The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) and the Department of Health have published their detailed agreement showing how the NHS CB will drive improvements in the health of England’s population through its commissioning of certain public health services.
The agreement sets out the outcomes to be achieved in exercising these public health functions and provides ring-fenced funding for the NHS CB to commission public health services.
The services commissioned as part of this agreement are those where there is, for example, alignment with national clinical pathways and added value of central commissioning.
The services included in the agreement are:
- National immunisation programmes
- National routine screening programmes (non-cancer)
- National routine cancer screening programmes
- Children’s public health services from pregnancy to age 5
- Child Health Information Systems
- Public health services for people in prison and other places of detention
- Sexual Assault Referral Centres
The agreement provides the NHS CB with £1.8bn from the public health budget for these programmes, in addition to other funding provided for public health in primary care.
The agreement sets out how the NHS CB is accountable for the successful delivery of these programmes, and arrangements for expert support from Public HealthEngland. It provides service specifications which include the public health evidence and advice needed to support effective commissioning.
Full details of the agreement and service specifications are available on the Department of Health’s website.
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This is bland information. For example which national immunisation programmes have been Commissioned thus far and which organisations have been successful in winning them? Which organisations have made bids? What are the criteria they need to address?
I should like to hear how the organisation is responding to the very general statements made in the agreement between the Department for Health and the NHS CB.
Hi Ron
Thank you for your comment. This agreement is about the outcomes that the NHS CB will achieve through commissioning of services, rather than their provision. The service specifications will be used by the NHS CB in assessing potential providers of these services and monitoring the performance of those providers.
The agreement is designed to be the technical and legal means to pass commissioning responsibility to the NHS CB for these programmes along with the evidence base for how these programmes should be delivered, which is what the service specifications aim to do.
The NHS CB is taking expert advice from public health leaders to inform how it will commission these services. The wider duties that apply to the NHS CB under the Health and Social Care Act also apply to this agreement, so for example includes the duties around patient choice and involvement. The public health programmes currently commissioned will all continue under the agreement. The services will have added value from central commissioning by the NHS CB and expert support from Public Health England.
Kind regards
Simon
Hi Simon,
In the final paragraph, you mention that currently commissioned public health programmes will continue to be supported under this agreement. However, in the locality in which I work, provider contracts are due to finish as of 31st March 2013, and whilst public health (those moving to LA) are busy putting out their provider ITTs for 2013 and beyond, my colleagues and I in cancer screening are getting rather nervous that nobody seems to have been charged with the responsibility for delivering coverage in the boroughs we currently work. Does the NCB have budget allocation for the delivery of local initiatives that will ensure target coverage is achieved for these programmes?
Hi Matthew
Thank you for your comment. The NHS CB has developed commissioning models for these services and its Local Area Teams will administer them. Directors of Public Health in local authorities will challenge and advise the NHS CB on its performance. Immunisation and screening coordinators will continue to play a vital part in commissioning these services. They will be based within Local Area Teams of the NHS CB and their work will be funded by PHE. Now that the Section 7A agreement has been finalised, Local Area Teams of the NHS CB can expedite their work in commissioning screening programmes on a local footprint, working to central commissioning models which ensure equality of service across England.
Kind regards
Simon
Thanks for that.
I understand that national service specs have been developed for the providers of screening across the 3 programmes, but to go a little further, can you confirm it is NHS CB who will be responsible for developing and implementing local initiatives, such as the provision of cancer screening outreach or social marketing campaigns?
Whereas Public Health have historically held the delivery of such work within their remit, going forward there seems to be a belief that they will no longer be responsible for this (despite potentially retaining a degree of accountability). Working in Central London, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that a high level of intense local work must be carried out to meet the needs of a particularly challenging population. I guess my concern is, that nationally developed service specifications focusing on the provision of screening, containing very little detail about how coverage will be achieved, will result in underused and less effective programmes in the area in which I currently work.
From your previous reply, am I correct to think that the CB will be commissioning bespoke work to negate this risk, and it will be their local area teams that will deliver it?
Thanks again for your time.
Matt