Health
This section provides information and news on the reform, commissioning and delivery of publically-funded health services in England, relevant to the voluntary and community sector.
See our personalisation page for information on adult social care.
The voluntary and community sector has always had a particular emphasis on health. We deliver £3.39 billion in publically-funded health services, yet this accounts for only 43% of our work in health. As such, we represent a sizeable and vibrant health economy beyond the bounds of the Department of Health and NHS funding.
If you want support or advice on the voluntary sector's role in health, contact Oliver Reichardt, or follow Oliver on twitter @oliverreichardt.
In this section
- Latest news and comment
- New briefing to help charities navigate the changes to local health agenda
- King's Fund Report - 'The voluntary sector in health: implications of the proposed NHS reforms'
- Health and Social Care Bill 2011
- Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, White Paper 2010, including
- Commissioning
- Contracting
- Personalisation in health (opens a new page)
Return to our public services homepage.
Latest news and comment
Death by Market Power - report by Bristol University
Looking at the NHS, this updated report, 'Death by Market Power: reform, competition and patient outcomes in the National Health Service' (first published July 2010) uses data evidence to predict the impact of competition on hospital outcomes, as intended by the Health and Social Care Bill 2011.
Commissioning Support in the new NHS
View this Department of Health presentation on the Commissioning Support functions (158kb) to be made available to commissioners in the new era of the NHS. This has been developed by the DH in consultation with various stakeholders (including NCVO) to determine what effective commisisoning should look like in the future, and the skills and infrastructure requried to make this happen.
Health Bill Passes Lords Second Reading
The Lords passed the second reading of the Health Bill after a long debate involving over 100 peers. The bill now goes to the Lords committee stage to be reviewed line by line. While the passage of the bill has completed a major hurdle, it still wrapped in controversy that is not likely to go away for years.
Meanwhile, the King’s Fund has provided a good briefing on the bill (PDF 102KB) and as it now stands.
New briefing to help charities navigate the changes to local health agenda
Many voluntary and community organisations have told us that they are having trouble understanding and engaging in the new health landscape. As such we have produced a briefing (PDF 387KB) to help understand better how they can influence the health agenda in their local area.
Commissioning Mental Health Outcomes - North West MHIP
The North West Mental Health Improvement Programme (MHIP) and National Mental Health Development Unit (NMHDU) have published their guidance report on Commissioning for Mental Health Outcomes - intended to support both commissioners and providers to define and achieve outcomes.
NHS Reform – Future Forum Autumn listening exercise
The NHS Future Forum re-launched on 18th August 2011, looking again at public health, information, training, and the integration of services. Keep an eye on this section of the page where we’ll pool all the latest comment and evidence around the Forum, and post notices for voluntary sector involvement in the Forum's listening exercise.
Commissioned by the PM and Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, this reincarnation of the Future Forum will again report to them under the steer of Professor Steve Field. No dates for consulatation exercises of submission of any final reports have yet been given. We'll post these when we know.
King's Fund report on social enterprise in Health
This King's Fund report considers the reality beneath the Government's stated ambition to create the 'largest and most vibrant social enterprise sector in the world'. 'Social Enterprise in Health Care' presents a cautionary tale.
Department of Health Voluntary Sector Investment Programme
The 2012-13 round of the DH 'Voluntary Sector Investment Programme: Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development' is open for applications until 21st October 2011.
The Fund 'provides funding from one to three years to support proposals with a clear focus on supporting and driving forward new ideas, excellence and/or the undertaking of strategic developments in voluntary sector capacity and/or capability in the health and care field'.
The four themes under which funding will be allocated are:
- Personalisation and Choice of Care and Support
- Delivering Better Health and Care Outcomes
- Improving Public Health
- Improving Long-Term Care and Support
Full details, contacts and application forms to the Fund.
Labour briefing on the NHS Reform
Shadow Secretary of State for Health, John Healey MP has circulated a briefing from the Labour Party on the Health Bill.
Responses to the Government's consultation on the Public Health White Paper, 'Healthy Lives, Healthy People'
The Government has published all the responses received in its consultation on the Public Health White Paper, 'Health Lives, Healthy People'. This consultation ran for the four weeks up to 31st March 2011.
Government response to Any Qualified Provider consultation
Read the Government response to consultation on the opening up of NHS services to competition by Any Qualified Provider.
NCVO publishes briefing on HealthWatch
NCVO intern, Zoe Garbett, publishes a briefing of HealthWatch, the new incarnation of LINKs, and their expected role in the new health landscape.
Download HealthWatch: a closer look at the future of Local Involvement Networks (LINks).
King's Fund Report
NCVO and King's Fund publish joint report on the voluntary sector and the Health Bill
We're delighted to publish on 16th June 2011 our joint report with the King's Fund, 'The Voluntary and Community Sector in Health: Implications of the proposed NHS reforms' (PDF 239kb).
Enormous thanks are due to the members of NCVO's Public Service Delivery Network who have formed the opinion of this paper. Whatever sector you're in (public, voluntary or private) we welcome further contributions to our work on health. Just join the Public Service Delivery Network (free and excellent!).
Health and Social Care Bill 2011
The Health and Social Care Bill 2011 is in disarray. Having initially proposed the 'biggest shake up of the NHS' since its conception, the detail of the Bill has provoked wide-ranging debate. The final progress and detail of the Bill is currently (June 2011) yet to be made clear.
In May 2011, the Prime Minister commissioned the NHS Future Forum to review the Bill in consultation with the public and the health sector. Conclusions reached by the NHS Future Forum were announced by Professor Steve Field in a videoed press conference at the King's Fund in June 2011, and the full response from the Government is expected on Monday 20th June 2011.
