22.12.14
NHS England looking for health economies to pioneer Forward View
Health economies looking to pioneer new models of care set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View have six weeks to submit an expression of interest to NHS England.
Recently published planning guidance for the NHS in 2015-16 has shown that NHS England wants a number of health economies that can develop “prototypes” of new care models such as primary and acute care systems, and multispecialty community providers.
The guidance, ‘The Forward View into Action’, says NHS England is looking for areas that have a record of “tangible progress” in new ways of working over the past year, as well as positive relationships between commissioners and providers.
The selected areas will receive investment from the transformation fund, announced earlier this month as part of the chancellor’s autumn statement.
Due to the focus on moving towards new models of care the document says there are few new national requirements for planning in 2015-16. Organisations should only need to “refresh” their plans for 2015-16. However, it stressed commissioners and providers must have “aligned realistic activity and financial assumptions”.
The document also lays out the allocation of commissioning resources for 2015-16 and includes the recently announced £1.98bn of additional funding for frontline health services and to help kick start the transformation agenda set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View.
Of the extra funding £1.5bn has been allocated to frontline health services including primary care, local CCG and specialised services. According to the document every CCG will get real terms budget increase.
On top of that £480m of the extra funding will be used to support transformation in primary care, mental health and local health economies.
NHS England also want to tackle underinvestment in mental health services so CCGs will be expected to use the extra funding to increase funding for local mental health services in real terms next year by at least the level of the CCG’s overall funding growth.
NHS Confederation chief executive, Rob Webster welcomed the guidance and called for "a new, mature relationship between national bodies and the local NHS".
“This guidance is the recipe for making the vision set out in the Five Year Forward View a reality. It brings helpful clarity on some of the next steps, which demand a great deal from our members to ensure delivery," he said.
“This is going to require the right behaviours and culture right throughout the system. The crucial next step is for the national bodies to make sure they play their part in making this happen. It is vital they support local leadership in practice as well as on paper, with a new, mature relationship between national bodies and the local NHS built on trust and respect.
“We are also pleased the guidance recognises that some struggling health economies may have got themselves to a position where they are well placed to move swiftly on new models of care and these areas can apply to be part of the first group to implement these models."
He also welcomed the real terms increased investment in mental health services, calling them of “critical importance” to the future of the health service.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “Today we are allocating extra cash for towns, cities and villages across England to help the local NHS meet the rising demands and changing needs of the patients we’re all here to serve.
“Frontline nurses, doctors and other staff are working incredibly hard, including over this holiday period, but with a growing population and an aging population it’s clear the health service can’t just keep running to catch up. Instead we need to begin to radically reshape the way we care for patients, which is why there is such widespread support and enthusiasm for the NHS Five Year Forward View.”
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