Kings Fund 6 February 2020
- Collaboration is promoted as a key tool for improving health services. Visits to CCGs (South Tyneside, Tameside and Glossop, Bradford district and Craven) suggest that collaborative planning arrangements at place level – on footprints that are often approximately co-terminous with local authorities – will be important in the future.
- This report explores the implications of new ways of working for the development of integrated care systems, how NHS England and NHS Improvement’s regional teams operate, and wider ways of working among NHS national bodies.
Recent national policy has emphasised the importance of
collaboration within local health and care systems. These developments have
major implications for how commissioning operates in practice. Without a national
blueprint for collaborative commissioning structures a range of approaches are
developing in localities across England.
This report explores the implications of new ways of working
for the development of integrated care systems, how NHS England and NHS
Improvement’s regional teams operate, and wider ways of working among NHS
national bodies.
Findings were based on stakeholder interviews at two CCGs
(South Tyneside, Tameside and Glossop) and a group of CCGs (Bradford district
and Craven) and a roundtable discussion. Collectively their ideas add up to a paradigm
shift in thinking about their role and how to drive improvement in health and
care services and tangible changes in how these commissioners deliver their
functions throughout the commissioning cycle with implications for strategic
planning, procurement and performance monitoring.
Formal changes to organisational structures and governance
arrangements are only one part of their change processes, strong relationships and
mutual understanding between key stakeholders are central to these new ways of
working.
Their experience suggests that collaborative planning
arrangements at place level – on footprints that are often approximately
co-terminous with local authorities – will be important in the future and
should be supported.
