A senior mandarin has denied that Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) have been ‘set up to fail’.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee quizzed top civil servants from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) about the new bodies, which bring together health, care and local government leaders.

Committee chair Meg Hillier asked whether the department was ‘setting them up to fail’ due to the ‘very challenging financial situation’ in which they are operating.

DHSC permanent secretary Sir Chris Wormald admitted that while ICSs could help make spending more effective, they would not ease funding issues.

He said: ‘They can’t solve wider questions about the NHS and local government, and how it works together, and they can’t change the quantum.

'What they can control is how that joint resource is used and targeted.

‘It creates a platform for better joint working between the NHS and social care – it doesn’t change either the quantum of the money or the statutory responsibility for the two budgets.’

Sir Chris said he was ‘very concerned’ about the social care workforce and warned the vacancy rate remained ‘too high’.

However, he sounded a note of optimism, highlighting that changes to immigration rules had helped bring in 10,000 to 15,000 recruits from abroad.

He added: ‘There’s a long way to go but it is at least moving in the right direction.'

Sir Chris said ICSs had been successful as a ‘platform for a different type of conversation between the NHS and its local government partners’.

Also giving evidence, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard added there was a 'huge legacy' of partnership to build on from the Covid vaccination programme.

This article was originally published by The MJ (£)