BVSC are working with Warwickshire & Solihull Community and Voluntary Action (CAVA) and NHS Birmingham and Solihull on the programme of embedding the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector into Birmingham and Solihull’s Integrated Care System (ICS) 

On the 1^st July 2022 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) were launched across the UK.  The ICS that covers Birmingham and Solihull is officially entitled Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System. We have provided a summary of developments and key updates in these slides along with progress of the VCFSE Leadership Alliance (Dynamic Network) – the single point of contact into the health and care system.

We would like to invite you to the next meeting taking place on Tuesday 25^th July at 10am – 12pm via Zoom.  This session will be open to all voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations across Birmingham.

AGENDA – key updates will be covered on the following:

• Fairer Futures Fund
• Community Integrator; Integrated Neighbourhood Teams
• Locality Partnership Working
• Community Engagement Framework (System-wide – developments)
• Updates from VCFSE sector (focused on integration)
• Any Other Business

Please register your place here.

On Wednesday 5th July, Dr. Justin Varney, Director of Public Health Birmingham, delivered a virtual presentation to the VCFSE sector on the Integrated Care System 10-year Strategy for Birmingham and Solihull (2023-2033).  You can view the recording and documents here.

What are Integrated Care Systems: 

• Integrated care systems (ICSs) are geographically-based partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, to coordinate services and to plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups.
• They are part of a fundamental shift in the way the health and care system is organised, away from competition and organisational autonomy and towards collaboration.

NHS England and NHS Improvement created a helpful video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4FFE2y8PM). This video, with subtitles, explains more about the aims and ambitions of Integrated Care Systems. One of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that people need support which is joined up across local councils, the NHS and voluntary and community organisations. This video explains how Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) embed this collaboration, helping local services to respond to the challenges of the pandemic and beyond. We want to make ICSs as strong and effective as possible in every part of England, with partnership working with the ambition to tackle health inequalities, help communities thrive and achieve the very best for everyone.

There is a helpful publication on the Kings Fund website: Integrated care systems explained: making sense of systems, places and neighbourhood.