NHS England

(asked on 14th July 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, who was involved in the recent NHS England consultation events on the prioritisation of funding; when the prioritisation of funding will be published; and what the outcome of those consultation events was.


Answered by
Dan Poulter Portrait
Dan Poulter
This question was answered on 1st September 2014

The Government’s Mandate to NHS England sets the overall objectives for the National Health Service in England. It is then for NHS England and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to decide how to prioritise funding to meet those objectives.

NHS England has responsibility for CCG allocations and these decisions have been taken independently of government. The allocations formula is based on independent academic research and the independent advice of a committee of experts, the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation.

Officials from the Department meet regularly with those from NHS England to talk to them an ongoing basis on a range of issues relating to the NHS, including finance. Likewise, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State meets regularly with both the Chief Executive and the Chair of NHS England.

NHS England Publications Gateway function was established on 1 April 2013 to ensure that all NHS England national communications to NHS commissioners are fit for purpose in terms of content and policy governance. Review and approval from the Patients and Public Partnerships Lead and from the national Stakeholder Team for all publications is mandatory so that consultation proposals, any stakeholder engagement (internal and external), and responses accord with principles of better regulation and existing Government Code of Practice on Consultation. This is to ensure that the NHS England's extensive consultation exercises and responses follow best practice in terms of public consultation and engagement.

The prioritisation of funding was published on the NHS England website:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/bm-item7.pdf

for the NHS England board meeting in December 2013. The board paper entitled “Allocation of resources to NHS England and the commissioning sector for 2014/15 and 2015/16” summarises the consultation at paragraph 4:

“In light of NHS England’s commitment to transparency and the significant continuing interest in allocations policy reflected in correspondence and FOI enquiries, the review team has held four regional workshops on allocations over the last few months which have been attended by nearly 400 representatives from CCGs, local authorities and providers. There has also been ongoing dialogue with the Commissioning Assembly, and a Finance and Planning subgroup has recently been formed to collaborate with NHS England’s finance leadership on the linked topics of allocations and the proposed strategic planning programme”.

Reticulating Splines