In February 2021 the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) published Integration and Innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all, its white paper setting out legislative proposals for a Health and Care Bill. The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (the Partnership) commissioned an independent external review of current involvement work with the aim of assessing strategic readiness to adapt to the direction of travel outlined in the white paper. To do this effectively it required input from Healthwatch, partnership communications and engagement leads, programme directors and public involvement practitioners, wider public, governors and non-executive directors by means of discussion/focus groups and a survey. The output of the work informed the future design of the Integrated Care System (ICS) involvement.
To note this review pre-dates the publication of the Integrated Care Systems: Design Framework (June 2021) which provides more detail around involving communities within Integrated Care Systems.