Launched in February, the new Health and Care White Paper arrived with little fanfare. This makes sense. Not only was the paper published in the midst of a lockdown; it simply builds on a plan that is already well advanced and it does not seek to set a radically different course.

But what does it mean for local government, social care and how we work together to integrate care around the person? Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), which now cover a large part of the country, will now be given statutory powers. Under the new legislation, ICSs will comprise both an NHS ICS board and an ICS health and care partnership.