The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)
This Government are backing the NHS’s own plan for the future, the Five Year Forward View, and funding it with an additional £8 billion a year in real terms by the end of the Parliament. Delivering that vision relies on health and care organisations working together at a local level, which the NHS is taking forward through sustainability and transformation partnerships. These are clinically led, locally driven—and can deliver real improvements for patients. The independent King’s Fund has called STPs “the right approach for improving care and meeting the needs of an ageing population”.
In the spring Budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £325 million of capital funding to invest in local areas who have come together and developed robust plans.
Today, I announce the provisional allocation of this first tranche of capital funding. From a large number of proposals, 25 schemes have been selected in total from across the 15 STP areas as follows:
Greater Manchester
Lancashire and South Cumbria
Dorset
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and Luton
Derbyshire
West, North and East Cumbria
Nottinghamshire
Suffolk and North East Essex
Herefordshire and Worcestershire
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw
Mid and South Essex
Norfolk and Waveney
Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West
North East London
Further detail on the schemes that will receive funding is available as an online attachment.
In order to qualify for this first tranche of funding, these areas were all judged to be sufficiently advanced on the basis of the STP assessment data (that NHS England will publish on Friday). This data allows patients, managers and the public to see how their STP area is performing across three themes: hospital performance, patient-focused change, and transformation. Each theme is underpinned by key metrics, such as performance in emergency and elective care, safety and leadership. It is a mechanism by which organisations, patients and the public can hold their STP to account.
The quality and diversity of proposals put forward show that the NHS is working innovatively to identify opportunities for transformation in the delivery of health services across their local footprint. The Government are fully committed to supporting this process and the schemes selected for funding will make a substantial difference to the performance of local health systems.
Final confirmation of this funding will be subject to the successful approval of business cases. Organisations receiving funding will also be required to demonstrate that their proposals form part of a robust capital and estates strategy which maximises all opportunities for generating receipts from surplus land disposals within their STP area. We will also expect them to agree a clear delivery plan for generating these receipts. This process will be supported by a central team of strategic estates advisers
The Government remain committed to considering a further round of local proposals for funding in the autumn Budget, subject to the same rigorous value for money tests. In considering these bids we will look to STPs to demonstrate further progress on generating funding from disposals receipts and other sources of finance.
Attachments can be viewed at:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statements/Commons/2017-07-19/HCWS71/.
[HCWS71]