- Click to resize text
- A
- A
- A
- or click for Accessibility
You are here:- Home
- Communications
- News
- World Class Commissioning
Ambitious programme will help improve local health and well-being
NHS Walsall has today published its first ‘assurance’ report for world class commissioning, a ground-breaking health programme designed to deliver significant benefits for local people.
World class commissioning takes best practice from around the world to help Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) match health and care services more closely to local needs, now and in the future. It helps PCTs work with local partners (such as local authorities, GPs and hospitals), as well as the public more widely, to understand these needs and to improve services for local people. This will result in better quality of care, improved health and well-being and a reduction in health inequalities.
Today’s assurance report follows assessment of NHS Walsall’s progress over the first year of working on this programme, It reviews NHS Walsall’s performance in three key areas: its progress on addressing local health priorities, its commissioning capabilities and the effectiveness of its management arrangements.
Because this is such an ambitious programme, PCTs are not expected to score highly in this first year. In common with other PCTs across the country, therefore, NHS Walsall has received an initial assessment of progress, accompanied by detailed guidance and recommendations on areas it must address to help it evolve into a world class organisation. The report notes strengths in the Board’s leadership and NHS Walsall’s Strategy but also highlights the need to enhance progress in areas such as information usage and developing the market in order to meet its goals of improving health and well-being and reducing health inequalities in the local community.
Paul Jennings, Chief Executive for NHS Walsall, said: ‘We welcome this report and the recommendations it contains. World class commissioning will deliver significant benefits for our community over the next few years. For this reason, whilst we are pleased that this first year’s report recognises our progress in local leadership of the NHS and strategy, we are most interested in the recommendations on other areas we can work on to help us continue developing. It is this insight that will help us continue to deliver the best possible health and care services for the people in our community.
As we have previously announced, our new Chief Executive will be starting in March, ready to take us forward with new challenges.
Initiatives such as the Nurse Family Partnership and MyNHS Walsall have highlighted how we can better meet the needs of local people and see an improvement in health through full engagement with local people. We will be working on all these areas, in collaboration with the community, to help us improve the health of local people.”
The full assurance report NHS Walsall is available by clicking here.
ENDS -
‘Commissioning’ is the process through which Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) assess local health needs, identify the services required to best meet those needs, and then buy those services from potential healthcare providers. World class commissioning (WCC) is a new, ground-breaking approach to this task. It takes best practice from this country, and from health systems around the world to help PCTs commission services in the most effective way. It is designed to ensure delivery of better services which are more closely matched to local needs, resulting in better quality of care, improved health and well-being and a reduction in health inequalities.
Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are leading the way in delivering this new approach in practice, as part of their role as leaders of the local NHS. In conjunction with partners, other healthcare providers and the community more widely, they have established strategic plans based on priorities identified through analysis of the long-term health and care needs of their local community. These five-year strategic plans will ensure that resources are allocated in the most effective way possible, resulting in improvements in health of the local population and better services for patients. For more information on world class commissioning, visit: www.dh.gsi.gov.uk/worldclasscommissioning
The assurance process is the means by which PCTs are assessed and given guidance on making progress towards the goals of the world class commissioning programme. The assurance process is designed to be robust and challenging, helping each PCT review progress and identify areas for development. It combines a review of local data, feedback from local audiences, self-assessment and validation through an external panel (including the Strategic Health Authority, the Chief Executive of another PCT, a clinician, a local council representative and an independent international healthcare expert). Because world class commissioning is such an ambitious programme, PCTs are not expected to score highly in this first year.
NHS Walsall is the main NHS body charged with meeting the health needs of the people of the borough of Walsall, West Midlands.
Our vision is:
Health Service, not illness service
Evidence based excellence
Alliances - the key to success
Listening to local people
True choice and accessible services
Hitting the hard targets
