Full Integrated Impact Assessment

The NHS Constitution states that the NHS has a duty to “…pay particular attention to groups or sections of society where improvements in health and life expectancy are not keeping pace with the rest of the population”. This is reflected in the Health and Social Care Act 2012, which introduced legal duties to reduce health inequalities, with specific duties on Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and NHS England.  The Health and Care Act 2022 subsequently transposes the duties previously held by CCGs directly onto Integrated Commissioning Boards (ICBs).

ICBs have duties to:

• Have regard to the need to reduce inequalities between patients in access to health services and the outcomes achieved;
• Exercise their functions with a view to securing that health services are provided in an integrated way, and are integrated with health-related and social care services, where they consider that this would improve quality, reduce inequalities in access to those services or reduce inequalities in the outcomes achieved;
• Include in an annual commissioning plan an explanation of how they propose to discharge their duty to have regard to the need to reduce inequalities; and
• Include in an annual report an assessment of how effectively they discharged their duty to have regard to the need to reduce inequalities.

Similarly, local authorities in England carry legal responsibilities to meet equality and diversity standards.  Many of these are incorporated into the Equality Framework for Local Government 2021, which seeks to “help organisations, in discussion with local partners including local people, review and improve their performance for people with characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010”.

At an overall level, the framework seeks to:

• Deliver accessible and responsive services to customers and residents in their communities including those from protected characteristics
• Employ a workforce that reflects the diversity of the area they are serving
• Provide equality of opportunity for all staff
• Meet the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty (Section 2.2)

This means that health inequalities must be properly and seriously taken into account by public sector bodies, including all NHS organisations and both local authorities within STW ICS.

The NHS Long Term plan aligns the duties and responsibilities of the partner organisations behind the vision that increased collaborative working within health, care services, public health and the voluntary sector is fundamental in tackling equality and health inequality challenges.

• Download the Integrated Impact Assessment template found above

• Starting on page 7, there are a series of sections requiring input and feedback.  These are indicated by red text. The red text is designed as guidance for each section, and should be deleted and replaced with black text throughout.

• Once the document has been completed, please save as a PDF, and send to the Communications and Engagement mailbox