Shropshire Integrated Community Services (ICS)

What is the Integrated Community Service?

The Integrated Community Service (ICS) is a joint service provided by Shropshire Council and Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust. Shropshire Council’s ICS team provide support to people who require support in leaving hospital and in the community.

ICS works proactively within a Care Transfer Hub with partner organisations to promote better patient care. The Care Transfer Hub connects various health and social services to produce an integrated and collaborative approach, to ensure people receive comprehensive support tailored to their needs.

ICS offers advice and support to help you regain your confidence when you return home. Integrated Community Services (ICS) may carry out an assessment to see if their support would be of benefit to you.

From the moment of admission, our multi-agency team works closely with the person, families and professional colleagues to plan their discharge. This proactive approach helps to reduce delays and ensures that everyone is prepared for their discharge from hospital.

The Care Transfer Hub manages different discharge pathways to cater for various people’s needs. We promote a 'Home First' model which prioritises returning patients to their home, whenever possible.

The service also provides an admission avoidance and rapid response service which functions to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital by coordinating care and appropriate support that can be provided in the community, ensuring that people receive the right care at the right time. This service is referred by a clinical professional.

The service operates seven days a week.

Planning a hospital stay? 

If you're due to go into hospital and in receipt of services, you'll need to let the agencies which support you know in plenty of time so that they suspend their support until you're home again. You'll also need to let us and the Department for Works and Pensions know if you're likely to be in hospital for more than four weeks. More information about how your benefits may be affected while in hospital can be found in our 'Money matters' section.