Hewitt Review publishes final report

At the beginning of the month, the Government published the final report of the Hewitt review – an independent review of integrated care systems (ICSs) chaired by Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt.

The review covered ICSs in England and the NHS targets and priorities for which Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are accountable, including those in the government’s mandate to NHS England.

We are pleased that the report reinforces the duties in the Health and Care Act with regards to children and young people – this was one of the key messages we highlighted in our submission to the review.

Key takeaways

The report calls for system changes including:

• a shift to upstream investment in preventative services and interventions and a cross-government mission for health improvement.
• that National and regional organisations should support ICSs in becoming ‘self improving systems’, given the time and space to lead – with national government and NHS England significantly reducing the number of national targets, with certainly no more than 10 national priorities.
• improved data interoperability and more effective use of high-quality data.
• more flexibility for health and care staff, both in moving between roles and in the delegation of some healthcare tasks.
• a new payment model with population-based budgets, aiming to incentivise and enable better outcomes and significantly improve productivity.

The final report contains 36 detailed recommendations. The government is now considering the recommendations made by the review.