South Yorkshire ICB has launched three digital strategies designed to modernise services, strengthen cyber resilience, and empower its workforce with digital skills to continue to deliver safe and effective care.
The digital strategy to 2027 notes AI as one of the major areas highlighted by the ICB. The board outlines its plans to set up a system-wide AI and automation forum to oversee development of agreed frameworks and principles for adoption, and to collaborate with academic partners to ensure these are kept up-to-date. Steps will be taken to help partners understand their AI maturity, and a system pilot will be undertaken for ambient voice, taking advantage of opportunities to procure at scale through the NHS Test Framework.
Another area of focus is shared care records, with all organisations contracted by the ICB to be required to sign up to the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR) to improve information sharing and interoperability. All care providers will similarly be required to provide locally agreed minimum datasets to the YHCR. Use cases will continue to be developed, and data remediation projects will ensure the quality of historic data, whilst user onboarding and post go-live support including training will help increase adoption. The ICB also notes plans to explore options for person-level access to the YHCR via the NHS App.
Social care will be increasingly digitised, with improvements made to information sharing for social care providers and the adoption of Tech Enabled Care. Standardised digital solutions will be developed to improve care delivery and coordination, digital maturity assessments will be reflected in local specifications including the enhanced health in care homes framework, and Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) compliance will be achieved across all social care providers. Remote monitoring and falls technologies will align with ambitions around proactive care, adoption of the YHCR will support access to health data, and providers will be supported to implement and adopt the social care interoperability platform.
Elsewhere, the ICB plans to drive Tech Enabled Care with joint commissioning strategies, shared services and a single service delivery model, and a system-wide forum to oversee the development of a framework and agreed principles for implementation. A system-wide clinical safety forum will oversee consistent implementation of clinical safety standards, and the ICB will explore how system partners can link into a central triage panel process to pilot and expand ideas from across the system to advance innovation.
The ICB’s cyber strategy sets out a series of planned actions across the implementation of a South Yorkshire Cyber Portal, system criticality register, and supplier repository. ICS resourcing will be made available for cyber analytics, and a joint response protocol will be developed and tested to bolster collaboration. Building on convergence across the system, the ICB will also outline a set of ICS security standards to be embedded within organisational policies.
Published alongside the digital and cyber strategies, the ICB sets out planned actions in its digital workforce and skills strategy, including the creation of professional networks for digital training colleagues to support the sharing of resources, and a review of current training programmes. It also plans to look at current approaches to the assessment of digital skills across the system, with the intention of better matching training to individual needs and role requirements. Partnerships will be explored with education providers to support training demand, and a system-wide digital skills training plan will be developed to support delivery.
When looking at recruitment and retention, South Yorkshire’s focus is on building a strong digital brand to attract candidates, with an ambassador programme to be established for schools and colleges, and the Inclusive Recruitment Work programme to be deployed to reduce barriers to employment. Cross-organisation professional and specialist networks will promote knowledge sharing on topics like clinical informatics, and opportunities will be explored to pool specialist teams and create shareable services where appropriate. DSDN accreditation will be promoted across digital teams, and an accredited training programme will be created to support transferable skills and cross working. Capabilities will further be developed to support clinicians to train into digital roles.
To learn more, or to read the three strategies in full, please click here.
Wider trend: System digital transformation
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB and Northamptonshire ICB’s latest five-year strategic commissioning plan to 2031 highlights the move from short-term recovery to longer-term transformation, outlining the role of digital and data in areas such as population health, neighbourhood health, and prevention. Core commissioning ambitions include improving access and flow for elective care, urgent and emergency care, and neighbourhoods, the ICBs state, modernising pathways, reducing variation, and relying on digital connectivity and shared care records to help deliver care closer to home. Digital and data literacy will be enhanced across the workforce to support a “digital by default” approach to commissioning, and digital tools and real-time data will help promote proactive care.
Black Country ICB has shared a series of digital updates around its work across digital and data, including AI, shared care records, a digital strategy refresh, and the secondary use of data. Results from the ICB’s latest digital maturity assessment were discussed, with the board noting that “the ICB has a central position in terms of both the Midlands region and the whole of the NHS”. A working group is now being set up to produce an action plan, and outcomes will be worked into the ICS’s digital strategy, which is due to be refreshed.
South West London ICB has shared an update on its current cyber assurance and details of system-wide cyber improvement activities, extending to progress around governance and promoting alignment with provider organisations. The update follows news that the ICB’s digital team has secured more than £1 million in funding from NHS England to support its delivery of the SWL Cyber Strategy in 2025/26.
