In Suffolk and North East Essex we are working towards a 'Future Shift' in local health & care

We’ve been on a journey together as an Integrated Care System (ICS) in Suffolk and North East Essex for some time now. Across the NHS, local government, social care and the VCFSE sector we now work together more closely than ever before. Our culture is increasingly ‘Can Do’ and we collaborate wherever and however we need to because we know that this is the right thing to do for people and communities. Having better alignment between partners has brought about many improvements. However we know that that this is only the start. ‘Future Shift’ sets out our vision to use the ‘untapped potential’ in our ICS to make a real and long lasting difference to the health and wellbeing of people living locally.

Suffolk & North East Essex Integrated Care Partnership

Suffolk & North East Essex ICP brings together the full spectrum of partners responsible for planning and delivering health and care across North East Essex, Ipswich and East Suffolk & West Suffolk .

The Health and Care Act 2022 created a statutory basis for Integrated Care Systems by creating a statutory Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) and an NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) for each ICS. The ICP works in the best interests of residents in Suffolk and North East Essex by bringing together the NHS, local authorities, social care providers, voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises, and other key stakeholders as equal partners to agree how to improve outcomes and experience through the integration of health and care. The Suffolk and North East Essex ICP is co-chaired by Cllr. Steve Wiles from Suffolk County Council, Cllr. John Spence from Essex County Council and Professor William Pope from NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB and is supported by Susannah Howard as ICP Director.

A key role for the ICP is to generate the Integrated Care Strategy that sets the direction of the system across the whole ICS footprint. The strategy sets out the ambition of all partners to improve health and care outcomes and experiences for the population of Suffolk and North East Essex.

The focus of this website is on strategy and planning for the local health and care system in Suffolk and North East Essex. For information about local NHS or social care services go to:

Local NHS Services across Suffolk & North East Essex

Services to support Adults, Children & families in Essex

Services to support Adults, Children & families in Suffolk

Our ICS Integrated Care Strategy: ‘Future Shift’

Throughout 2024 we have been discussing how we can strengthen and further progress our Suffolk and North East Essex ICS Integrated Care Strategy and vision of a ‘Left Shift’ in the health and wellbeing of our people and communities. Through the ‘Future Shift’ programme we have challenged ourselves deeply about what may be stopping us from transforming our current service system and delivering our ambitions. We have considered honestly how we can achieve a ‘Future Shift’, drawing on the ‘untapped potential’ in our ICS. The context for these conversations has been a time when the challenges for people, communities and local health and care services have never been greater and that we know that we won’t achieve the depth of impact that we need to just by aligning the way that we work in health and care. We know that we need to go further and that we also need to go faster.

Various discussions took place over the summer that shaped the narrative around ‘Future Shift’. The result of this work is we have now brought together a detailed vision ‘Future Shift: Our collective vision for a more viable future using our ‘untapped potential’ in Suffolk and North East Essex ICS’ which was approved by the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Committee in December 2024.

A variety of different accessible versions of the ‘Future Shift’ document are below. If you require a hard copy please email admin.ics@snee.nhs.uk