28.09.15
Monitor reveals governance and structural details of NHS Improvement
Further details of NHS Improvement, the agency name for the recently announced Monitor-NHS TDA merger, have been unveiled ahead of Monitor’s board meeting on 30 September.
Its board meeting papers have revealed the programme structure of the merger, set to be in operation from April 2016. At the top of its power structure will sit a Monitor/TDA board and ministers from the Department of Health, to whom NHS Improvement’s chair, Ed Smith, will report.
Smith will oversee executive teams and an ‘Integration Steering Group’ made up of senior executives from Monitor and TDA. They will be responsible for the overall integrated vision and business objectives of the agency as well as forming organisational measures against new objectives. The group will also organise the business model and target operating model along with its impact assessment.
They will be led by an integration director accountable for the project outcomes and delivery with the help of a joint working group.
The joint working group will co-ordinate the project management office, responsible for the early integration opportunities and core business continuity.
Management work will be steered by organisational designs based on “integrated oversight and support system and improvement methodology”. The office will be responsible for estates and IT system in terms of the agency’s infrastructure, governance design, internal financial resource planning, HR processes, sector and partner engagement and transitions of new functions.
NHS Improvement’s timetable outlined a critical path set to run from September to May. Between September and December, the design of the agency’s core structure and methodology will be drafted. From January to the end of March, the oversight system will be finalised and implemented alongside the staff transition process. The agency plans to go live between April and May.
New leadership arrangements will also be established from now until the end of March ahead of the merger’s operations, during which the transition of new functions will also take place.
By the end of December it will launch 2016-17 planning guidance to trusts and foundation trusts.
Core business, staff and stakeholder engagement will continue throughout the whole timeline along with ongoing integration processes.
The agency’s leads and their counterparts have also been unveiled, with Monitor and TDA employees working together to lead each work stream. See the full list below:
Click on the image to enlarge it.
NHS Improvement was created to support providers to improve the quality and efficiency of services, especially in terms of achieving a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ CQC ratings and reducing the special measures list.
Monitor’s board paper ahead of this week’s meeting said: “The principal focus for NHS Improvement will be to drive and support both urgent operational improvement at the frontline and the long-term sustainability of the healthcare system, working collaboratively with partners to achieve this.
“Alongside that, NHS Improvement will be the healthcare sector regulator.”
The agency will support the alignment of patient safety priorities across the system, the development of more effective and better supported boards and leaders, the provision of locally-owned improvement methods and the delivery of sustainable performance standards – including better financial control and higher standards of governance.
It will collaborate “highly” with NHS England and other partners to ensure that the payment system promotes quality and efficiency and that rules on procurement, choice and competition operate to “incentivise system behaviours” in the best interest of patients.
Finally, the agency intends to adopt an economy-wide approach to ensure sustainable healthcare services across the board.
(Top image c. Dominic Lipinski, PA Images)