North West London Integrated Care Board and our partner NHS trusts are developing our Joint Forward Plan (JFP) for 2024/25 to 2028/29. 

An initial draft for discussion with residents, our local authority colleagues and other partners has been published here.

The plan sets out NW London’s priorities for the next five years and build on and incorporate the ICS’ objectives to:

· improve outcomes in population health and healthcare;

· reduce inequalities in health outcomes, experience, and access;

· enhance productivity and better value for money; and 

· support broader social and economic development within our area.



The ICB is in the midst of discussing the draft plan with each of the Health and Wellbeing Boards, answering queries and gaining insights and input directly.

Residents are also encouraged to comment on the initial draft.

NHS NW London, in partnership with Hammersmith and Fulham Council and local community groups, is pleased to invite NW London residents, partners and community groups to a free Health and Wellbeing Windrush Day Celebration Event.

The event takes place at 12 - 5pm on Saturday 22 June.  It will be held at Novotel Hammersmith, 1 Shortlands, London, W6 8DR.

As part of the celebrations, we are working to improve health outcomes for all members of the Black community in North West London.  All activities have been designed by health and community partners to offer something fun for all ages.

This event aims to bring the community together in a fun and friendly atmosphere while taking practical steps towards building trust and improving health outcomes.

To ensure we cater enough for all, please register for your free tickets here. 

A symposium to support the launch of a number of research projects closely linked with key NW London inequalities priorities took place this month. The event brought together stakeholders from across the system, galvanising the collective commitment to delivering this collaborative work and recognising the value and opportunity to embed research and evidence-based approaches into business as usual delivery. 

Early feedback on both the Co-production and Health Economics training sessions has been very positive with an average rating of over 8/10 across a number of impact fields. Learning from the training support currently being delivered will feed into the wider organisational design work to ensure we support skills development for staff in their roles.

Work has now commenced to comprehensively understand the functions required in primary care to enable effective and sustainable population health management. This work will help us deliver efficient and impactful reactive, proactive and planned care services, and support a data and intelligence-led approach to the development of integrated neighbourhood teams.

We are working in close collaboration with colleagues to develop a consistent and comprehensive approach to supporting organisational effectiveness as part of the wider organisational design and we will ensure approaches to future delivery and ways of working are streamlined, lean and transparent.

The scope of the cross-system Shared Needs Assessment has been developed, which will enable the system to have a robust understanding of population health need to feed into the next version of the Joint Forward Plan in autumn 2024.

The NW London system was successful in its recent bid to become a WorkWell vanguard site. This will provide an additional £4m investment in NW London to support people who have found themselves recently out of work to move back into the workplace.

A small amount of Health Inequalities Transformation funding is yet to be allocated and the team welcomes suggestions for using the funding for cross-system inequalities initiatives.

NW London ICB was ‘Highly Commended’ at the Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards for our work on increasing uptake of health checks amongst patients with serious mental illness. Our VCSE outreach partners in Brent, Ashford Place, received the award on behalf of the ICB (photo below).



The National Development Team for Inclusion has been commissioned by NHS England (London Region) to coordinate a scoping exercise to develop the foundation for a Pan-London Housing and Support Strategy to improve options for autistic people and people with a learning disability, challenging and complex needs. 

A key aim of the strategy is to develop community alternatives for young people and adults who are, or are at risk of being, admitted to inpatient mental health services. 

System partners across NW London, including people with lived experience, LA and ICB commissioners, provider collaborative colleagues and community support providers attended a series of workshops in May to share local plans and examples of successful housing and support models and identify gaps in the market to shape the priorities for the strategy.

Transformation Partners in Health and Care (TPHC), in collaboration with the local care team, have supported 250 care homes and 500 care providers across NW London to be digitally safe and secure. 

The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) helps adult social care providers in England to check and improve how they keep people’s information safe. It is the official self-assessment tool for the care sector and is widely recognised by CQC, local authorities and the NHS. 

