Committee publication · Correspondence · 8 July 2026
Correspondence from Minister Kinnock on Local Authorities and ICBs
Summary
Minister Stephen Kinnock writes to explain the government's policy rationale for removing joint local authority nomination of ICB board members in favour of strategic authority representation. He defends the change as enabling clearer organisational roles, supporting place-level partnership through health and wellbeing boards, and allowing local flexibility rather than prescriptive national frameworks. He addresses concerns about London's distinctive governance landscape.
Key findings
- Government removes joint local authority nomination to ICB boards; strategic authorities will nominate instead, reflecting ICBs' focus on strategic healthcare commissioning across larger geographies.
- Health and wellbeing boards designated as central mechanism for place-level NHS-local authority partnership; local authorities retain statutory responsibility for adult social care commissioning.
- Strategic authority representation on ICB boards intended to enable sectoral alignment between health, care, housing, and public health without requiring strategic authorities to commission healthcare directly.
- NHS contributes minimum £2.4 billion per year to adult social care through Better Care Fund; ICBs have exceptions for continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care.
- Government emphasises non-statutory partnerships and local flexibility over prescriptive national governance frameworks; London and other distinct regions encouraged to supplement statutory arrangements with locally agreed models.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Stephen Kinnock MP, Layla Moran MP, Ben Coleman MP, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Strategic authorities, Health and Wellbeing Boards, Local authorities
Notable line
“The statutory partnerships and governance arrangements are best thought of as a floor not a ceiling, recognising the necessity of the ICB board itself being small enough to be effective.”
Key Quotes
“Much of the 10 Year Health Plan depends on effective partnerships to secure better outcomes for people who require both health and social care support; to improve prevention and population health; and to make a reality of the shift of care from hospital to community.”
“If everyone specialises in everything, little will get done in practice.”
“Much of the day-to-day alignment and integration in the system between the NHS and local government happens at a more local level than the ICB and the ICB board …”
“It is wrong, therefore, to suggest that strategic authorities need to have a direct responsibility for delivering or commissioning healthcare or social care in order to contribute to the ICB Board.”
“It is precisely because previous arrangements have sought to answer the 'London question' (or indeed the 'Stoke question' or any number of others) with an over -prescriptive national framework that has inevitably suited some places more than others that local voices and choices have been crowded out.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