ICB Funding – What are the best ways to use it?

Despite the cancellation of the £300 million digital pathways framework due to delays from legal challenges, NHS England has enhanced its national support offer. This includes a £48 million reimbursement fund derived from the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan (PCARP) with the aims of supporting Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to improve patient access, streamline care navigation, and enhance overall healthcare delivery through advanced digital solutions.

But what exactly is this fund? How does the new funding work? And most importantly, how can it be used, and how long will it last?

At Access Elemental Social Prescribing, we understand the importance of securing multiple-funding stream sources to ensure the sustainability of support services. We know that maximising the benefits of the funding received is equally crucial to achieving the best outcomes for patients, communities, and the workforce.

In this article you will learn all about the new PCN and ICB fund that is available and the best ways to use it to improve patient outcomes by managing demand and capacity more effectively.

Digital Pathways Framework Funding – Why has it changed?

The National Digital Pathways Framework was previously aimed at driving a rapid move to modernise the general practice model by connecting integrated care boards (ICBs) with approved suppliers for digital GP tools for messaging, consultations, and care navigation.

Unfortunately, this exciting £300 million funding opportunity has been confirmed by NHS England it has been cancelled following delays due to legal and procurement reasons.

However, despite this funding being cancelled, in April 2024, the NHSE announced a new funding opportunity in the interim of £48 million to follow the initial objectives and aims of the digital pathway framework funding.

Now, due to the digital pathways funding being removed there were concerns this interim funding would be too. This is not the case, as the previously agreed ICB PCARP commitments (2023/24) will continue to be funded for 2024/25.

ICB Funding – So what is available?

With the aim to continue Modernising General Practice (MGP) services with better digital tools for messaging, consultations, and care navigation, like the previous funding opportunity, this digital tools funding also concentrates on ensuring a delivery plan for recovering access to primary care.

It has been announced there will be a set of new standards and capabilities outlines for this interim funding to support Modernising General Practice (MGP). These standards and capabilities will cover digital pathways tools and expand its scope to include demand and capacity management tools to align with the exiting processes and requirements of the GPIT operating model to ensure that ICBs can use products with a richer functionality set to deliver MGP locally.

When broken down this interim funding equates to an average of 76p - 93p per patient to be spent on investing in a variety of digital tools that modernise GP services and improve primary care access. Equally, this opportunity encourages PCNs to engage with their ICB, and for the ICB to work with their regional NHS procurement lead to utilise the funding effectively by catering their expenditure to what their community needs. The NHS website states the terms of the funding:

This interim funding opportunity for digital tools therefore means that your primary care service has the flexibility to use this funding across multiple solutions according to your community’s needs, aims, and objectives.

Digital Tools Interim Funding – What can the funding be spent on?

The objective of this funding is to modernise general practice. With this objective, this funding opportunity can be used in a range of ways with multiple objectives being addressed at the same time. The table below demonstrates what capabilities that a solution must meet.

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The table above details a broad range of aims, such as enhancing the efficiency, accessibility, and quality of health and social care, streamlining processes, improving patient engagement and outcomes, and reducing the workloads of health and social care professionals. Highlighting that there are a variety of solutions you can invest in with through the interim funding.

ICB Funding - Why invest in digital social prescribing?

One of the most impactful ways to use this funding is through focusing on improving your care navigation by investing in digital social prescribing. This approach helps reduce GP workloads, promotes and supports self-care, improves patient outcomes, and addresses the social determinants of health.

Not only will focusing on the care navigation objective improve the quality of care delivered, but digital solutions can also help manage health and social care professionals' workloads so service deliveries are more sustainable both now and in the future. 

Digital social prescribing is a great way to utilise this new funding as it helps reduce avoidable appointments within primary care and build capacity across PCNs , whilst improving outcomes for patients. Currently, 1 in 5 GP appointments are for social reasons, investing in digital social prescribing is one way to eradicate the rising pressure on your local GP practices.  

 Access Elemental Social Prescribing is recognised as an approved NHS supplier, offering a whole system approach, and real value for money through a fully integrated platform that connects with leading clinical systems like EMIS WEB, SystmOne, and Vision so that GPs and others can make, manage and report on referrals to social prescribing services. The Access Elemental platform ensures a seamless referral process, comprehensive patient journey tracking, and robust interoperability, making managing social prescribing referrals even easier.

The remainder of this article will explain the best ways to use the funding using Birmingham and Solihull ICS as an example that has successfully secured the funding available and elected Access Elemental as their preferred supplier.  

Digital Tools Interim Funding – Evidence for the funding

As one of the largest ICBs in England, Birmingham and Solihull ICS serves over 1.58 million citizens across 6 localities, 38 PCNS, and 182 GP practices, and are utilising funding to implement Access Elemental this year.

Using this initiative, Birmingham and Solihull ICB PCNs will provide their patients with digital access for contacting their GP through suitable digital channels, enabling healthcare delivery at times and locations more convenient for patients. This is underscored by...

Birmingham and Solihull PCNs will be using the  Access Elemental platform to support their care navigation across the system, ensuring the Right Access First Time for patients. Birmingham and Solihull ICB are aligning neighbourhood teams and consolidating access into one system. This initiative presents an opportunity to implement a truly integrated digital approach that brings together various sectors within the Integrated Care System. This supports neighbourhood teams while addressing the ICB Right Action First Time (RAFT) and practice access issues effectively.

Stephen continues by sharing his enthusiasm for the integrated approach:

Seeking a solution to address national challenges and aligning with the Fuller Stocktake, which outlines a new vision for integrated primary care, investing in digital social prescribing emerged as the best option for Birmingham and Solihull ICB.

By being exposed to our highly sophisticated interoperability including integrating Birmingham Community Trust, clinicians into the project, Birmingham and Solihull primary care services will now be able to better use public data to make more data-driven decisions about their community's social needs. By leveraging NHS England’s interim funding for Access Elemental, PCNs within Birmingham and Solihull ICB, such as Birmingham East Central, can strategically address avoidable and community-wide health inequalities. This enables them to provide targeted support that builds confidence and enhances overall health and wellbeing by focusing on what matters to the individual.

What are the best ways to use ICB and PCN Funding?

This new interim funding opens multiple opportunities for primary care settings to modernise their services. Choosing the right supplier or solution is crucial for achieving your goals and ensuring funding opportunities are not wasted.

At Access Elemental, we know the process of applying, receiving and utilising funding to procure services can be long-winded. So we ensure a swift transition to our services with all the support needed during the onboarding process and after. You can go live with our solution in as little as 7 weeks, allowing you to focus on supporting individuals and catering to their needs.

This article reviewed how this new funding will help PCNs and ICBs collaborate more effectively to understand and address community needs. Funding like this shifts care models from reactive to proactive, enabling primary care settings to deliver better-integrated care, increase independence, and reduce pressure on GPs and health and social care professionals.

Using this funding to invest in digital social prescribing helps GP services deliver better outcomes by reducing dependency on GP practices and allowing more time for other health concerns. Our social prescribing software empowers professionals with real-time data access to harness the full opportunity of creating stronger digital pathways.

Our rapid onboarding, continuous support, unmatched integrations, and proven success will enable your ICB to streamline workflows and improve community health and wellbeing by focusing on what matters to the individual to improve your community’s overall health and wellbeing.

For more information on maximising this funding, contact us today. We will collaborate with you and your Regional Lead to help you achieve your objectives and enhance support across the entire care circle. Start your digital transformation journey now with this new funding opportunity.