With the health and social care system facing significant challenges, maximising the benefits of organisational research has never been more important. Making the most of insights about how organisations can successfully collaborate could help ICSs reap the benefits of working together and ultimately improve the lives of patients and residents. Doing so is only made more important by the array of financial and operational challenges that may tempt organisations to turn inwards.

As a collective of researchers and practitioners interested in ICSs, we come together to pool our expertise, identify ways to work together, and foster more useful research. Through the ICS Research-Practice Network, we work to make the most of research in practice while helping researchers to focus on the questions that matter to the sector. We welcome anyone who is interested in ICSs or related research to join our growing community.

This meeting explored some of the key issues we identified as priorities. We investigated the key role of voluntary and community sector colleagues in successful ICSs, the challenges of developing system leadership capacity and navigating competing interests. The day also afforded us the chance to collaboratively shape our network – and to begin co-developing a piece of ICS research.

Across the day, we heard contributions from leading academics and system leaders including:

• Alyssa Chase-Vilchez, Healthwatch representative to SW London ICS
• Jeremy DeSouza Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Public Health, Richmond and Wandsworth Councils
• Alec Fraser Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management, King’s Business School
• Catherine French Director of Strategy, King’s Health Partners
• Toby Garrood Medical Director, SE London ICS
• Gerry McGivern Professor of Public Services Management and Organisation, King’s Business School
• Sarah Morgan Chief People Officer, North Central London ICS
• Alison Robert, Partnership Manager, Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Services
• Tal Rosenzweig Director of Voluntary Sector Collaboration and Partnerships, SE London ICS & Community Links Bromley
• Justin Waring Dean of School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University

 

Two of the day’s four sessions were partly captured on video. Below you can see a panel session on successful collaborations involving the Voluntary and Community Sector, featuring Sarah Morgan, Alison Robert and Tal Rosenzweig with Alec Fraser:

• Part 1: Panel Session

And here is our keynote address by Justin Waring, titled Health System Diplomacy: the art of mediating competing agendas in Integrated Care Systems:

• Part 2: Keynote Address

If these have whetted your appetite, we hope to see you at one of our future events.