ICPs are much more than a document of care. The ICP system of care encompasses how care is organised, co-ordinated and governed.

The implementation of ICPs will improve the quality of mental health services by focusing the attention of local care providers on key steps along the journey of care. The most important aspect of ICPs is the recording, analysing and acting on variances, allowing the comparison of planned care with care actually given and enabling the implementation of continuous quality improvement.

The development of ICPs in mental health services offers new opportunities for quality improvement which are under the control of local agencies, whether from NHS Scotland, local authorities or voluntary organisations.

ICPs allow local services to assess their own practice and are the tools that help drive the redesign of services to meet the assessed needs of service users (and their informal carers) and to facilitate closer working in collaboration with other agencies to deliver a co-ordinated service.