News

Fundamental Review of Allocations Policy – workshops to be held in September 2013 to inform future resource allocations

NHS England is currently reviewing the local allocation of resources across the full range of its responsibilities, covering both allocations to CCGs and the budgets available for direct commissioning functions in area teams.

As part of the review process, we will be holding four regional workshops for CCGs, CSUs, NHS England and other stakeholders to discuss current thinking and to hear their views about the allocations process and proposals for the future.

Half day workshops (am) are planned during September 2013 with further details to be confirmed.

  • 13 September – Leeds
  • 18 September – Birmingham
  • 20 September – Newbury area
  • 23 September – London

If you would like to attend one of these workshops, please reply to: england.finance@nhs.net with the following information:

  • your name
  • job title
  • email address
  • your organisation name
  • the workshop that you wish to attend

4 comments

  1. Jim Kent says:

    Dear Sirs,

    Where were you expecting reps from rural SW to go? Where did the invitations go or were we expected to search for them whilst fitting in demands for feedback to CQC, Monitor and NHS England (twice) during Aug-Sept?

    As there have been so many reports since before the Millennium demonstrating the continual under-funding of rural areas, the least you could to address the imbalance would have been to cater for feedback from Cumbria, East Anglia and Wilts to Cornwall.

    Regards,
    Jim Kent
    (Chair, Dunster PPG)

    Refs: See for example
    1) “Review of evidence on additional costs of delivering services to rural communities” SECTA Partners for change (MSA Ferndale Ltd) (2004) Commissioned by Defra.
    This clearly demonstrates that unit costs for all 10 public services delivered in 26 representative LAs are about 3 times higher in rural areas than they are for the most metropolitan ones.
    2) “Research into diseconomies of scale in delivering health and social care in rural areas” Matrix insight (2009) Commissioned for Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Task Force (SETF)

    This sets out to show how the ‘rural problem’ can be eliminated from the funding of PCTs by combining rural areas with urban ones to form larger functional units. The cost differentials clearly still exist but are no longer a Government funding problem – this has becomes a question of resource allocation within each PCT – the buck has been passed down. If differential rural costs are not covered internally, rural residents consequently have to pay twice: once in taxes and again in the ‘voluntary’ provision of private transport services for patients to reach hospital since many bus services have been withdrawn following loss of LA support.

  2. Jenifer Warner says:

    I’m very concerned that deprived areas will receive less funding. This is likely to exacerbate health inequalities. http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6146

  3. Mike Shaw says:

    It is a pity given the financial implications for the north east and Cumbria that there are no workshops scheduled to take place north of Leeds. In fact it is notable that the choice of locations would appear to reflect a similar bias to the proposals themselves.

  4. Andy Spring says:

    Please would you confirm whether or not the proposed new formula for CCG allocations includes adjustments for deprivation.
    Many thanks
    Andy Spring