A Movement Built Around People – Reflections from ICIC26:

People – that’s the first word that comes to mind.

Over a thousand people. 52 countries. Several floors of the ICC. Speakers from all around the world. An extraordinary volume of ideas, experiences, and perspectives, all centred on one simple but profound principle: people.

So often in health and care, we talk about pathways, strategies, and systems. We talk about doing to. But the true message of integrated care, felt throughout this conference, is about working with and learning from. It’s about being genuinely integrated, not just structurally, but relationally.

What struck me most was the openness. The willingness of system leaders to listen, to hear what’s happening on the ground, to welcome innovation, and to elevate it. That matters, because it’s only when those voices are heard that we can begin to design systems that move from being exclusive and fragmented to truly inclusive and fit for everyone.

I was completely blindsided by the award: me, a small person trying to make a difference in a big sea. To have my work recognised, validated, and embraced on an international stage… it was hard to put into words and deeply personal.

I’ve spent 30 years as a nurse running down corridors, trying to gather enough information about the person I’m about to see. And yet, the further you are from hospital, the harder it becomes to access that information. Yet that’s exactly where good decisions matter most.

The more we know, the better we can act.

But more importantly, the person themselves must be part of that conversation.

Much of our work focuses on care homes. And the reality is, care staff know their residents far better than I ever could when arriving at a hospital front door. My role, and now our role through These Hands Academy, is to listen, to learn, and to enable.

To enable a voice.

A voice that is:

• Heard
• Recognised
• Acted upon

Because care staff hold vital information – information that can change outcomes. Our job is to make sure that information flows. It should not be repeated endlessly, lost or distorted by poor systems, but shared clearly and effectively through digital solutions that actually support the way people work.

Over the past three years, we’ve been working on a programme that we first presented in Dublin and now again at the ICC; for me, it’s my life’s work. These Hands Academy was never created because I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was created because I did not want important work, or the people I’d spent my whole career serving, to be left behind.

A real highlight for me was seeing the launch of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) England Hub at the event, something I very much hope to be part of, and to support the Nine Pillars within it.

This feels like a genuine opportunity for England, and the timing is perfect. It presents a huge opportunity to think about how we approach neighbourhood health. An opportunity to enable people to access health and care on their terms, not ours.

We have so much learning already happening through IFIC. It creates a platform to bring people, ideas and learning together, and to recognise and amplify what’s already working closer to home.

For me personally, it signifies that it’s time for the work we’ve been doing to benefit many more people, not just locally, but internationally, by contributing to a much bigger conversation about what good really looks like.

Because this isn’t just about us.

I was there representing 3,500 people, the workforce behind them, and the many more around them.

The recognition gives us the strength to keep going:

• Through funding challenges
• Through pathway barriers
• Through system complexity

All in pursuit of something simple: helping people live and thrive, in the place they choose, for as long as possible.

Thank you, IFIC, for creating a space where people on the ground are heard and, importantly, valued.