Minutes:
Sue Roostan ((H&F ICB Borough Director) gave an update on ICB that as of 1st of April, the Northwest London ICB and North Central London ICB would merge to become West and North London ICB which shall be responsible to carry out the statutory functions and meet the statutory requirement for the 13 boroughs it covered.
Sue Roostan noted that the merge shall result in 50% reduction in staff across both ICBs while the new ICB would be expanding its strategic commissioning role as more and different services were commissioned upon request. In parallel to the 45-day staff consultation starting from last December, there had been a voluntary redundancy scheme with staff movements happening between mid-February to end of March 2026 and expected to continue probably until the first quarter of 2027.
Sue Roostan emphasised that while the best efforts would be made to ensure seamless transformation with business as usual, there would be changes in terms of ways of delivering those statutory functions during the process when the new ICB took up its role as a payer of services. Sue said that the full range of providers including partners, voluntary community sectors and the local authority as well as those in the Primary Care Networks would continue and focus on neighbourhood health with local accountability met through the new integrated neighbourhood teams. Discussions on transferring the statutory functions to the new structure were ongoing. While huge changes were expected, Sue was committed to keeping the Partnership and this Board updated. (42.46 - 48.36)
Sue Spiller (Chief Executive Officer, SOBUS) thanked the efforts of everyone involved in the transition delivering the job day-to-day despite the future uncertainty.
Dr James Cavanagh (H&F GP) expressed concern about the fundamental change of the transformation. Under the existing system, health providers were responsible to deliver the contracts entered with the commissioners who decided what were the right way to serve the needs of the population. The new ICB would set out the strategic goals determined by the high-level Integrated Care System for the providers to deliver. It might be opportunities but there might also be potential weaknesses.
In reply to the question of Councillor Helen Rowbottom (Chair of the Children and Education Policy and Accountability Committee) on the opportunities for the frontline delivery to align their expertise, Dr James Cavanagh acknowledged the transformation being a much more of an opportunity than a threat in LBHF given its extremely good organisations and oversight in service delivery by committed professionals. He compared and contrasted the current and new systems below:
Caroline Farrar (HCP Managing Director) recalled that in last September, the Board had considered H&F Health and Care Partnership – 10 Year Health Plan Update report which highlighted the changes that were happening in the NHS and the wider health and care sector in the next decade. Together with the new ICBs, there were many known unknowns, including new GP or national contracts, and the new governance structure of integrated teams. Nevertheless, she was certain there would be more understanding on ways to meet the outcome-based contracts and expected to see the new system held from initial tighter control to becoming more flexible over time when both opportunities and risks might emerge. She suggested the Board consider inviting one of the ICB executive colleagues to talk about some of the changes at its meeting in March or June 2026.
Cllr Alex Sanderson welcomed the suggestion and remarked that in view of the whole place of changes, there was a real chance for the local authority and the Board to consider ways to fill the gaps identified by Dr Cavanagh earlier. Both she and the Chair considered this could be a standing item for the Board to receive regular updates.
RESOLVED
That the Board noted the verbal update.