As a result of this approach, providers have adopted new policies and procedures to oversee the storage and use of resident data aligned with best practice. With DSPT in place, residents can be assured that the care providers they rely on for their care and support are equipped to store, share and use their information safely and appropriately, enabling better, more joined up care.

Following this work's success, TPHC are working with NW London to further increase the DSPT compliance of social care providers, as well as delivering on the national mandate to embed Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) solutions. 

NW London ICB has concluded its procurement for adult audiology hearing loss services, and has awarded contracts to Specsavers, InHealth and Audiological Science. 

We are currently working with all current and exiting providers to ensure a safe and effective transition of care between providers where required. The services are currently provided across seven of the eight boroughs in NW London, with the exception of Hillingdon. 

A review will be conducted in the future to explore opportunities to expand provision of these services to Hillingdon borough.

NW London 111 GP Connect appointments into GP Practices continues to be the highest in the London region with March reaching 42.91% utilisation. 

On review of the National Data, the London region as a whole is the highest in the country with 37.12% utilisation rates. We recognise the continued and ongoing support from all GP Practices and 111 providers in ensuring NWL patients are seen appropriately and thank all concerned.

Integrated Care Co-ordination Hub. Ahead of expected guidance, work has begun exploring opportunities to integrate services for patients who use 999 and 111, with a view to developing a wider integrated model.  The development is being done jointly by NW London and the LAS to enable the better direction of patients both pre-and post-dispatch to hospital and avoid conveyances to ED where possible and clinically appropriate.

RM Partners launched a Community Cancer Awareness Grants Programme this month.  Local community and voluntary groups have been invited to bid for grants of up to £500 to hold activities and events that support local people to stay healthy and well and provide an opportunity to share messaging about cancer awareness.

This programme is part of our plan to reduce the time it takes from when a person first notices a cancer sign or symptom to see their GP.

All events/ activities are expected to take place over the Summer in 2025. 

The overall performance assessment of the ICS in April 2024 remains red.  Although we continue to see improvements across a number of key operational indicators, performance is deteriorating (or has been consistently below plan) in the following indicators; never events; 21-day Length of Stay; 12 hour MH ED breaches; Looked after children initial health assessments; Patients waiting over 6 weeks for a diagnostic test; Community Nursing contacts; LAS Category 2 ambulance response times; and ambulance handover breaches. 

Work continues to develop the revised NW London ICS Estates Strategy and its underpinning delivery plan. The ICB is working closely with local authorities, Primary Care, Programme teams, Trust directors and Borough leads to review and prioritise an array of projects that will enable and contribute towards ICS priorities, whilst ensuring our estate remains fit-for-purpose. Focused workshops will take place over the coming months to review these on a borough-by-borough basis, with ambitions to formalise an outline plan by Q3 of this financial year.

The first phase of the ICS’s estate rationalisation activity has now concluded with lease terminations and estates moves having taken place across Harrow, Hounslow and Ealing boroughs. The second phase will begin over summer and involves termination of expiring leases (which are no longer deemed to represent value for money) and rationalisation of estate across Hillingdon and Brent.

Work continues with local authorities, Trusts, Boroughs and other NHS stakeholders, to inform local authority Local Development Plans and their respective Infrastructure Delivery Plans (IDPs). This includes responding to a number of policy regulation changes and large-scale planning applications in attempts to obtain additional external funding or explore purpose-built facilities, whilst ensuring alignment to our overarching strategic ICS priorities, inequalities projections and population needs. ICB Estates are also working closely with NHS Property Services’ Town Planning Teams to explore Community Infrastructure Levy funding opportunities across boroughs to fund additional schemes.

Estates are collaborating with the ICB’s Workforce Programme to explore Homes for NHS Staff opportunities, particularly in areas that will be impacted by large-scale development.