You can track the Bill's continued progress through parliament.
Health and Social Care Bill - Responses
The King's Fund, among others, have issued a response to the Health and Social Care Bill. The DH is publishing a list of some of the responses, including the NHS Confederation and the LGA (Local Government Association). GPonline is another excellent source of information.
Future Forum 1.0 - Summer 2011
Summary of NHS Future Forum Recommendations
Read our summary of the recommendations made by the NHS Future Forum to amend the current Health and Social Care Bill.
NCVO submission to the NHS Future Forum
Through consultation with you, our members, we've submitted our recommendations to the NHS Future Forum, outlying key changes we want to see in the Health and Social Care Bill. Our recommendations centre on:
- accountability and decision making
- prevention
- Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
- enabling choice through market management
- monitor
- tariff systems.
If you have any question on our recommendations, please contact Oliver Reichardt who leads NCVO's work on health.
NCVO, ACEVO and NAVCA joint consultation event on the NHS Future Forum
Very promptly, in May 2011, NCVO, ACEVO and NAVCA hosted a joint event at the King's Fund to consult with the voluntary and community sector on the NHS Future Forum. Chaired by Sir Stephen Bubb, lead for the Competition and Choice panel of the NHS Future Forum, this event led directly into the Forum's final recommendations.
Read our summary of the event. We were rightly criticised for holding this event in London. We can only apologise - we had a week's notice to organise it.
Future Forum 2.0 - Autumn 2011
The Future Forum has been re-commissioned by the PM and Health Secretary to again run listening exercises and report back professional and patient views on the following four topics:
No further details of consultation plans have been released (as of 18th August 2011) - but we'll keep you all informed when they are - and as to what activity we undertake ourselves.
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, White Paper 2010
The Health and Social Care Bill 2011 followed on from proposals first consulted on through the publication of the 'Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS', White Paper in July 2011.
Preceeding White Paper and consultation documents
The NHS reform White Paper, 'Equity and Excellence: liberating the NHS' was published in July 2010. This set out the intentions and ideas that were later put into the Health and Social Care Bill (2011) to present to parliament.
The White Paper was accompanied by:
- Equality Impact Assessment
- Draft Structural Reform Plan
- and consultation documents on:
Analysis of the White Paper and consultation documents
Voluntary sector leaders have contributed their thoughts on key aspects of the NHS White Paper. These comments cover cross-sector health issues - from GP commissioning, to the challenges of access for excluded communities, and personalisation - and are here to stimulate your own responses to the consultation on NHS reform.
In full, the topics cover:
- New Migrants and Excluded Communities (Northern Refugee Centre)
- Infrastructure and Social Value Commissioning (Voluntary Sector North West)
- Equity for the Deaf (RNID)
- Access to Drug and Alcohol Services (addaction)
- Mental Health (Mind)
- Personalising Health (National Care Forum)
- Commissioning and Structural Change (Stephen Strutt)
The Department of Health has listed the consultation responses to the NHS White Paper 'Equity and Excellence: liberating the NHS'.
Comments are included from:
- Action for Advocacy
- British Medical Association on the principles of GP commissioning
- British Medical Association guidence on GP commissioning structures
- Centre for Policy Studies
- London School of Economics - and other related blogs
- King's Fund
Commissioning
The NHS Commissioning Board
Keep updated with the development of the NHS Commissioning Board. This DH page explains how the national NHS Commissioning Board will be accountable for delivery of health services against the new Ouctomes Frameworks, and will ensure clinical standards across publically funded health services.
Commissioning Support from the DH
The Department of Health is working out packages of commissioning support to structure needs analysis and procurement of services under the new NHS sttructure. This includes devising means to support best practice at different scales of purchasing - from GP consortia, to regional clusters, to national procurement regimes.
At a July 2011 DH roundtable with voluntary sector organisations, the DH lead on Commssioning Support, Joe Raffety, shared his vision on the structure of this commissioning support.
GP Commissioning - King's Fund Report
The King's Fund have published a briefing on the most significant of the NHS reform proposals - the shift of commissioning responsibilities down to GP consortia. This briefing considers what we have learnt from current and previous health commissioning, and how this will steer the development and structure of GP commissioning.
Practice Based Commissioning - latest survey on the forerunner to GP commissioning
Practice Based Commissioning is the current programme of GP consortia commissioning. This is the forerunner to the intended shift in commissioning responsibilities from PCTs to GPs, as proposed in the current White Paper for health. Therefore the learning from Practice Based Commissioning (commonly referred to as PBC) will play a key part in shaping the commissioning reform in the NHS.
The report is available on the Department of Health's website.
Contracting to deliver health services
See the NHS website for an overview of how the NHS operates and read about NHS Priorities for 2009/10.
Those working in health-related projects may be interested in the Communities for Health website from the NHS North Yorkshire and Regional Office on community health activism.
Local Councils for Voluntary Service, Rural Community Councils and Community Health Councils will be informed to varying degrees on local health commissioning and are potential starting points for local networking.
You may also find the section on the Department of Health in the Central Government Funding section of this site useful.
NHS Networks has created a Social Enterprise Network, with its own area on their web site. The site allows practitioners to share case studies or communicate via the bulletin board.
More for Your Money: A guide to procuring from social enterprises for the NHS (PDF, 2.42Mb), is the sequel to the Social Enterprise Coalition's previous procurement publication for local authorities. Again, those considering contracting to the NHS should also find it useful.
These pages are maintained by the NCVO Public Service Delivery Network.
The Public Service Delivery Network is supported by:
