ICS implementation

The Health and Care Act 2022 enabled Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to move onto a statutory footing with the establishment of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs). This took place on 1 July 2022 as communicated in the NHS 2022/2023 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Each Integrated Care System (ICS) has an Integrated Care Board (ICB), a statutory organisation bringing the NHS together locally to improve population health and establish shared strategic priorities within the NHS. When ICBs were legally established, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were abolished.

NHS Digital successfully completed work on the initial phase of changes to reflect the introduction of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) on 1 July 2022.

Some changes to digital systems and services came into effect on 1 July 2022. These included changes to Organisational Data Service (ODS) data and NHSmail. 

This was to have been followed by a second phase of changes, which has now been put on hold for the foreseeable future.

A second phase of changes for ICSs that would have started with a discovery phase to determine how ODS codes might have been needed to support ICS implementation for example the use of place, neighbourhood, provider collaboratives has been put on hold. 

The current ICS coding structure (ICB codes, sub ICB location codes, their names, geographies, assigned GP practices) will remain unchanged until further notice. Business as usual ODS changes will continue as normal.

The ODS codes previously used to identify the 42 existing ICSs (referred to within the ODS hierarchy as 'STPs') were retained, and these codes were applied to the 42 new ICBs as the new statutory bodies replacing CCGs.

At this point, the boundary changes decided in July 2021 also came into effect. This meant there were changes to the geographical coverage of some current ICSs when ICBs were established.

The ODS codes previously used to identify the 106 existing CCGs were retained to identify the former CCG geographical areas (adjusted where necessary to reflect boundary changes). These geographical areas are now referred to as ‘sub ICB locations’. These sub ICB location codes will be used for operational purposes, for example to support the current functioning of the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS).

These change summary spreadsheets and presentations detail the changes further.

The ODS Change Summary documents were updated in May 2022 to remove caveats relating to the changes being subject to legislation.

The changes impacted six CCG boundaries, eight system boundaries and four NHSE/I regional boundaries.

Bassetlaw CCG moved in its entirety, retaining its current boundaries, moving from the current South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw system to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Health and Care system. This meant that the boundary of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Health and Care system expanded, and the boundary of the current South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw system reduced. The new ICB is NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

Part of the Glossop area, previously part of Tameside and Glossop CCG, moved into Derby and Derbyshire CCG. This meant that the boundary of the Joined Up Care Derbyshire system expanded, and the boundary of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care system reduced.

Part of the West Birmingham area, previously part of Black Country and West Birmingham CCG, moved into Birmingham and Solihull CCG. This meant that the boundary of the Birmingham and Solihull system expanded, and the boundary of the current Black Country and West Birmingham system reduced. The new ICB is NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board.

Part of the Oundle area, previously part of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG, moved into Northamptonshire CCG. This meant that the boundary of the Northamptonshire system expanded, and the boundary of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough system reduced. Note that, as an exception to reflect specific local considerations, a single GP practice (Wansford and Kings Cliffe) was retained within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS.

The above changes meant that the NHSE/I Midlands region became bigger and the East of England, North West and North East and Yorkshire regions became smaller when the changes came into effect.

If you need more information about our work to support the transition to Integrated Care Systems please contact us at [email protected].

If you have queries relating to ODS codes, please contact the ODS helpdesk at [email protected].