My Lords, we return to the very important theme of subsidiarity, to which the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, has brought us in both his amendments and his powerful speech, born of his immense experience in the real world.
I will begin with Amendment 159A, if I may. One of the main reasons for introducing this Bill was to ensure that existing collaboration and partnership working across the NHS, local authorities and other partners was built on and strengthened. This relates especially to the framing and monitoring of assessments and strategies. We intend for these assessments and strategies to be a central part of the decision-making of ICBs and local authorities. That is why we are extending an existing duty to ICBs and local authorities to have regard to the relevant local assessments and strategies. Furthermore, the integrated care board and local authorities will both be directly involved in the production of these strategies and assessments through their involvement with both the integrated care partnership and the health and well-being boards. As a result, they have a clear interest in the smooth working of the ICP.
More widely, there are already several mechanisms to ensure that ICBs and local authorities will have regard to the assessments and strategies being developed in their areas. First, health and well-being boards have the right to be consulted by ICBs and give NHS England and ICBs their opinion on whether the joint forward plans take account of the joint local health and well-being strategy. Likewise, as part of its annual assessment of ICBs, NHS England must consult each health and well-being board on how well the ICBs have implemented the relevant joint local health and well-being strategies.
There are what one might call insurance policies embedded in these arrangements. Each ICB must also include in its annual report a review of the steps it has taken to implement any relevant joint local health and well-being strategy. It must also consult the health and well-being board when undertaking that review. Finally, NHS England has formal powers of intervention if an ICB is not complying with its duties in any regard. Putting all this together, we think that it is sufficient to ensure that ICBs will have regard to both ICP and health and well-being board plans.
The emphasis is on collaboration. Implicit in that concept is the two-way street on the sharing of ideas and exemplars that the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, called for and illustrated in his examples. Given the strong collaborative measures in the Bill and the strong foundations of collaborative and partnership working across the NHS, local authorities and other partners on which this Bill is built, we do not think that further provision is required. We would expect an ICP to resolve disagreements through discussion and joint working rather than additional, potentially burdensome procedures.
Amendment 210A brings us once again to the role of non-statutory organisations in helping to create and sustain healthy communities. I want to stress straightaway that the Government hugely value the contributions of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors to the health and well-being of the nation. We recognise their important role in supporting the health and care system.
The Government fully expect that commissioners will also recognise this contribution and role going forward. This role will be particularly important in efforts to recover performance and move beyond a purely reactive service to building a sustainable and personalised health and care system, something the non-statutory sector is uniquely placed to offer. I think the lessons learned, so well described by the noble Lord, Lord Warner, in the previous set of amendments, are widely accepted nowadays.
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NHS England and NHS Improvement recently published the proposed ICS Implementation Guidance on Partnerships with the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector, which outlines the importance of the VCSE sector as a key strategic partner for ICBs and provides proposed guidance on how VCSE partnerships should be embedded once the new system is in place.
Membership of the ICP is flexible, as we have previously discussed, and could well include organisations from the voluntary, community and social enterprise
sector. We expect many will. The integrated care partnership will be tasked with developing a strategy to address the health, social care and public health needs of its system, which will be another important way to bring the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in. That is why I am confident in saying to the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, that I do not think this amendment is necessary.
It is our intention that the provider selection regime will allow commissioners greater flexibility to arrange services in a way that adds value for the patient, taxpayer and local population. One of the predominant aims of the provider selection regime is to allow commissioners and providers greater certainty and continuity of service provision to improve partnerships between providers, reduce disruption and promote sustainable long-term and integrated collaborations between providers from across the system.
As part of NHS England’s consultation and development of the provider selection regime proposals, it set out suggested key criteria for decision-making which a relevant authority would need to take into account. We intend to include them in the new regime. They will include, among other things, the importance of innovation, social value, the sustainability of services, access to healthcare and reducing inequalities.
More broadly, we recognise the importance of places. We expect each integrated care board to agree its place-based structures as part of the process of agreeing its constitution. The integrated care board will also have to work closely with health and well-being boards as they have the experience as place-based planners. The integrated care board will be required to have regard to their assessments and strategies.
This has been a helpful debate on an important matter. I hope I have been able to reassure noble Lords that we are already taking a sensible approach in the provisions in the Bill and that making amendments to it is not necessary. I therefore hope the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, will feel able to withdraw his Amendment 159A and not to move Amendment 210A when it is reached.