27.05.16
‘Careful management’ needed to control specialised commissioning spending
Controlling NHS spending on specialised commissioning will not be possible without ‘careful management’, NHS England’s board has said.
In papers discussed at yesterday’s meeting, the board said that implementing the recommendations of a recent National Audit Office report, which warned that specialised commissioning spending is ‘out of control’, would be a challenge.
It said that living within the current financial envelope for specialised spending, which is set to grow by 4.8% in 2017-18, 4.5% in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and 5% in 2020-21, would require “careful management of the financial pressures”.
As part of its new strategic framework for specialised commissioning, it said that specialised commissioning must follow the integrated care model set out in the Five Year Forward View and that there must be an end to the ‘binary choice’ of local or national commissioning.
NHS England’s recommendations include pooling CCG spending and introducing joint responsibility between commissioners and providers.
The board said that they expected sustainability and transformation plan (STP) footprints to set out their priorities for service change by the first quarter of 2016-17, and implement these plans in their contracting by the end of the year.
However, papers at the same meeting said that few STPs are at the ‘scale and pace’ required to deliver changes.
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