The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) is scheduled to meet on Monday, 15 December 2025, to discuss a range of topics including a population health needs assessment, commissioning intentions, and social prescribing. The meeting will also include updates on neighbourhood health plans and the Working Well domain.

Population Health Needs Assessment

Claire Niebieski is scheduled to present a report on the Lancashire & South Cumbria Integrated Care Board Population Health Needs Assessment. The assessment is described as a tool to review systematically the health issues facing the population, which should lead to system-wide agreed priorities that aim to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

The report pack includes a request for feedback on the report.

The assessment includes data and analysis on:

• Demographics
• Mortality and life expectancy
• Health status and outcomes
• Existing patient engagement work

The report notes that the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) footprint is complex, incorporating the unitary authority areas of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool, as well as the upper tier authority area of Lancashire county. It also includes the Westmorland and Furness Council, excluding the previous Eden District, some of the previous Borough of Copeland (around Millom) which is within Cumberland Council and some of the previous District of Craven (around Bentham) which is within North Yorkshire Council.

The report states that across the ICB area, there are 2,514 registered Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). Lancaster has the largest number with 953 HMOs, with other notable concentrations in Preston (529 HMOs) and West Lancashire (416 HMOs).

The report also notes that:

Across Lancashire and South Cumbria there are approximately 65,500 veterans, with generally higher rates of veterans across all districts when compared to the England rate of 2.9%. The districts with the highest proportion of veterans are Fylde (6.1%), Wyre (5.7%) and Blackpool (5.1%), but there are higher rates of all veterans in 14 of 16 districts across Lancashire and South Cumbria when compared to England.

The report includes a summary of ICB wide engagement work. It says that in 2024-25, the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB communications and engagement team gathered a significant amount of insight in relation to people's experiences of services provided in acute, primary care and community settings. When analysing these insights, there were some consistent themes raised throughout: accessibility, navigating services, joined up integrated care, technology and digital, and quality of services.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including that the ICB must adopt a proportionate universalism approach¹ to reduce the steepness of the social gradient in health.

Social Prescribing Shared Investment Fund

Bryan Jones and Tracey Hopkins are scheduled to present an update on the Social Prescribing Shared Investment Fund. The report pack includes a cover sheet for the Social Prescribing - National Community Health and Wellbeing Fund ICP update.

The report notes that the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) published 'Envisaging a Social Prescribing Fund', setting out a principle-led approach to unlocking long-term public and private investment in neighbourhood health through social prescribing. It says that there has previously been significant investment (£4.4 million across LSC) by NHS England for direct social prescribing link worker workforce through schemes such as the Additional Roles Reimbursement scheme (ARRs) into primary care networks.

The report states that Lancashire & South Cumbria are working closely with NASP and are a vanguard of one of seven Early Adopter sites alongside sector experts and wider stakeholders, to evolve and operationalise this vision. The result is the re-designed and re-named National Community Health & Wellbeing Fund (NCHWF).

The report recommends that Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Partnership members note the developments relating to social prescribing, governance, readiness and NCHWBF, and continue to help the governance of social prescribing process by providing strategic oversight, leadership and assurance to the work highlighted in this paper whilst allowing flexibility in our approach and continue to be prepared to grow and develop as conditions and the environment shift.

Other Business

Jane Cass is scheduled to give a verbal report on the ICB Strategy and Planning Overview/Context. Jess Williams is scheduled to present ICB Commissioning Intentions. Stephen Sandford is scheduled to give a verbal report on Neighbourhood Health Plans. Michele Lawty-Jones is scheduled to give a verbal report on the Working Well Domain Update.

The minutes of the last meeting are included in the report pack.