Integrated care is a hot topic and the Government's appointment of 14 ‘Integration Pioneers', along with Jeremy Hunt's announcement of the £3.8bn Integration Transformation Fund, add weight to claims that the stars are now aligned to deliver better coordinated care.

Of course, joined-up care is not a new concept. At Integrating Care we are aware of the work that is already taking place in specific localities and through various programmes across the country – such as the integration programme currently under way in North West London.

The next step is to take what has been learned from these projects and to support the rolling out of integrated care more widely – both geographically, and in terms of increasing the scope of the service co-ordination within each locality.

This is easier said than done. In a recent King's Fund survey of health and wellbeing boards – key players in the implementation of care co-ordination at a local level – only nine of the 70 respondents cited realising integration as a key priority at this stage.

It is likely that the difficulty in putting the ideas of integrated care into practice is a significant factor behind this response.  In order to guide and assist local authorities as they try to make integrated care a reality, we have been working with the Local Government Association (LGA) to develop a ‘toolkit' package of practical support for those responsible for the implementation of co-ordinated care in particular localities.

The toolkit, which is being launched this year, consists of documents and templates to be published online.

Among the core elements, the toolkit will include a searchable database of integrated care initiatives throughout the country, a model to help local areas understand the impact of different types of intervention and an evidence review of existing knowledge of the outcomes of integrated care, as well as examples of work already under way throughout the country.

Andrew Webster, associate director of Integrated Care at the LGA, believes the toolkit will make the case for integrated care compelling, ‘The LGA toolkit pulls together all of the evidence and enables all areas across the country to apply this learning to their joint planning locally,' he explains.

A key component of our toolkit involves highlighting different models of integrated care that are already being successfully implemented as ‘value cases'.

These value cases do more than demonstrate how reshuffling resources can achieve more for less, they provide evidence of benefit, capturing changes to the service user's journey to fundamentally shift perspectives and behaviours.

According to professor Lis Paice, chair of the North West London Integrated Care Pilots (ICPs): ‘Integrated care is about working towards a better system that supports the values that we, and all our partner organisations in North West London, share. It is about taking the best parts of what the system already provides, joining them together, and focusing them more closely on the people who need these services.'

At the core of the North West London ICPs is the formation of multidisciplinary groups (MDGs) – comprising professionals from community health, mental health, specialist nursing, and primary, secondary and community care – which come together to discuss individuals' care holistically and to realise a shared vision of high quality service provision.

So far, over 36,731 care plans have been produced as a result of the programme, and 42 MDGs are currently being held each month.  Patients have reported improvements
to service access, to their relationships with healthcare professionals, and to their ability to manage their own care.

Since making the ICPs operational, North West London has also seen significant reductions in emergency admissions. This achievement supports the integrated care movement.

Mr Webster says: ‘We have seen from the quantity and quality of the pioneer applications, as well as the evidence that has emerged from areas such as North West London, that there is a growing evidence base for integrated care.'

Building on the success and lessons learned from the ICPs, North West London are now moving to a Whole Systems model of integrated care.

This is particularly admirable on account of the sheer scale of the project – working across eight boroughs and impacting on two million people.

Value cases like this demonstrate the impact of integrating services on a person's experience of care, the added value for money spent on services, and increased value to the welfare system as a whole.

In developing the toolkit, we are looking at the broader picture.  North West London demonstrates the power of combining local co-ordination of care planning and delivery with targeting resources across a broader population area – and the need to explore the application of co-ordinated care at scale is the next milestone in our journey towards improved public services.

Alice Hopkinson is project manager of the Integrating Care consulting team