Ambition 5: Working with and for our communities

We will create trusted, long-term partnerships that work well together to help people and communities.

Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are partnerships of organisations. They come together to make sure that health and care services are well planned and joined-up. ICSs have been created to improve the lives of people who live and work in their area.

We are part of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS). To meet our ambitions, we cannot work alone. To support our people and places, we must work together with the public and our partners in:

• Health;
• Education;
• Housing;
• Industry;
• Charities and volunteers.

Together, we will address the wide inequalities that contribute to ill-health across our region.

The North East and North Cumbria regional healthcare plan is called “Better Health and Wellbeing for All”. The plan seeks to improve health and care for all of us. All organisations in the North East and North Cumbria ICS agree that we want:

• Better, high quality health and social care services, no matter where you live or who you are;
• Fairer health outcomes. We know that some people have worse health because of where they live, their income, their education or their employment. We will take these factors into account to make good health more equal;
• Longer and healthier lives. We want to reduce the gap between how long people in our region live compared to the rest of England;
• Our children to have the best start in life, so they thrive and have great futures. This will have a long-term impact, improving lives for generations of children to come.

We are happy to work with our partners to achieve this regional plan. This strategy explains how we will work with them to provide care and support that is rooted in our communities.

Our strength is providing expert, evidence-based advice, support and care for people with complex needs. We provide this when it is needed. We also know that people want constant care and support close to home at all stages of their lives. For this to happen, we must work as a collective with partners in the interests of those we serve. We must work particularly well with primary care. We have lots to offer in support of the regional plan to improve the health and wellbeing of the population. We believe we can be a great partner in delivering care and a great partner to our communities.

• We will work with communities and value their strengths. GPs and primary care are at the heart of healthcare in each community. Also important are the volunteers, charities and self-help groups that do so much to bind a community together;
• With partners, we will teach, train, advise and help people and communities to support their own wellbeing;
• We will make every contact count, to tackle the causes of ill health and shortened lives. This means thinking about someone’s physical, emotional and social wellbeing each time we work with them.
• We will reach out and serve all communities, particularly those that are disadvantaged, to reduce inequalities and achieve fairer outcomes;
• We will use our power as an employer, as a purchaser and as a landlord to reduce inequalities.
• We will work every day to reduce suicides;
• With partners, we will radically change our offer to children, young people and their families to provide joined-up care and support; and
• We will support our communities by meeting their local needs.