Growing our own future: A manifesto for defining the role of integrated care systems in workforce, people and skills

Key points

• There is a clear desire for integrated care systems (ICSs) to become the default level for future workforce decision making in health and care. This would enable increased autonomy over the development of local system architecture, responsibility for managing strategic external relationships and critically, control of dedicated funding streams.
• Sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) and ICS leaders have repeatedly argued that their success is dependent on much greater capacity to influence the development and deployment of the local health and care workforce and an improved ability to affect local labour markets.
• For an ICS to realise its potential, it should have increased accountability across three key areas of workforce development: strategy and planning, supply and retention, and system deployment.
• To complement a more involved strategic role, ICSs should pilot and prioritise local approaches to supply and retention, such as ‘Grow Your Own’, and develop and deploy new measures to better understand and use their existing health and care workforce.
• While the role of the national arm’s-length bodies will remain important, there is a need for greater clarity about the roles and functions of the various national workforce organisations and how they encourage longer-term, more strategic local planning.
• This manifesto also focuses on the role of the NHS in the wider local labour market. As the largest employer in any given area, the NHS and local authorities could exercise significant power and influence on local skills development and employment. However, there remains the question of how best to use it.

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