All CCGs and local authorities must be in financial balance by the end of 2017, and CCGs “will additionally be expected to deliver savings by tackling unwarranted variation in demand”.
If they don’t meet their deficit goals, funding will not be given and sanctions will be applied. To measure their progress, both financial and clinical, will be analysed through a CCG Assessment Framework (CCG scorecard) from 2016/17.
All CCGs and local authorities must be in financial balance by the end of 2017, and CCGs “will additionally be expected to deliver savings by tackling unwarranted variation in demand”.
If they don’t meet their deficit goals, funding will not be given and sanctions will be applied. To measure their progress, both financial and clinical, will be analysed through a CCG Assessment Framework (CCG scorecard) from 2016/17.
This will be part of a Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) that all local authorities and clinical commissioning groups must create.
The STPs will be a “truly place-based plan” and become the single application and approval process for being accepted onto programmes with transformational funding for 2017/18 onwards, in order to reduce the time spent applying and doing paperwork.
In terms of allocations, NHS England has set firm three year allocations for CCGs, followed by two indicative years, in order to support long-term planning.
“For 2016/17, CCG allocations will rise by an average of 3.4%, and we will make good on our commitment that no CCG will be more than 5% below its target funding level,” the report read.
“To provide CCGs with a total place-based understanding of all commissioned spend, alongside allocations for CCG commissioned activities, we will also publish allocations for primary care and specialized commissioned activity,” it stated.
By March 2016, the local contracts must be signed, and just one month later by April 2016, the plans need to be agreed by NHS England and NHS improvement. The “most compelling and credible STPs will secure the earliest additional funding” one year later, from April 2017.
Jim Mackey, chief executive designate of NHS Improvement, said: “Now is the time to stabilise hospital performance and finances so we can give the NHS a firm footing to make the necessary improvements.
“We also need to look seriously at what can be done to realise the long-term improvements needed at a local level and to get on with making changes happen so that patients can rely on strong and sustainable services.”
