BSW Together launches

The Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB) was formally established on Friday 1 July. 

The BSW ICB is a new statutory organisation that will develop a plan for meeting the health needs of our local population, manage the NHS budget allocated to the ICB and its area and arrange for the provision of health services. 

It will work collaboratively to improve outcomes in population health, provide better joined-up care, reduce health inequalities and enhance productivity and value for money, while also helping the NHS support broader social and economic development. 

The BSW ICB is one of 42 others that will be established across England as part of national plans to improve integration between health and care organisations serving the same geography. 

The BSW ICB will sit within the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System, which will be known as BSW Together. 

BSW Together is a wider network of local health and care organisations that will plan and organise how health and care services can be delivered across the region, while also committing to give local people and communities a louder voice in how services are provided locally. 

The organisations that make up the ICS in BSW include our Trust along with the RUH and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, 88 GP practices and three local councils, as well as the ambulance service, community caregivers, mental health providers and hundreds of local voluntary, community and social enterprise groups. 

While there are big plans, many of which build on strengthening the ties partners forged during the pandemic, the formalisation of these new arrangements marks the start of a long journey to truly change how we deliver health and care to local people.  

The integrated care board will make it easier for organisations to work as one, which in turn should create a more seamless journey of care for patients, especially those who receive help from multiple partners, such as older people who may be visited at home, but still need to attend appointments in hospital or with their GP. 

You can find out more information about the BSW ICB and BSW Together by visiting www.bswtogether.org.uk.