Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) aim to eradicate traditional divisions between hospitals and family doctors, between physical and mental health, and between NHS and council services. In the past, these divisions have meant that too many people experienced disjointed care.
Integrated care systems are new partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, to coordinate services and to plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups.
Each ICS has an integrated care board (ICB) which has responsibility for planning local health services (previously done by clinical commissioning groups).