Our 2023/2024 corporate objectives
Our corporate objectives can be found in the ICB Board papers from March 2023.
The objectives, set against themes of the four purposes of an ICS, are summarised below:
1. Ensure continued improvement in health outcomes and performance requirements:
- develop year 2023/24 Operational Plan
- develop five year Joint Forward Plan
- deliver 2023/24 planning requirements
- implement System Control Centre and associated infrastructure
- robust performance and assurance framework developed
- embrace digital opportunities to innovate and facilitate improved health and care outcomes, by leveraging use of data and digital tools.
2. Ensure robust governance processes are implemented to support quality improvement:
- robust quality governance processes developed
- implement national policy requirements, eg Ockenden
- development of a system-wide Clinical Leadership Model.
3. Continue to meet our statutory responsibilities as an organisation, including those to:
- ensure there are arrangements to involve people and communities in our panning and where there are service changes
- EPRR responsibilities capabilities implemented
- SEND and other clinical/quality duties implemented
- delegation of functions from NHS England implement safely and effectively.
1. Work with partners, particularly our four local authorities to develop a strong and robust ICP that will develop and deliver a health and care strategy for the system:
- ICP construct agreed and ICB ‘linkage’ confirmed
- further develop and implement Integrated Care Strategy.
2. Develop an operating model for future system working that will support subsidiarity of decision making where appropriate:
- strategic commissioning/planning model agreed
- provider model agreed, including Place Partnerships and Provider Collaboratives
- financial framework agreed
- outcomes framework agreed
- undertake ICB governance review, to incorporate Hewitt review as appropriate.
1. Work with partners to deliver the financial plan for the system, making best use of resources and opportunities to innovate to deliver financial balance:
- develop financial plans for 2023/24 (ICB and System)
- deliver 2023/24 financial plan
- develop five year financial plan for ICB and ICS
- develop efficiency programme.
1. Work with our partners to ensure that reducing inequalities and unwarranted variation is a key outcome of our developing plans for the system:
- development of ICP Strategy
- ensure inequalities support approach is appropriately reflected in one and five year plans
- ensure clinical strategy and 2023/24 outcomes reflects appropriate ambition on inequalities.
1. Co-produce a system-wide People Plan with action and indicators that enable the Black Country to demonstrate it is the best place to work:
- refresh existing People Strategy, aligning to national People Plan
- develop People Dashboard and metrics for success (outcomes framework)
- review governance arrangements for sub-committee, specifically delivery groups.
2. Embed integrated workforce planning to understand our demand and supply model, implementing action through workforce transformation to increase capacity whilst maintaining the financial envelope:
- increased workforce planning capability, particularly within primary care
- shared data set across providers, and integration of social care data
- methodology for workforce transformation, adapting HEE Star model
- system approach to recruitment.
3. Begin our cultural transformation of enabling an environment where our people thrive:
- commission OD partner to design ICB and ICS OD strategy.
- co-produce system Inclusive Talent Management Strategy
- create a system approach to enhancing health and wellbeing for our people.
- deliver year one of our EDI Strategy.
Our priorities
The NHS Black Country Joint Forward Plan has been developed by working with partners and our local population. It sets out our challenges, health needs, strategic vision, and strategic priorities over the next five years.
We have refreshed our NHS Joint Forward Plan - read our new 2024 plan.
The main aim of our plan is to improve the health outcomes for local people, making the Black Country a healthier place with healthier people and healthier futures.
We have identified six priority areas in our plan:
Priority 1 - Improving access and quality of services
The core function of the NHS is to provide quality healthcare to the population in a timely manner. We know that across the country, and within the Black Country, there is more that we can do to ensure that where required the public have access to an appropriate intervention, and for that intervention to be of the highest quality possible. Our ambition is to improve accessibility and the quality of such care across all parts of our system.
Priority 2 - Care closer to home
The NHS has seen more people than ever before in recent years, across all parts of the NHS. Beds within our hospitals are almost always full and our GP practices have never been so busy. Our ambition is to ensure that our hospital beds are available for those people that need them, and that we have appropriate service provision in the community to care for people where appropriate.
Priority 3 - Preventing ill health and tackling health inequalities
As we know, prevention is better than cure. We intend to work with partners to invest in preventative services, where we can, to reduce the pressure on the NHS. Also, we are committed to ensuring that the health inequalities we face within the Black Country are reduced effectively.
Priority 4 - Giving people the best start in life
In order to ensure that children and young people in our communities have the best start in life, we will refocus our efforts, with partners, on delivering improved access and services for this population.
Priority 5 - Best place to work
It is vitally important that we have a vibrant, effective workforce across all parts of the Black Country system if we are to achieve our priorities. Currently, there are approximately 60,000 colleagues working across health and social care in the Black Country and we know that for us to thrive, we need to look after our workforce and become a place where people want to work.
Priority 6 - Fit for the future
This new priority recognises that the Black Country health system needs to change the way that it works to embrace the opportunities and meet the challenges it faces. This includes the need to be more productive and cost-effective to meet our financial challenges. We also need to recognise the power of our people and communities and support our Places and providers to work better together. We need to reduce the carbon footprint of the NHS and be more sustainable. All of this will require strong, sustainable leadership and enabling functions.
Our ICB will support the delivery of three system-wide priorities across the Black Country Integrated Care System (ICS). These are:
- building healthier, happier communities
- making the Black Country the best place to work
- creating a system that is fit for the future.
We will also support delivery of these national priorities:
- investing in our workforce
- responding to COVID-19 effectively
- tackling the elective backlog, reducing waiting times and improving performance against cancer waiting times standards
- improving responsiveness of urgent and emergency care and building community capacity
- improve timely access to primary care
- improving mental health services and services for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people
- continue to develop our approach to population health management, prevent ill health and address health inequalities
- exploit use of digital technologies
- make the most effective use of resources.
