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The UK healthcare ICS Congress
The Innovating NHS Systems Congress
7th of December 2026, London England
Agenda 2026
The Innovating NHS Systems Congress
• Learn about shared care record platforms that give all clinicians access to complete patient information
• See interoperability standards and APIs that connect different IT systems
• Understand data sharing agreements and information governance for cross-organizational access
• Discover digital referral pathways that transfer patients smoothly between services
• Find out how ICSs measure the impact of joined-up digital infrastructure
This session shows the technical and organizational work required to move from siloed systems to integrated digital care across entire regions.
• See population health management platforms that segment populations by risk and need
• Learn about targeted screening programs for high-risk groups identified through data analytics
• Understand how ICSs coordinate prevention across primary care, community services, and public health
• Discover social prescribing programs that address wider determinants of health
• Find out how to build business cases for prevention that show reduced hospital demand
Public health directors and ICS analytics leads present programs preventing disease at population level, with evidence of clinical and financial outcomes.
• Learn about patient selection criteria and clinical pathways for virtual ward admission
• See remote monitoring technology that streams vital signs to hospital control centers
• Understand staffing models including consultants, nurses, and therapy teams supporting home patients
• Discover how virtual wards integrate with ambulance services for rapid response when needed
• Find out about clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and cost comparisons with inpatient beds
This session includes detailed program designs from trusts running successful virtual wards, treating respiratory, cardiac, and frailty patients at home.
• Learn about optimal locations, opening hours, and service mixes for diagnostic centers
• See equipment specifications and space requirements for imaging, pathology, and testing
• Understand referral pathways and result reporting that connect diagnostics to treatment decisions
• Discover staffing approaches and training requirements for community-based diagnostic teams
• Find out how centers measure access improvements, patient experience, and diagnostic speed
Operational leaders present business models, utilization data, and lessons from establishing diagnostic centers that reduce pressure on hospitals.
• See shared digital platforms that all practices in a network use for consultations, triage, and monitoring
• Learn about pooled procurement that gives PCNs better prices and standardized systems
• Understand training programs that upskill staff across entire networks simultaneously
• Discover data sharing that allows network-wide population health management
• Find out how networks support smaller practices that lack IT capacity for digital transformation
PCN leaders present examples of shared digital infrastructure enabling better care while reducing individual practice burden.
• Learn about adoption support packages from AHSNs and national programs
• See frameworks for adapting innovations from one context to another
• Understand funding mechanisms that support system-wide implementation
• Discover evaluation approaches that prove innovations work before wider rollout
• Find out how to engage reluctant organizations and build momentum for change
National program leaders and sites that successfully adopted innovations share practical guidance on spreading good practice across NHS organizations.
The Innovating NHS Systems Congress 2026
- Digital investment that pays for itself: how to commission technology that delivers the 2% annual productivity improvement the Medium Term Planning Framework requires. Covers NHS App adoption, onboarding to the Federated Data Platform, and the Single Patient Record, which patients are expected to view through the NHS App from 2028.
- Earned autonomy in practice: : a new wave of NHS Foundation Trusts is being authorised, with the ambition that every NHS provider is a Foundation Trust by 2035. The first Integrated Health Organisations — Foundation Trusts holding the whole health budget for a local population — have been designated and become operational in 2027. This session covers what that means for how innovation is bought and scaled.
- Delivering the Neighbourhood Health Framework: the Framework published on 17 March 2026 sets ten core steps for Integrated Care Boards and local government during 2026/27, leading to local Neighbourhood Health Plans for 2027/28. The government has committed to 120 Neighbourhood Health Centres by 2030 and 250 by 2035. This session covers what the first movers have learned.
- Medicines and pharmacy: digital prescribing, medicines optimisation and the expanding clinical role of community pharmacy in reducing pressure on general practice.
The GIANT Health Conversation.
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In the weeks before The Innovating NHS Systems Congress, GIANT Health is publishing short filmed conversations with the panel chairs and speakers on this year's themes. Follow GIANT Health on LinkedIn to watch them.
Who is this conference for?
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The Innovating NHS Systems Congress is for senior leaders, policymakers and decision-makers in the NHS and its partner organisations. It is built around what those leaders have to deliver right now: the 10 Year Health Plan for England, the Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026/27 to 2028/29, the Neighbourhood Health Framework, and the transition of Integrated Care Boards into strategic commissioners. Attendees leave with policy detail, working case studies and the contacts to follow up on both.
For NHS leaders and policymakers, the Congress is where the next phase of system development gets debated with the people delivering it: frontline clinicians, digital leads, commissioners and innovators. The sessions concentrate on moving care out of hospital, on prevention, and on the shift from analogue to digital — the three shifts the 10 Year Health Plan is built on.
For sponsors and delivery partners, the Congress puts your team in front of the people who now hold the budget. As Integrated Care Boards become strategic commissioners they are being told to shape provider markets actively and to use competitive processes where these help. That makes 2026 and 2027 the window in which supplier relationships are formed.
Attendees leave with practical methods for scaling what works and for meeting the efficiency targets they are held to. The room brings together healthcare, policy and industry, and the discussion is candid.
GIANT's role
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The Innovating NHS Systems Congress brings Integrated Care Board leaders and healthcare innovators into the same room for a day. Book your place.
Where the system stands now: Clinical Commissioning Groups gave way to Integrated Care Boards in 2022. Four years on, the structure is changing again. Six new Integrated Care Boards were created by merger on 1 April 2026 and further mergers follow on 1 April 2027. NHS England is being abolished, with the Health Bill 2026-27 completing its House of Commons stages on 8 September 2026 and legal abolition targeted for April 2027. Integrated Care Systems still bring the NHS, local authorities and community organisations together, but the organisations doing it are fewer, larger and leaner. The Innovating NHS Systems Congress is where that is worked through in public.
Join us to witness the evolving conversation, ensuring the ICS achieves its purpose through the lens of innovation.