Working with both statutory and non-statutory partners across health and care is critical in supporting the ICB in its ambition to improve the health of the local population across Surrey and Sussex.
This ambition is not ours alone.
We will continue to work with all our partners in our Integrated Care Systems (ICS) across Surrey and Sussex, taking collective responsibility for improving the health of the local population, and ensuring high quality health and care services for all.
Our ambition is set out in our existing ICS strategies and Health and Wellbeing strategies in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, Surrey and West Sussex.
Integrated Care Partnerships
Under the Health and Care Act 2022, all integrated care systems must establish an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), the statutory committee responsible for setting the integrated care strategy for its health and care system. ICPs are made up of health and local authority partners, working alongside other partners such as voluntary, community, social enterprise organisations and other agencies such as education. Each integrated care system is expected to have one ICP covering the full geography.
In Surrey, where there is currently one local authority, the ICP is closely aligned to the Surrey Health & Wellbeing Board (HWB), with a shared chair and meetings taking place ‘in common’. In Sussex, the ICP is known as the Sussex Health and Care Assembly. It is chaired independently by any statutory organisation, but comprises the ICB Chair and Chairs of each of the three local authority Health and Wellbeing Boards as statutory members, alongside other partners.
In the first year of our operation (2026-27), NHS Surrey and Sussex will retain this arrangement while developing a new overarching strategy which will be presented to ICPs and HWBs later in the year.
Working with partners at local level
We value the relationships we have built with our health and care partners, including those in the voluntary, community and charity/social enterprise sector, and will continue to work closely with all partners across our system to achieve our collective ambitions. At the same time, we know that real change happens locally — at neighbourhood level — a key focus in the NHS 10-year Health Plan. That is where relationships are strongest, knowledge is deepest, and integration is most feasible.
Both Surrey and Sussex systems have strong roots in neighbourhood health with lots of examples of local partnerships driving transformation. We will continue to build on these strong foundations as we deliver our strategic plans, ensuring we embed local relationships into the way we operate.
In particular, we value our relationships with local place partners, and work together across health and care providers, local authorities, the voluntary and community sector, community representatives and others across our five distinct Places:
- East Surrey
- West Surrey
- East Sussex
- West Sussex
- Brighton & Hove
NHS collaboratives
Provider collaboratives are partnerships that bring together multiple NHS trusts — including hospitals and mental health services - to work together at scale. Since July 2022, all NHS trusts providing acute and mental health services have been required to be part of a provider collaborative, shifting away from competition towards a more collaborative approach to care and this also includes primary care collaboratives.
Across Surrey and Sussex, we work with a range of collaboratives, in particular:
- The Surrey Heartlands Trust Provider Collaborative – Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, Surrey & Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust and Surrey & Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Sussex Provider Collaborative – covering all NHS provider trusts and health and care provider sectors in Sussex
- Sussex Neighbourhood Alliance – covering out of acute hospital care in Sussex
- Sussex Acute Alliance – covering acute hospital care in Sussex
- Sussex Primary Care Provider Collaborative – covering general practice, pharmacy and dental
- East Surrey Alliance
- West Surrey Alliance