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About the Integrated Care System NI

What are we doing?

We are putting in place a new framework for how we plan health and care services in Northern Ireland.

It is a single, joined-up system, based on bringing different parts of the health and social care system together with others who have a role in the wellbeing of the Northern Ireland population to understand what is needed, and how we can best deliver that with the resources we have.

Why are we doing it?

The number of people living with complex needs in Northern Ireland is increasing and demand from a growing and ageing population has never been greater. We must plan health and care and services to help meet these new demands. To do this we must work together better. If we work together, we have an opportunity to share important data, information, and resources. That is how we can make sure we have all the information we need to make the best decisions on what, where, and how we deliver care and services for you.

We must think about how we meet the needs of today, as well as how we work and shape our care and services to meet the needs of tomorrow. This means we must look at not just what we deliver in our hospitals, but also how we deliver care and services across our communities, and what we can do in terms of addressing the wider issues that can affect our health and wellbeing.

We need to think about how we keep people well in the first instance, and how to support them to do that. That is how we can help to reduce the demand on our health and social care services so that when people do need them, we are able to provide that care in the right place and at the right time.

How will we do it?

We will do this through the Integrated Care System for Northern Ireland (ICS NI) which will change the way we plan our health and social care delivery in two main ways.

The first is by putting in place processes that help us to work better across health and social care. This will ensure we know and understand: what people need; what good looks like; what each part of our system is doing; where we have gaps and challenges; and how we can work together to meet those.

This way we can provide better care and services that improve health and wellbeing outcomes and make the most effective use of our resources.

The second is by putting in place ways of working both locally and regionally which focus on how we can keep people well in the first instance (prevention), what we can do to provide early support to stop things getting worse (early intervention) and how we can best do that within specific communities.

This means we need to think about what else may affect our health and wellbeing such as, where we live,  employment levels and educational attainment and work closely with others who also look at these aspects of our lives.

To support this, we are creating partnerships that will bring a range of people together so that we can work better across sectors.

When will this happen?

Work is currently underway to put the model in place.

Our aim is to organise ourselves, establish our partnerships, and start to plan care and services in this way by Autumn 2024.

We will continually review our activities to ensure that ICS NI is being effective.

What difference will it make?

This approach will fundamentally change how we plan the delivery of services.

It will ensure that people within our own health and social care system, and those who work closely with them, come together to develop services that meet people’s needs.

Ultimately our aim is to improve outcomes for people and reduce health inequalities.

This will take time, but what we do now through ICS NI will provide the foundation to help us achieve those aims.

What does it mean for you?

When ICS NI is fully established it will provide a way for individuals and communities to play a more active role in how the care and services in their area are developed.

Area Integrated Partnership Boards (AIPBs) will act as a vehicle to support engagement with local communities to ensure that the needs of those communities are fully understood.

Further information and detail on the model can be found in the ICS NI Framework and ICS NI Frequently Asked Questions.