Health and care organisations from across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire will come together later this month for the first official board meeting in public as the region’s new integrated care system. Taking place on Friday 28 May between 9am and 12pm, the meeting of the BSW Partnership will see health and care officials from neighbouring organisations gather around a joint virtual table for the very first time alongside an observing audience. The BSW Partnership was designated as an integrated care system in December 2020and comprises 17 local health and care organisations, including the region’s three acute hospital trusts, mental health trust, community providers, local authorities and voluntary sector. All are committed to working as one and across organisational boundaries to meet the health and care needs of the local population, as well as improve existing services. Overseenby independent Chair Stephanie Elsy, the Board is made up of representatives from each, and is responsible for setting the priorities for health and care services across BSW and making sure those ambitions are achieved.Tracey Cox, Chief Executive, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG, said: “Joined-up working is nothing new, as our health and care organisations had already been working closely together before and during the pandemic, but now partners are keen to strengthen their approaches to joint working and operate as a single collective force.. “The Board provides us with a forum in which a groupmade up of different organisations has the ability, through unified decision-making,to make change across the whole of our local health and care system.”Stephanie Elsy, Chair, BSW Partnership, said: “There are almost one million people living inour region,and as we have seen with the triumphant rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, the health and wellbeing of each and every person can be improved when we work together. “When the BSW Partnership was first established at the end of last year, we made it clear we wanted to be as open and as transparent as possible, which is why I’m very keen to invite anyone with an interest in local health and care to join us at our first public meeting.”