The NHS Long Term Plan confirmed that all parts of England would be served by an integrated care system from April 2021, building on the lessons of the earliest systems and the achievements of earlier work through sustainability and transformation partnerships and vanguards.

With each part of the country now ready to function as an ICS, NHS England and NHS Improvement has asked the Government and Parliament to establish ICSs in law and to remove legal barriers to integrated care for patients and communities. Decisions on legislation will now be for Government and Parliament to make.

For information on ICSs in your area, please visit NHS England.

The NHS Provider Selection Regime (PSR) is set to take effect on January 1 2024, pending parliamentary approval. It establishes new rules for procuring healthcare services in England by relevant authorities, including NHS England, Integrated Care Boards, NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts, local authorities, and combined authorities. the PSR has been designed to:

• introduce a flexible and proportionate process for deciding who should provide health care services
• provide a framework that allows collaboration to flourish across systems
• ensure that all decisions are made in the best interest of patients and service users.

When the PSR regulations come into force, the PSR will introduce three provider selection processes that relevant authorities can follow to award contracts for health care services. These are the:

• Direct award processes (A, B, and C). These involve awarding contracts to providers when there is limited or no reason to seek to change from the existing provider; or to assess providers against one another, because:

• the existing provider is the only provider that can deliver the health care services (direct award process A)
• patients have a choice of providers and the number of providers is not restricted by the relevant authority (direct award process B)
• the existing provider is satisfying its existing contract, will likely satisfy the new contract to a sufficient standard, and the proposed contracting arrangements are not changing considerably (direct award process C).

• Most suitable provider process. This involves awarding a contract to providers without running a competitive process, because the relevant authority can identify the most suitable provider.
• Competitive process. This involves running a competitive process to award a contract.

Relevant authorities will need to comply with defined processes in each case to evidence their decision-making, including record keeping and the publication of transparency notices.

For further information including timings and support for implementation and transitional arrangements please visit NHS commissioning » NHS Provider Selection Regime (england.nhs.uk)