NHS England 21 July 2016
- NHS England has set out a series of actions designed to support the NHS to achieve financial sustainability and improve operational performance.
- A wide-ranging seven-point set of actions is being taken by NHS Improvement, NHS England with the support of the Department of Health and the Care Quality Commission.
- They have:
- allocated an extra £1.8 billion to trusts, with the aim set by NHS Improvement of cutting the combined provider deficit to around £250 million in 2016/17 and the ambition that, in aggregate, the provider position commences 2017/18 in run-rate balance;
- replaced national fines with trust-specific incentives linked to agreed organisation-specific published performance improvement trajectories, so as to kick-start a multi-year recovery and redesign of A&E and elective care;
- agreed ‘financial control totals’ with individual trusts and CCGs, which represent the minimum level of financial performance, against which their boards, governing bodies and chief executives must deliver in 2016/17, and for which they will be held directly accountable;
- introduced new intervention regimes of special measures which will be applied to both trusts and CCGs who are not meeting their financial commitments;
- set new controls to cap the cost of interim managers and to fast track savings from back office, pathology and temporary staffing;
- published the 2015/16 performance ratings for CCGs; and
- launched a two-year NHS planning and contracting round for 2017/18-2018/19, to be completed by December 2016, and linked to agreed STPs.
- The document is described as "the financial reset document" in the NHS Finance report to the NHS England Board meeting 28 July 2016.
