The Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on Friday 17 July 2026 to discuss the merger of two Integrated Care Boards, review the Quality Account of Whittington Health NHS Trust, and consider the committee's work programme. The meeting also included the election of a Chair and Vice-Chair for the upcoming municipal year.

West and North London ICB Update

The committee was scheduled to consider an update on the merger of the North Central London (NCL) and North West London (NWL) Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), which would result in the formation of the West and North London ICB. This merger is part of a national requirement to transform ICBs, aiming for a sharper focus on population health, outcomes, and equity, leading to a clearer and simpler organisational structure. The new ICB will serve 4.5 million residents across 13 boroughs with a commissioning budget of £12 billion. The update was expected to cover the ICB's purpose, its operational model, and its priorities for its first year, including delivering operational commitments, setting up the new organisation for success, investing in population health interventions, and developing a clinically-led strategy. The report highlighted challenges such as a significant portion of the budget being spent on hospitals and crisis services, leading to unequal life chances across West and North London, with a 17-year variation in healthy life expectancy. The ICB's role is shifting from borough-level partnerships and regulation of NHS Trusts to strategic commissioning, focusing on proactive and preventative care. The committee was also to be informed about the retention of statutory duties, continued partnership working with local authorities, and arrangements for All Age Continuing Healthcare and Complex Care, which have been delegated to Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH). The update also detailed SEND arrangements and the ICB's representation at various meetings, including Health and Wellbeing Boards and Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees (JHOSCs). Furthermore, the report outlined the Primary Care Commissioning Overview, including the landscape of primary care providers and key commissioning priorities such as improving quality, enhanced commissioning, neighbourhood models, and access. The proposed transfer of some Primary Care and Medicines Optimisation functions to provider organisations was also to be discussed. Finally, the update provided an overview of community, mental health, acute, general, and specialist NHS providers within the West and North London area, and detailed changes for NHS Trusts, including a reduced operational involvement from the ICB.

Whittington Health NHS Trust Quality Account

The committee was scheduled to consider and comment on the Whittington Health NHS Trust Quality Account for 2025/26. This document outlines the Trust's commitment to delivering safe, compassionate, and high-quality care. The report details the Trust's strategic objectives, which include delivering outstanding safe and compassionate care in partnership with patients, empowering staff, integrating care with partners, and transforming services. The Quality Account itself is an annual public report designed to assure patients, service users, carers, the public, and commissioners about the quality of services provided and areas for improvement. The report details the Trust's priorities for 2026/27, aligned with the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), focusing on reducing patient falls, ensuring medication safety, early recognition of deteriorating patients, pressure damage prevention, minimising delayed treatment, and safe discharge. It also outlines the Trust's four strategic objectives and eleven linked annual corporate objectives. The report details the consultation process undertaken to inform the Quality Account, including feedback from service users and staff, and outlines the monitoring of progress against priorities. Specific quality account priorities for 2026/27 were detailed, including delivering safe and effective care with kindness and compassion, improving the physical, sensory, and digital environments, reducing health inequalities by making services easier to access, and developing and redesigning services to meet population needs. The report also includes statements of assurance from the Board regarding mixed-sex accommodation, modern slavery, and safeguarding adults and children. Further sections cover subcontracted services, participation in clinical audits, clinical research, registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), information governance, data quality, end-of-life care, learning from deaths, readmission rates, patient responsiveness, staff Friends and Family Tests, patient feedback, venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention, infection prevention and control, patient safety incidents, and freedom to speak up. The report also includes local performance indicators and statements from external stakeholders, including commissioners and Healthwatch Islington.

Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review an outline of items for consideration as part of the 2026/27 work programme for the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee. This would involve identifying key areas of focus and potential future scrutiny activities.

NCL JHOSC Membership and Terms of Reference

The committee was asked to note the membership and Terms of Reference for the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2026/27 municipal year. This included confirming the proposed councillors for each of the five boroughs (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, and Islington) and reviewing the committee's revised terms of reference, which were agreed at a previous meeting on 30 January 2026. These terms of reference outline the committee's purpose to engage with NHS bodies on strategic area-wide issues, respond to proposals for change in specialised NHS services, and respond to formal consultations on health service developments. The committee's independent working relationship with parent authorities' Cabinets and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees (HOSCs) was also detailed, along with its aim to promote joint working and avoid duplication.

The meeting also included standard procedural items such as the election of a Chair and Vice-Chair(s), noting filming at meetings, receiving apologies for absence, considering urgent business, and declarations of interest. There was also an opportunity to consider deputations, petitions, presentations, and questions, and to confirm the minutes of the previous meeting held on 9 March 2026. The report pack also included a list of future meeting dates for the committee.