• Providing a greater emphasis on prevention and self-care.
• Helping people to stay at home with the right support with fewer people needing to go into hospital.
• Giving people better health information and making sure everyone gets the same high quality care.
• Utilising developing technologies to fuel innovation, supporting people to stay independent and manage their conditions.
• Attracting, developing and retaining world class staff.
• Involving and engaging our staff, local partners, carers, the voluntary sector and residents in the planning and shaping of future services.
• Developing an environmentally friendly health and care system.

What does this mean for children and young people with special educational needs & disabilities (SEND)?

Earlier this year, NHSE published the ‘Integrated Care Systems: design framework’ which sets out how partners within an Integrated Care System are expected to work together.

Statutory responsibility for SEND has transferred, along with all clinical commissioning group (CCG) functions and duties, to STWICS. Statutory duties of CCGs regarding safeguarding, children in care and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) now apply to STWICS.

The new partnership will lead to better outcomes for everyone, including our children and young people with SEND, for a number of reasons including: 

• Statutory services can work together more easily, with more joined up services.
• Ability to commission at scale.
• Solve common issues together and with people and communities.
• Share good practice.
• A consistent approach across a larger area e.g. in relation to transition and early identification.
• More integrated commissioning and delivery.

The ICS will work together with partners and people to develop a vision and a set of principles for our learning disability and autism programme which describes what we want to achieve for and with people living with a learning disability and autistic people living with or without a learning disability across all ages. This is important as it provides focus, sets direction and unites everybody with where we want to get to.

It is planned that this vision will be used as a foundation for the health and social care organisations across the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin system to develop their detailed strategies and plans, where these are not already in place or need to be updated.

• Be place based.
• Provide specific, separate plans for both Learning Disabilities and Autism.
• Provide specific plans for different age groups.
• Provide the necessary detail of what will be implemented, how and when.

Their vision is that people with learning disabilities and/or autism are enabled to have choice and control to be independent, healthy, and safe, with the same opportunities and outcomes in life as others.  You can read more about their vision on the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin NHS website.

For more information, please contact:

NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System
Website: www.shropshiretelfordandwrekin.ics.nhs.uk
Phone: 01952 580300
Email: stw.generalenquiries@nhs.net
Write: Halesfield 6, Halesfield, Telford, TF7 4BF