Discussions have taken place with the Oak & Park Royal Development Committee (OPDC) Planning team to discuss the broader programme plan, available funding and support for proposed projects in light of significant population growth being generated from this new development, which spans across Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham. Estates has already secured s106 funding for two short-term schemes (at Cloister Road, Ealing and Willesden Centre for Health, Brent) to support service delivery. Further applications for funding and healthcare facilities are being explored over coming months.

London Improvement Grant due diligence for FY 24/25 is drawing to a close with a finalised list of approved schemes expected this quarter. The grant offers funding for GP practices to improve the condition and compliance of premises as aligned to the Estates Strategy and Six Facet Condition Survey recommendations. 

The Wembley Park GP Scheme delivered by Quintain developers has now completed. This provides Brent primary care providers with 1000m2 of new, fit-for-purpose healthcare space in the heart of Wembley. The project’s fit-out costs were funded using Brent Community Infrastructure Levy. The site will be able to deliver primary care and other service support to a list size of approximately 25,000 patients.

The Estates team continues to explore opportunities with ICS stakeholders to repurpose existing space to improve service offerings and accessibility to healthcare for communities, whilst reducing vacant and unused bookable at Jubilee Gardens, Heart of Hounslow, St Charles, The Meadows, Alexandra Avenue, Willesden Centre for Health and other locations.

ICB Estates continue to meet regularly with NHS property companies (NHS PS and CHP) to undertake audits of all sites. This includes ensuring that occupancies are accurately documented, leases are in place with appropriate charging arrangements and where needed, service and facilities management costs are challenged. Dedicated work is being undertaken at a number of sites, including Alexandra Avenue, St Charles, The Pinn and Heart of Hounslow.

The Hillingdon Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Team (POSCU) was highly commended in the 'Team of the Year' award at the national Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) Conference. 

LD health checks in Hillingdon have increased significantly in the month 60% to 73%. The team work with LD health champions, PCNs and the Local Authority to support with annual checks. Ongoing work continues with GP Practices who require more support.

Integrated Therapies

Hillingdon offers a wide range of therapy services which are managed in all settings - primary, community, acute and social care. 

As part of Hillingdon Health Care Partners (HHCP) strategic priorities for our Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, we are in the process of reviewing our current provision of MSK therapies across Hillingdon to develop a single pathway and align our services so that patients are seen in the appropriate neighbourhood / setting via one seamless pathway wherever possible. 

The aim of this work is to:

• ensure that patients are managed dependant on the complexity of their needs;
• eliminate duplication between the teams; 
• maximise utilisation of all therapy services;
• reduce the waiting time and number of non-complex patients being managed by THH; and
• reduce the DNA rate. 

As part of this process, we have held a number of workshops including a HHCP Integrated Therapies Event where colleagues from all three providers - Hillingdon Hospital, CNWL and the First Care Practitioners from primary care  - were invited to hear about the plans to wrap our services around the Integrated Neighbourhoods and for an opportunity to share ideas and agree how best to move forward into one Integrated Therapy service. 

The event was very well attended with around 70 colleagues and we received very positive feedback on how the service can be improved for our staff and patients.

PH-SMI (2023/24) – Well done to Primary Care colleagues in Harrow for their excellent work and achievements for PH-SMI, LD-AHC and Dementia Diagnosis achieving over 83% of Physical Health Checks for People with Severe Mental Illness.  

MBE - Congratulations to Dr Meena Thakur, GP at Honeypot Medical Centre and Clinical Director, Harrow East Primary Care Network who collected her MBE for services to the NHS from HRH Prince William at Windsor earlier this month.  Meena has been serving the community in Harrow for almost 30 years.

The Hounslow BBP was pleased to host more than 130 colleagues from across the partnership at its first Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INT) Stakeholder workshop. The high energy event was a great opportunity to demonstrate to colleagues how the Population Health Management data approach will be implemented to support each INT to identify local priorities for 2024/25. 

