This Involve Yorkshire & Humber seminar was designed to equip participants with up to date information about dramatic NHS reforms and how the sector can position itself.
Participants all received our new Guide to NHS transition in Yorkshire and the Humber and Influencing the new health system in a local area (published by Regional Voices, NAVCA and NCVO.)
Health and wellbeing boards - what are they and what do they mean for you? (Paul Moore, Health Inequalities Policy and Partnership Manager, Department of Health, Yorkshire & the Humber)
The new NHS Commissioning landscape (Colin McIlwain, Assistant Director, Commissioning Development, NHS North of England)
The new structures are complex and constantly evolving. The Health and Social Care Bill is still passing through Parliament but the changes to the architecture are already underway.
Building relationships with new commissioners and with Health and Wellbeing Boards is crucial. The sector will need to be able to demonstrate its value and worth to a new audience.
Regional Voices continues to advocate for voluntary sector places on Health and Wellbeing Boards – both with the House of Lords and with the NHS Future Forum. We also need to work with LINKS and emerging HealthWatch groups.
Personalisation, Any Qualified Provider and a general move towards larger scale tendering are other key themes the voluntary sector needs to be aware of.
A number of briefings on NHS reform can be found on the Regional Voices website.
Health and Wellbeing Boards will develop Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies – the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) will inform this. The voluntary sector needs to play a more active role in contributing to JSNA to inform local commissioning plans.
Health and Wellbeing Board core membership is being kept deliberately tight, particularly while they’re in shadow form. The voluntary sector should seek to build alliances with the range of members, not just Healthwatch (including elected members and Directors of Adult Services).
It’s important that the sector looks to influence the partnerships that will sit underneath Health and Wellbeing Boards as well as the Boards themselves – these will have cross-departmental influence in local authorities (such as housing, planning and transport).
The sector Needs to work on better defining and promoting it's strategic influencing or voice role, beyond its role as service provider.
There are currently 24 emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Yorkshire and the Humber but these are evolving. Many mirror local authority boundaries but there are, for example, three in Leeds.
It’s likely that CCGs will buy in their commissioning support from Commissioning Support Units (evolving from PCTs).
Health and Wellbeing Boards will play a hugely significant role – CCGs will need to take account of the the HWB’s Joint Strategy when developing their commissioning plans.
The voluntary sector needs to take a two pronged approach up to April 2013 – continuing to work with PCT clusters and developing relationships with emerging CCGs at the same time.
Involve Yorkshire & Humber runs a programme of seminars to help the voluntary sector to get the facts and what they mean. Contact us if you would like to be told directly about forthcoming seminars.