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The NICE way of supporting STPS

Nicola Bent, programme director of system engagement at NICE, on how her organisation is helping health and care bodies develop sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) at a local level.

Our evidence-based guidance plays an important role in improving the health and wellbeing of people accessing frontline services. We work with health and social care  professionals, partnership organisations and at a local level to do this effectively within the health and care system. With the pressures the NHS is facing, partnership working is vital and the way forward. It’s a key element for the sustainability of high-quality services within health and social care – so much so that it’s formed STPs.  

STPs are becoming integral to the delivery of services at a local level, with health and social care organisations coming together, in some cases for the first time. We’re working towards an environment and culture where health bodies and local authorities are working collaboratively with a shared vision and purpose: to deliver high-quality care. To do this effectively, organisations like NICE must support STPs by providing help and advice. As a key national body, this is something we’re already doing. 

When STPs developed their plans, it was clear that each one was different. They were at varying stages of maturity of relationships between local organisations, their capacity to deal with normal operational business and their large-scale transformations varied. Some had progressed with their goals whilst others were still just starting out, forging new relationships with local partners. At NICE, we carried out a review of the plans and some common themes emerged. We recognised that for many STPs there was a focus on: 

• Preventing ill health to reduce the demand on health and care services
• Enhancing primary care and integrating it with social care and community services to help keep people well and out of hospital
• Standardising acute hospital care to ensure it is of good quality and services are located where they are needed
• Improving the quality of care and access to services for people with long-term conditions such as cancer and mental health illness
• Strong finance and efficiency 

These themes formed a big part of our support for STPs. We’ve been able to develop a tailored package to help each footprint progress with their work, through offering a dedicated member of our field team (a group of specialists who work on behalf of NICE with organisations across the UK and Northern Ireland) to work with STP leads and their organisations. As part of this offer of support, we’re able to show areas how to take our guidance, advice and quality standards and implement this into their work. 

In each case, the NICE field team will advise, support and connect with local STP leaders and organisations to support the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care. Ultimately, this will support with bridging the three main gaps highlighted in the Five Year Forward View. These include the challenges the NHS is facing with funding and efficiency, working to ensure services are of the same quality across the country, and helping to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation. We’re also able to help services plan and deliver on quality assurance, develop and evaluate new care models and share best practice and learning with each other.

As well as all this, an important part of our work is introducing STPs to specialist departments both within NICE, but also with other organisations and networks. Good partnership working is key for STPs to work successfully, which is why this is a key component of the package we’re able to offer along with our expertise. 

Our work is already underway as we’re having conversations with local areas and their STP leaders. Our field team experts are discussing what support they might need and offering them help to use our guidance, quality standards and advice to help improve services for patients and their families. We’re also looking for suggestions of other areas across NICE where we could offer more support for STPs, and there are exciting opportunities being explored in partnership with other national organisations. The field team is working with the regional offices and centres of Public Health England to deliver support on cardiovascular disease prevention. Conversations are also happening with NHS England RightCare and the NICE Medicines and Technologies Programme about support for medicines optimisation, which is a feature of the STP workstream on finance and efficiency. 

We know STPs are not going away anytime soon. They’re here to stay, and we remain keen to play our part in supporting them to achieve their ambitions and offering help where we can.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

W: www.nice.org.uk