ICS implementation

The Health and Care Act 2022 has now completed the parliamentary process and has received Royal Assent. This is an important step on the journey towards establishing ICSs, moving them onto a statutory footing with the establishment of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs). This will take place on 1 July 2022 as communicated in the NHS 2022/2023 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Each Integrated Care System (ICS) will have 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 are legally established, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will be abolished.

NHS Digital has been working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to explore how to apply the changes across digital systems and services, ensuring they’ll continue to run smoothly and supporting the wider health system through the transition phase.

Some changes to digital systems and services will come into effect on 1 July 2022. These include changes to Organisational Data Service (ODS) data and NHSmail. This will be followed by a transition period and a second phase of changes are expected to be made at a later date. 

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

At this point, the boundary changes decided in July 2021 will come into effect. This means there will be changes to the geographical coverage of some current ICSs when ICBs are established.

The current ODS codes used to identify the 106 existing CCGs will be retained to identify the former CCG geographical areas (adjusted where necessary to reflect boundary changes). These geographical areas will be 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 (eRS).

These change summary spreadsheets and presentations detail the changes further. Please note that some of the organisation names in these documents may be subject to change.

The ODS change summary documents were updated in February 2022 to reflect the following changes:

Both documents

• All dates changed to reflect new target ICS implementation date of 1 July 2022

Boundary change document

• References to Lincs changed to Melton, references to Cape Hill practice in West Birmingham changed to Sandwell (Summary of Change & Out of Area Practices tab)
• LOC22CD code in column Q for Bassetlaw has been corrected to E38000008 (was E38000243) (LSOA changes tab)
• New tab added to provide details of the GP practices impacted by boundary changes (Boundary Changes - GP Practice tab)

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

Bassetlaw CCG will move in its entirety, retaining its current boundaries, moving from the current South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw system to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Health and Care system. The means that the boundary of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Health and Care system will expand, and the boundary of the current South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw system will reduce. The new ICB will be NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

Part of the Glossop area, currently part of Tameside and Glossop CCG, will move into Derby and Derbyshire CCG. This means that the boundary of the Joined Up Care Derbyshire system will expand, and the boundary of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care system will reduce.

Part of the West Birmingham area, currently part of Black Country and West Birmingham CCG, will move into Birmingham and Solihull CCG. This means that the boundary of the Birmingham and Solihull system will expand, and the boundary of the current Black Country and West Birmingham system will reduce. The new ICB will be NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board.

Part of the Oundle area, currently part of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG, will move into Northamptonshire CCG. This means that the boundary of the Northamptonshire system will expand, and the boundary of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough system will reduce. Note that, as an exception to reflect specific local considerations, a single GP practice (Wansford and Kings Cliffe) will be retained within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS.

The above changes mean that the NHSE/I Midlands region will be bigger and the East of England, North West and North East and Yorkshire regions will be smaller when the changes come into effect.

More significant changes will be required to digital systems and services following the transition period, including further changes to ODS codes which will have an impact on all systems, services and organisations that consume ODS data.

We are working to establish how these changes need to be implemented and will be contacting organisations to better understand how ICBs intend to operate locally, how the changes will impact their teams and what NHS Digital systems will need to do to ensure a smooth transition.

If you need more information about our work to support the transition to Integrated Care Systems please contact us at nhsd.healthbillpmo@nhs.net

If you have queries relating to ODS codes, please contact the ODS helpdesk at exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net.