A new collaborative health and care organisation with a responsibility for providing £1.5 billion of services to the people of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire has been established.

Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board came into being at one minute past midnight on Friday July 1, following a successful transition from the region’s former clinical commissioning group.

Officials from the new organisation will meet during a virtual day one meeting in public to herald its arrival, discuss future plans and answer questions submitted in advance from people living in the local area.

The ICB for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire is one of 42 others that have been established across England as part of national plans to improve integration between health and care organisations serving the same geography.

Following Parliamentary approval, and the subsequent Royal Assent, of the new Health and Care Act 2022, which outlines the need for more effective collaboration and better joined-up working, CCGs have been dissolved to make way for integrated care boards that will bring more cohesion to local health and care systems.

The board itself will sit within the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System, known as BSW Together. This is a wider network of local health and care organisation, including Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, 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.

More information about the integrated care board can be found online, either by visiting www.bsw.icb.nhs.uk, or by searching for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.