January 31, 2023

Clare Edwards, Health Partnerships Manager at Cumbria CVS, discusses health and care in North Cumbria, and how third sector integration can help tackle health inequalities.

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I often talk about how complex the world of health and care is and do my best up here in North Cumbria in my role as Health Partnerships Manager to make some sense of it all.

2022 turned into another year of low flying acronyms, confusion and new organisations to throw us all into turmoil again. Over the year we moved into the world of regional Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), Area place based Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs) and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). Hats off to those of you who have kept up with changes.

I want to focus on the I in all our new INTEGRATED systems and partnerships and the opportunity this way of delivering health and care offers our sector.

All the signs suggest that these new structures have placed significant emphasis on tackling health inequalities. Understanding that an individual’s health is hugely impacted by the circumstance of their birth, the environment in which they live, their income, work prospects and how well they are connected to and supported within their local community.

I am pleased that our sector is described as an equal partner in delivering change through the new structures and by the efforts that are being made to integrate our organisations, staff and volunteers into new ways of working. We are being recognised for the skills and knowledge that we bring to health and care – particularly our ability to innovate, to work at pace, to reach right into the heart of disadvantaged communities and to design and deliver personalized, needs led services.

No magic wand has been waved, things are not going to change overnight and we still know that the systems are struggling to deliver. What I genuinely feel is that we are starting to put in place structures and teams that have a much better chance of finding new ways to solve these issues and that finally our sector, with all its wealth of skills and knowledge, will be an active part of that team.

We need to own our place at the table, feel comfortable there and help to drive change.