We are a community of people who work in or conduct research related to the health and social care systems. We share a particular interest in Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), the architecture for health and social care in England. ICSs are designed to foster collaboration between the many organisations in the sector within a local area, while addressing the key challenges these systems face. Given the scale of this challenge, research that supports ICSs in their work is vital.
By bringing together researchers and those working in the sector, we aim to pool our knowledge and drive research that better addresses the questions ICSs need answered.
Our focus
As a network, we focus on the challenges faced by ICSs and the health, social care and Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations within them. A core challenge is adopting the new, collaborative style of working that ICSs are designed to foster. Others relate to ICS’s priorities, including fostering prevention, improving outcomes and addressing health inequalities.
We focus in particular on the organisational aspects of these challenges. For instance, how can organisations work effectively across sectoral boundaries; how can systems shift towards prevention despite today’s short-term pressures; or how can efforts to reduce health inequalities best be governed? By bringing together researchers and those working in the sector, we can utilise both formal organisational research and practical know-how to better understand and address these challenges.
What we do
We meet in person annually, generally in the summer. In between those meetings, we keep in touch through shorter, remote meetings. These meetings offer a chance to stay up to date with one another’s work, hear about pioneering organisations or key research, and shape shared projects – including future sessions, joint research or other initiatives. You can find details of upcoming meetings, along with slides and videos from previous events, on our events page.
We also operate a newsletter to share information that may be useful to those interested in ICSs and related research, alongside updates about our joint work. This is where we provide the latest information about upcoming network events, which tend to be oversubscribed. Use the form on this page to sign up, and we’ll keep you updated.
Our people
-
Lecturer in Management and Organisation
-
Senior Lecturer in Health Policy
-
Senior Lecturer in Public Policy & Management
-
Professor in Public Services Management & Organisation
-
Reader in Older People's Healthcare
-
Joint Director of Clinical Strategy (King's Health Partners)
-
Professor of Healthcare for Older Adults
-
Doctoral Student, University of Bologna
-
Director of Adult Social Care and Public Health, London Boroughs of Richmond and Wandsworth
-
Independent Consultant
-
Head of Management Development and Innovation, Liverpool Business School
-
Senior Lecturer, University of Surrey
-
Medical Director, South East London ICS
-
Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Research and Insight, Healthwatch England
Contact our team
Dr Sam van Elk, Lecturer in Management and Organization
sam.van_elk@kcl.ac.uk
Sign up for the Integrated Care Systems Research-Practice Network newsletter