Introduction Its understood in the UK that integrated care is well-placed to address the prevalence of chronic conditions, obesity, and mental ill-health in children and young people (CYP) living in minoritized and economically marginalised communities in high-income countries. The Sparkbrook Childrens Zone is an example of a place-based integrated health and social care service situated in a super-diverse community in a large post-industrial city, developed to support children and young people. To realise its potential, its important to understand the organisational and infrastructural requirements of a service combining clinical and non-clinical staff from a range of organisations and backgrounds. This will improve the current service offer and inform the design and delivery of similar initiatives. Materials and Methods We conducted a qualitative exploration of the experiences of staff delivering the service and used a directed content analysis to populate and present the results within the Sustainable integrated chronic care model for multi-morbidity: delivery, financing, and performance (SELFIE) framework. The analysis presented here focuses on the domains of Leadership and Governance, Workforce, Financing, and Information and Research. Results A total of 14 staff were interviewed including clinicians from primary and secondary care, social care providers, local voluntary groups, and school-based family mentors. Staff described the gap between integration at system level and the absence of process and support to deliver a unified health and social care service in real-world environments. The benefits of supportive and accessible leadership, and an open, learning environment were described, as was the trust developed through meaningful consultations with local communities. The lack of administrative support was noticeable, particularly when managing a workforce drawn from multiple organisations, as was the lack of secure funding and the need for reliable long-term evidence to inform decisions on design and funding. Conclusions Despite decades of structural reform aimed at integrating the health and social care system in the UK, there was a surprising lack of system-level practical support for delivering a place-based integrated health and care service. The balance remained to be struck between the need to demonstrate benefits for short term funding cycles and the reliability of evidence being gathered from a complex and evolving service

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was funded by Birmingham Womens and Childrens Foundation NHS Trust and Birmingham Health Partners

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The science, technology, engineering and mathematics ethical review committee of the University of Birmingham (UK) gave ethical approval for this work

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