25.06.15
Variation in commissioning outcomes ‘unacceptable’
NHS England’s director of commissioning support services strategy Bob Ricketts CBE said that the current degree of variation in commissioning outcomes across the country is “unacceptable” and there needs to be much smarter, data-driven commissioning.
During one of the last sessions on day one at the Commissioning Show, Ricketts, who has been in the NHS for more than 30 years, said he couldn’t remember a time “more challenging for commissioners”.
“The biggest thing for me is that the service model whether it is in secondary care, primary, specialist, you name it, feels very much stretched and past their sell-by date,” he said.
“I get pretty upset around variation, especially around outcomes, but if you look at the degree of variation it really is unacceptable. A key enabler of excellent commissioning is excellent commissioning support.”
He stated that the commissioning support Lead Provider Framework (LPF), which was launched in February, will help deliver this. Also, by the end of August it is expected that 80 CCGs will be using LPF. However, it can be used by other public sector bodies and local authorities.
“We have left it as flexible as possible and, after a really difficult accreditation process, we have nine high-quality providers, he said. This includes six CSUs as Central Southern, South West and South CSUs have merged. But two – Yorkshire & Humber CSU and North West CSU – did not meet the accreditation requirement, as reported by NHE earlier this year.
“In terms of quality each of these should be able to do everything from back office to needs assessment all the way through to outcomes-based commissioning and contracting,” said Ricketts.
“We are providing a lot of support, standardised evidence-based documentation, pretty robust contracts from a commissioning perspective. We are encouraging people to go for longer-term partnership contracts. I really think it is a bad idea to opt for short-term contracts. I think the best thing to do is to go for a longer term approach.
“I think we all have to accept this is going to be a real year of transition for commissioners and staff in the system.”
Full coverage of this session and the entire Health + Care and Commissioning Show will be in the July/August edition of NHE.