your views on these issues. To take part, please visit the Hewitt Review pages on the Department of Health and Social Care website.

You can respond as an individual, or on behalf of an organisation by completing the online survey.

The deadline for responses to the call for evidence is 11:45pm 9 January 2023.

The review will be led by former Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt who is currently chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board and will explore how to empower local leaders to focus on improving outcomes for their populations.

The review will consider:

• the scope for a smaller number of national targets to empower local health and care leaders and enable greater autonomy, so they have the time and resource to focus on innovating and tackling local challenges and priorities;
• how local performance could be better monitored and any local targets set, with a focus on transparency;
• how to ensure new ICSs are held robustly to account, both locally and nationally;
• the relationship between ICSs, and central bodies, such as NHS England and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as well as the CQC’s role in oversight of ICSs.

Patricia Hewitt, Chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, said:

“This review will focus on how national policy and regulation can most effectively support and enable local systems to solve problems locally. It will build on the welcome work already done by NHS England to develop a new operating model.”