Editorial

Q&A: John Witt, co-founder & CEO of Stotles

Times are changing for the UK’s healthcare system with the transition to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), explains John Witt, co-founder & CEO of Stotles.

Posted 29 March 2022 by Christine Horton


Can you provide some background as to the current transition to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in the UK?

Times are changing for the UK’s healthcare system with the transition to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) across the country.

ICSs are partnerships that bring together public bodies and public healthcare service providers across geographic regions. The main aim of ICSs is to centralise health and care across public organisations and governing bodies in order to better meet the needs of their populations.

ICSs will come into effect at statuary legal bodies in July 2022.

With billions of pounds flowing into the transition, it has never been a more prosperous period for technology suppliers to get involved with the public sector.

What pain points do the ICSs address?

The concept of ICSs surfaced after a number of pain points were voiced about the fragmented and complex nature of decision-making and funding across Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

Early attempts to address these pain-points included consolidation of CCGs, and the formation of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs). In 2019, the NHS released their Long Term Plan; a document that outlines various ways the NHS aims to future-proof and simplify England’s healthcare. The long term plan calls for the integration of England’s healthcare provision into 42 ICSs.

Every region of England is now covered by an ICS that brings together local public bodies and healthcare services working together as one, with the objective of streamlining healthcare for patients across the country.

What are some of the opportunities for technology suppliers to work with the public sector?

Billions of pounds in funding has been allocated to the NHS to digitise England’s healthcare services via ICSs.

£136.1 billion, or the majority of the Department of Health and Social Care’s total spending (£190.3 billion) in 2021/22 is passed to NHS England and NHS Improvement for spending on health services.

This monumental funding has resulted in hundreds of opportunities for tech suppliers to work with the public sector. Below are examples of ICS activity, including recently awarded contracts, live opportunities and major frameworks that may be relevant to your business:

Recently awarded contracts

Joined Up Care Derbyshire Shared Care Record and Analytics Platform

Orion Health was recently awarded this contract to create a shared care record and analytics platform for Joined Up Care Derbyshire via NHS London Procurement Partnership Framework.

24/7 Online Mental Health Platform

Consultant Connect was recently awarded this contract to establish a digital platform that integrates to national services (NHS app and NHS login) for the South Yorkshire public.

Current open opportunities

Options appraisal for the national collection of incident data on violence and abuse against NHS staff

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust is seeking to better understand the tools and resources available to capture incidences of violence against the NHS workforce in all healthcare settings at an ICS, regional and national level. The aim is to be able to collect and assess the data at a high-level to inform future planning and commissioning.

Insight into improving uptake of flu vaccination for at risk cohort

NHS England is looking for a supplier to undertake research and provide insights into factors that affect the uptake of flu vaccination across London in the under 65 at risk cohort.

Key frameworks

Tech innovation framework

The Department of Health and Social Care has released a prior information notice (PIN) for an upcoming £9.5 million framework that will provide for electronic patient record solutions and associated capabilities for primary care technology.

Total facilities management framework

NHS London Procurement Partnership is establishing a Framework to provide a compliant procurement route for Total Facilities Management Services to the NHS and other public sector organisations. This will cover both fully managed hard and soft FM services along with an option for Total FM (hard and soft FM together).

We expect the overall funding and market activity surrounding ICSs to continue to increase once they form statuary bodies in July 2022, resulting in more opportunities for tech suppliers to get involved with.

How can Stotles help?

Stotles is the all-in-one platform for public sector sales teams to boost productivity. We combine millions of UK&I buying signals and opportunities into one view, tailored to you.

With Stotles, you can curate feeds of ICS opportunities relevant to your business whilst tracking specific buyers, partners and competitors so you don’t miss out on the biggest opportunities to work with the NHS.

Our aim is to help tech suppliers:

  • Find early signals
  • Get notified about public sector market signals and opportunities via curated prospecting reports and live feed notifications
  • Understand buyer behaviour
  • Gain a deeper understanding of buyer activity and buyer-supplier relationships with buyer and supplier profiles
  • Analyse the competitor landscape
  • Identify key incumbent suppliers and explore future opportunities with upcoming contract expiries and supplier profiles
  • Locate important prospects
  • Directly reach the people that matter with decision-maker contact details
  • Inform targeted outreach
  • Develop a compelling outreach strategy with account briefings and buyer profiles
  • Map partner ecosystems
  • Discover alternative routes to market with partner mappings and briefings

With the help of Stotles, technology suppliers can get ahead of the major digital initiatives emerging through the ICS transition. Tracking relevant signals, buyers, partners and competitors allows users to fill their pipeline with the most important opportunities to create healthy deal-flows in a fraction of the time.

With Stotles, NHS teams can gain insight into which projects and initiatives other Trusts and ICSs around the UK are advancing on so they can implement best practice digital solutions throughout the transition.