Commercial Capabilities for the NHS:Delivering Quality, Efficient Services

"Our aim is to create the largest social enterprise sector in the world... Monitor will become a stronger economic regulator to ensure that services provided are efficient and effective – and that every area of the country has the NHS services it needs to provide a comprehensive service to all."
"An independent and accountable NHS Commissioning Board will be established to drive quality improvements through national guidance and standards to inform GP-led commissioning. The Board will allocate resources according to the needs of local areas, and lead specialised commissioning.. we are shifting power decisively towards patients and clinicians."

Rt. Hon. Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health at the Launch of the Health White Paper July 2010

Govtoday presents Commercial Capabilities for the NHS – Delivering Quality, Efficient Services Conference and Exhibition, which will be held at Church House Conference Centre on 15th February 2011.

During the past 10 years, there has been an emphasis on NHS growth and investment. In October 2010, the Spending Review confirmed the Government’s commitment to increase health spending every year. Spending will increase by 0.4 per cent in real terms over the four-year period to 2014-15 - £104 billion this year - both capital and current spending - rising to £114 billion by the end of the four-year period. There will also be additional investment to support social care, increasing to £2 billion per year by 2014-15.

However, with the administration budget cut by 33 per cent, arm’s length bodies reduced from 18 to 10 and £20 billion of annual efficiency savings to be found over the next four years to be ploughed back into essential NHS services, this remains an extremely challenging period for the NHS.

The Health White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ published in July 2010, set out the vision for NHS reform - a service configured to deliver increased quality of services, whilst developing a patient-led service, focused on local empowerment, clinical leadership and a sustained emphasis on improving and rewarding outcomes - ‘driving up standards, supporting professional responsibility and delivering better value for money and ultimately a healthier nation’.

This involves a radical change in the health service; stopping the top-down reconfigurations of the NHS, empowering health professionals and providers to take ownership and leadership and be more accountable for the results they achieve, reducing duplication and administration, diverting these resources to front-line care.

Reinforcing this requirement for a radical re-think in the way that the NHS operates, the Coalition Government has built upon the move to develop ‘Commercial Skills for the NHS’ published in March 2010, alongside the Budget Report and the ‘NHS Operating Framework in England for 2010/11’. The new ‘Procurement guide for commissioners of NHS-funded services’ published in July 2010 – to be considered as part of the Revised ‘NHS Operating Framework for 2010/11’ – is now effective for all procurement activity commencing from August 2010, and will shape NHS capability and delivery going forward.

Commercial Capabilities for the NHS – Delivering Quality, Efficient Services Conference and Exhibition examines the policy issues and practical solutions ahead for those in the NHS, as a result of the reform – highlighting those areas of best practice required in effective commissioning, procurement and performance development.