Current projects

Research on developing the architecture of system management
Team with post-it note board

03 January 2019 – 31 December 2021
Contact: Professor Pauline Allen

The aim of this study will be to investigate the further development of STPs, ICOs and ICSs or their successors under the NHS Long Term Plan ‘LTP’ in order to find out how effective these new forms of collaboration are in achieving their goals, and what factors influence this.

At local system level there is an increasing emphasis on developing integrated systems such as ICSs where commissioners and providers take on collective responsibility for resources and population health. In addition to specific local aims, ICSs are intended to: ensure that care is delivered in appropriate and accessible settings; use limited local resources efficiently; and demonstrate improvement in population health. ICOs are envisaged as a further stage of development of ICSs, where a single organisation will be formed out of the current range of stakeholder organisations. System integration is a key goal of NHS policy and will continue to be salient for the next few years as the details of the relevant structures and governance arrangements develop. Understanding system management and oversight and exploring the role of commissioning and incentives in such systems will be important for supporting policy development and practice.