Representatives of the new Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) met for the first time last week.
Representatives of the new Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) met for the first time last week to start the process of creating plans to help everyone in the area to flourish, despite the many challenges that individuals, communities and organisations face.
The new partnership includes Hertfordshire and Essex County Councils, working hand in hand with the NHS and a broad range of public and voluntary sector organisations to work together to improve the health, care and wellbeing of over 1.5 million people.
The ICP will seek to:
- improve the way that health and care services work together
- offer help for everyone to keep as healthy and well as possible – increasing the years that we live in good health and reducing the gap between the healthiest and least healthy people in our communities.
- influence the other things that have an impact on our health, such as housing, employment and education
- produce an integrated care strategy, setting out our plans for addressing the health, public health and social care needs of the local population, to guide the use of our joint resources and efforts to where they can make the biggest difference
- drive innovation to deliver improvement in health and care.
This new formal partnership will build on the good partnership work that has been underway for a number of years in teams, organisations and communities locally. Examples include:
Support to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic
Public and voluntary sector organisations have worked together tirelessly through the COVID-19 pandemic to provide practical support to people who were shielding, deliver vaccinations from NHS, council, business and community settings, and used data and insight to increase vaccine uptake, particularly in ‘hard to reach’ groups.
Supporting hard-hit communities
The Harlow Community Hub officially opened in November 2021, to provide town-wide support to residents as part of a targeted response to the challenges impacting the community since the pandemic hit. The NHS, Harlow district council and Essex County Council have extended their funding of the hub to provide further support to those affected by the cost of living crisis. Rainbow Services operate the hub in partnership with Mind in West Essex, Harlow Foodbank, Citizens Advice and the Volunteer Centre Harlow, offering a range of services for people affected by a wide range of crisis situations, including a regular food bank, as well as information on community and physical activities, access to volunteering and a new school uniform service.
Supporting people in crisis
The new Nightlight Crisis Café, launched by Hertfordshire Mind Network with the backing of Stevenage Borough Council, is available to anyone in need of support with a mental health need between 7pm and 1am, every night of the year. The café is close to Stevenage railway station and the East Coast Main Line and is part of wider work on preventing suicides at Stevenage railway station, supported by a multi-agency partnership that is co-chaired by Stevenage Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council Public Health. It is also endorsed by the Hertfordshire Suicide Prevention Programme Board that oversees the delivery of the county’s suicide prevention strategy.
Councillor Richard Roberts, Chair of the Integrated Care Partnership and Leader of Hertfordshire County Council, said: “Evidence has shown that our homes, our finances, life opportunities along with access to public services have the biggest impact on our health and wellbeing. We can only address these issues for our residents if we work together effectively with a wide range of partners.
“This is even more important with the backdrop of a pandemic and the pressures faced by families due to increasing inflation, which all have a knock-on effect on health and wellbeing.”
Paul Burstow, Chair of Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board, the NHS commissioning organisation involved in the ICP, added: “As well as the pressing issues we need to address here and now, we also need to look to the future. The actions we take now as a partnership, can have a strong impact down the line. We want to help everyone to live as independently as possible. Working together across public and voluntary sector services, will help us all to stay as well as possible throughout our lives.”
One of the first tasks for the ICP is to draw up an integrated care strategy to improve the health and care outcomes and experiences for our residents, for which all partners will be accountable. The ICP is expected to use insight from the Essex and Hertfordshire Health and Wellbeing Boards, together with input and involvement from people and communities in the two counties as part of this process.
Find more information on the ICP and how it fits in to the wider Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System at https://hertsandwestessexics.org.uk/