Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with NHS England regarding the creation of regional Joint Committees between NHS England and the various Integrated Care Boards in England; and when the regional Joint Committees between NHS England and the various Integrated Care Boards in England will be established.

NHS England published a roadmap in May 2022 setting the direction of travel for greater integration of specialised services with Integrated Care Board (ICB) commissioned services to better join up patient pathways. The roadmap is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/PAR1440-specialised-commissioning-roadmap-addendum-may-2022.pdf

An analysis of the entire specialised services portfolio was undertaken to determine which services are both suitable and ready for greater ICB leadership. Following an assessment of ICB system readiness at the end of 2022 using a pre-delegation assessment framework, nine statutory joint committees between NHS England and multi-ICB collaborations were established on 1 April 2023 taking on joint responsibility for commissioning decisions on 59 specialised services.