About us
The Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) was established on 1 July 2022, following the introduction of the Health and Care Act 2022.
Our role is to plan and oversee how NHS money is spent to support our 1.6 million residents. We have a budget of £2.8 billion and our role is to join up health and care services, improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities across our area.
The board is one of two key components of our area’s ‘Integrated Care System’ (ICS). The second is the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), a statutory joint committee, established jointly by Hertfordshire County Council, Essex County Council and the ICB. It was formally constituted on 1 July 2022 and is made up of representatives from the following organisations:
- Elected members and executive directors from Hertfordshire and Essex County councils
- Chief executive and Chair of the Integrated Care Board
- Council leaders and Chief Executives from district and borough councils
- Directors and Chairs of the Health and Care Partnerships
- Leads from the VCFSE Alliance
- The Care Providers’ Association
- Healthwatch
- Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners
Working together, our system organisations that form our Integrated Care System are required to:
- improve the general health and wellbeing of our residents, and improve health and care services in the area
- tackle the inequalities which affect people’s physical and mental health, such as their ability to get the health services they need, and the quality of those services to help tackle health and wider inequalities
- get the most out of local health and care services and make sure they are good value for money
- help the NHS to support social and economic development in west Essex and Hertfordshire.
We have a number of statutory duties that the ICB and its partner trusts are required to fulfil by law. Throughout this document we demonstrate how we are fulfilling these duties and our delivery priorities. Below is an overview of our duties:
- Describe the health services for which the ICB proposes to make arrangements
- Duty to promote integration
- Duty to have regard to wider effect of decisions
- Implementing any joint local Health and Wellbeing Strategy
- Duty to improve quality of services
- Duty to reduce inequalities
- Duty to promote involvement of each patient
- Duty to involve the public
- Duty to patient choice
- Duty to obtain appropriate advice
- Duty to promote innovation
- Duty in respect of research
- Duty to promote education and training
- Duty as to climate change etc.
- Addressing the particular needs of children and young people
- Addressing the particular needs of victims of abuse
Further information on each statutory duty and our compliance can be found in Appendix 1 of the PDF strategy.