Last Updated on October 28, 2016
The absence of ring-fenced funding for investing in new services could jeopardise plans to improve patient care outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View, according to a new report from The King’s Fund.
£2.1bn has been allocated this year to a Sustainability and Transformation Fund (STF), which ministers said would enable the NHS to transform services and meet the ambitions set out in the Five Year Forward View. However, £1.8bn of this funding is being used to reduce deficits among NHS providers, leaving just £300m to invest in new services this year.
New guidance published by NHS England states that £1.8bn has also been set aside to cover deficits in 2017/18 and 2018/19, leaving little to invest in transforming services. The King’s Fund’s report warns that this could put the plans outlined in the Five Year Forward View at risk.
The report argues that most progress in implementing the Five Year Forward View has been made in the new care models programme, in work on sustainability and transformation plans, and in plans to devolve more responsibility to public sector leaders in Greater Manchester. But with two out of the five years covered by the Five Year Forward View already elapsed, much remains to be done to align national policies with the improvements in care it is seeking to bring about.
Faster progress is needed in the development of payment systems to support new care models, in the regulation of care systems and organisations, and in the use of contracts to support primary and acute systems and multispecialty community providers.
Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund said, ‘New care models hold out the prospect of moderating rising levels of demand, including through better integration of health and social care and more investment in community services to provide alternatives to care in hospitals or care homes. These models are still under development, but the most advanced hold out real promise.
‘The challenge is that developing new care models requires investment, which is currently in short supply, as well as time. National leaders should hold their nerve, continue to support innovations now well under way, and work to remove legislative and policy barriers to progress.
‘By ring-fencing £1.8 billion for the next two years to reduce deficits, national NHS bodies are effectively leaving the NHS without the investment needed to deliver the transformation of services set out in the Forward View.’
Stephen Dalton, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation said, ‘This report shows long-term plans for improvement are being put on the back burner because of short-term funding issues arising from a health and care system which is stretched to breaking point…If we are to have a sustainable NHS and care system, the government needs to urgently invest in social care, halt planned cuts to public health, get serious about preventing ill health and kickstart an honest, open public conversation about what needs to change if the next generation is to carry on benefitting from the high quality health care we have today.’
The full report can be found on The King’s Fund website.