Tara Marshall: Overall Winner at ICIC26 for Integrated Care in Practice

Attending the International Conference on Integrated Care 2026 (ICIC26) and receiving the Best Overall Integrated Care Award has been both a professional milestone and a deeply personal moment of reflection, one that took me by surprise!

These Hands Academy was never created because I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was created because I did not want important work to be left behind.

When the NHS stepped away from the work I had been leading, I faced a choice: let it end or find a way to carry it forward. These Hands Academy was born from that decision, a commitment to continue work that mattered and to ensure people were better connected to the care they need.

Since then, we have supported more than 3,500 people to connect more effectively into their care system through an approach designed to be simple, direct and profoundly impactful.

The Connected Care Programme focused largely on people living in care homes, particularly residential homes, where staff know their residents deeply but often rely on overstretched external services to respond when something changes. Too often, those concerns are not heard quickly enough, and escalation can default to emergency services where clinicians may never have met the individual.

So we took a different approach.

Rather than redesigning pathways, we introduced a proactive model that strengthens how care home teams communicate when they are worried about someone. At its core, the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) was embedded in settings where it had not previously been accessible, connecting care home teams to a shared clinical language that could turn long conversations into recognised and actionable numbers across the system.

This work brings together digital innovation to enable flow, workforce development through training, and system-wide collaboration, not as separate initiatives, but as a measurable implementation lifecycle to enable cultural change.

At its heart, this is about people.

Not pathways.
Not processes.
People.

The impact has been significant. Over the past three years, we have seen a shift away from default escalation to emergency services and towards more meaningful engagement with GPs who know individuals well. This has contributed to reductions in avoidable admissions and, importantly, a reduction in deconditioning, helping people thrive in the place they call home.

Staff confidence has grown. Relationships have strengthened. Communication has improved.

But more than that, this work reflects years of experience within systems where the gaps are visible, where people can fall through spaces that were never designed with them fully in mind. This approach is about closing those gaps in a way that works in practice, not just in theory.

The judges described the work as follows:

“This paper demonstrates how digital innovation, workforce development, and system-wide collaboration can be brought together to strengthen integrated care across an entire system.

At its heart, this work is about building confidence. Confidence in staff, in systems, and in the ability to deliver safe, coordinated care at scale. It shows how digital tools are embedded alongside training, support, and cultural change, rather than introduced in isolation.

The programme has delivered clear and measurable impact, including improvements in patient safety, more efficient use of resources, and stronger workforce capability. It also reflects the importance of sustained partnership working in making integrated care a reality.

What is particularly striking is that this work comes from a smaller, highly innovative organisation. It reminds us that leadership in integrated care does not only come from large systems. Often, it is organisations like this that move quickly, test new approaches, and help larger systems adapt and change.

The judges described this as a mature and highly credible example of integrated care in practice, highlighting the strength of the evidence, the real-world impact, and the way the programme brings together people, process, and technology in a coherent way.”

Hearing this, in an international forum, is incredibly meaningful.

Because this work has not always followed the direction of travel. It has often meant holding a line, believing in a different way of doing things, and continuing even when it would have been easier to stop.

In many ways, it feels like sailing against the tide.

When you are offshore, you carry responsibility for everything: reading the conditions, adjusting course, fixing what breaks, and keeping the boat moving forward. Building this work has felt much the same.

Being part of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) changes that perspective.

The conference created space not just to present work, but to listen, reflect, and connect with others who are equally committed to improving how care is delivered. It was a reminder that there is a wider community: people working across different systems and countries who are also challenging, adapting, and pushing for something better.

That sense of shared purpose matters.

This award is not just validation. It is affirmation.

We knew, when we started this, that it would need time: time to create change, measure and inform. This award signifies that it’s now time to share, inform others and help them grow their systems, and that this approach to integrated care is not only credible, but necessary.

After many years of working within systems where the cracks are visible, this moment represents an opportunity to leave a legacy, one that others can take forward, adapt, and continue to build.

Because integrated care, at its core, is not about pathways or processes.

It is about people.