The event also opened discussions on how collaboration can be improved, and colleagues were challenged to think differently about how new strategies can be delivered.

The Hounslow Public Health Team designed a pioneering approach to gather community insight for their upcoming women’s health strategy. 40 colleagues from across the partnership were recruited to deliver a morning of community outreach to coincide with International Day of Action for Women’s Health. 

Colleagues were divided between six locations across Hounslow and in pairs to deliver in-person street-based community outreach to engage with women and ask them three key questions regarding their views on health. 145 responses were captured within two hours from a diverse range of communities, all data was thematically analysed, and then presented back at a public women’s health event on the same day, attended by approx. 100 Hounslow residents.

This new way of delivering fast paced engagement and feeding back data insight on the same day generated a strong buy in from local communities and stakeholders, who are now keen to learn how the insights will help shape a local women’s health strategy in 2025. 

Almost 50 socially-isolated residents have been supported by the new BeFriend Service, since it launched in Hounslow in October 2023. The service aims to reduce social isolation and increase mental and physical wellbeing for groups most impacted by health inequalities. 

Residents currently receive either weekly visits from an in-person befriender volunteer or weekly telephone calls and range in age from 31 to 104, with have varying health needs, including dementia, mental health issues, learning, physical (including frailty) and sensory disabilities ​​​​​. 

One frail resident with long-term anxiety about leaving their home reported that they have already achieved their goal of building up the strength and confidence to venture outdoors again, visiting the shops with their volunteer and attending the recent BeFriend tea party event in Isleworth. The newly implemented service continues to grow, and positive outcomes continue to be evidenced in the community.

Community health services in Hounslow will be moving from HRCH to West London Trust from July 2024. There will be no changes to patient services, which will ‘lift and shift’ from HRCH to WLT.  WLHT was selected as the new provider by the ICB under the new national provider selection regime.

The Vibrant and Healthy Communities programme, in partnership with Bi-Borough Public Health, RM Partners and Westminster council’s communities team, has used the Community Based Solutions fund to support 16 VCS organisations across the Bi-Borough to address inequalities in uptake of cancer screening and preventative activities among targeted communities. The organisations work with the following community groups;

· Men and women of Muslim faith

· Residents of Chinese heritage

· Francophone African residents

· People experiencing homelessness

· BAME women resident in Church Street ward

· Residents of North Kensington

· People with Learning disabilities

· Residents over 50 years of age

Through these projects, we aim to normalise cancer discussions in our communities and reduce the stigma and myths that exist around cancer. We want to increase knowledge about cancer, the signs and symptoms and ensure our communities are well informed about screening services and the support and resources that are available. As a result of these initiatives, and over time, we would expect to see an increase in uptake of cancer screenings and earlier cancer diagnosis.

The projects began in January and will run until end of June 2024. To date 90 events/sessions/activities have taken place with approx. 2000 residents. By the end of the project term, it is expected that a further 8,000 residents will have been engaged with through this programme.

Examples of the activities include;

· Delivery of community workshops on cervical, breast, bowel, and prostate cancer

· Incorporating a range of health conversations into new and existing activities and events

· Recruitment and training of cancer ambassadors to attend workshops and community events to spread cancer screening messages and serve as point person for questions from residents

· Recruitment of cancer survivors from the communities to attend community events and share their stories around cancer and cancer screenings

· Translation of cancer materials into key local community languages 

· Delivery of a radio campaign and podcasts across 4 different community radio stations

· Training of staff and volunteers to deliver face-to-face activities around cancer screenings in existing voluntary sector services

· Provide transportation to cancer screening appointments via the Uber Health platform 

· Co-production of videos and easy-read documents with people with Learning Disabilities, explaining personal experiences of cancer screening 

· Partnering with GP to deliver cancer screening health talks in Chinese community spaces 

· Provision of health promotion sessions for individuals experiencing homelessness, focusing on cancer symptoms awareness and empowerment