Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB has set out its ambitions for a unified EPR, digital front door, and virtual command centre, with an aim to halve the time lost to clinical systems administration by 2032 and improve flow across the system.
In its clinical strategy for 2026/27 to 2031/32, the ICB highlights its costs are “around six pence in every pound above peer averages”, noting: “We must unlock the ‘trapped value’ in our system by aligning improvement, transformation and digital programmes — and by embedding a more commercial and innovation-focused mindset.” Data, digital, and technology will be harnessed to drive system efficiency, it continues, with the aim of realising benefits by 2030 from tech advancements such as intelligent hospital capabilities, process automation, and digital pathway optimisation.
Modernising services will mean making full use of the NHS App, and using the Federated Data Platform to improve care through the better use of data, the ICB continues, as well as deploying AI tools, digital therapeutics and ambient voice technology. A key component of the system digital strategy is around consistent and reliable access to high speed networks permitting “seamless connectivity” of managed devices, it states, and the clinical strategy endorses this, indicating the potential for transformative impact for clinicians in reduced admin burden, efficient transfer between services, and easier access to information.
Colleagues will need confidence in new ways of working across traditional boundaries as the shift is made to neighbourhood-based working, according to the ICB, with plans to work with partners to create clear pathways for people to start and grow their careers, and to reduce reliance on temporary staff by focusing on development and digital confidence. Providers will be supported to build a “future-ready and resilient” workforce, it notes, equipping staff for digital, virtual, and neighbourhood-based care with strengthened talent pipelines, early career routes, and succession planning by 2029.
Wider trend: ICB digital transformation
The newly-created Central East ICB, formed from Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB, and Hertfordshire, has revealed its five-year approach from strategy to delivery, highlighting the role of digital and data in achieving objectives and improving outcomes for the local population. Committing to adopting modern, digital mechanisms such as the NHS App by default, and to supporting its population in safely managing their own health with digital access and remote monitoring, the ICB sets out ‘five layers’: prevention and screening, supported self-care, proactive outreach and risk mitigation, care coordination for complex needs, and crisis response and recovery.
Norfolk and Suffolk ICB has addressed future plans for strategic commissioning and neighbourhood health, in a written response to NHS chief executive Jim Mackey’s questions to ICBs around planning and priorities for 2026/27. The ICB recognises “many important local successes” over the last year, with plans to combine “the best of both legacy ICBs to create a healthcare system shaped by strategic commissioning”. The short-term focus is remaining on plan and achieving national standards for performance and quality of care, it states, whilst longer term ambitions revolve around supporting populations in living healthier and longer lives, supported by evidence-led digital transformation shifting focus to prevention and neighbourhood-based care.
In the latest instalment of our ICB region series, we took a deep dive into what’s happening with digital and data across the North East and Yorkshire region, exploring pilots and innovations, strategies, case studies, and insights from the sector.
