Integrated Care System Partnership Programme

The University of Hertfordshire, the Integrated Care Board (NHS), Hertfordshire County Council, and the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) Alliance are working together to create a lasting partnership that will support and enable Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE) to be a great place to live, learn, work, and stay.

The aim of the University of Hertfordshire Integrated Care System (UHICS) Partnership Programme is to use the resources of our institution, such as academic and professional expertise, research, and access to facilities such as data labs, to support the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System (HWEICS) to deliver on some of its challenging priorities, taking new impactful approaches maximising research, academic expertise, and knowledge exchange.

There are three broad strands to the programme:

  • Workforce development
  • Community and population engagement
  • Service innovations

The work undertaken within these strands are strategically aligned to HWEICS and have a positive, long-term impact to ensure outputs are sustainable and achieve legacy.

Infographic of the Enterprise Zone's four clusters of excellence, including Health and Care

The partnership sits within the Health and Care Cluster as part of the University Enterprise Zone and Strategy. The Health and Care Cluster will remain an entry point to the institution for HWEICS partners to access University resources past the duration of this programme.

The Health and Care Cluster offers a central point for ICS partners to collaborate across the breadth of expertise and navigate the internal networks of the University. This will enable maximise impact, ensuring the partnership delivers targeted interventions in innovative and novel ways that address, for example, workforce needs, community priorities, and inequalities across HWE.

The UHICS Partnership Programme is managed by a collaborative steering group made up of representatives from the:

  • Integrated Care Board
  • Hertfordshire County Council
  • VCFSE alliance
  • University of Hertfordshire

The steering group meets monthly and its main responsibility is to create positive impact:

  • On the attraction, recruitment and retention of our workforce(s) with the aim of growing and safeguarding the workforce supply
  • For the populations of Hertfordshire and West Essex, enhancing the health and care outcomes of targeted groups and/or communities, and support inclusion and belonging within the local community to increase the quality of life of individuals through greater access to education and employment
  • On service transformation across Hertfordshire and West Essex through research, insights and making recommendations for new models, practices and processes to address known and emerging challenges in a sustainable way across the system
  • By building strong and trusted partnership working relationships across HWEICS organisations that continues achieving impact for all those who live, learn, work and stay in Hertfordshire and West Essex.

For more information about the programme and how to get involved, please complete the form below: