NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald has today published its first ‘assurance’ report for World Class Commissioning (WCC), a ground-breaking health programme designed to deliver significant benefits for local people.
WCC takes best practice from around the world to help Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), such as NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald, 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.
Where we stand
Today’s assurance report follows assessment of NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald’s progress over the first year of working on this programme.
It reviews NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald’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 East Sussex Downs and Weald 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. (See below for full report)
Report findings
The report acknowledges that NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald has made significant progress over the past 12 months in beginning the journey towards transforming the health system in the area it serves.
Specifically it has moved to a position of financial balance, has developed strong relationships with partners resulting in extensive use of a comprehensive assessment of local health needs to shape services, and has begun to build stronger relationships with GPs and other clinicians.
The report also observed that NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald will need to continue to build on these relationships to help modernise the local health economy
We are excited by the challenge identified in the report of implementing a strong strategic investment plan to address the significant and varying health needs of the local population.
There is a need to translate plans, which are rooted in the comprehensive assessments of local needs, into actions and to ensure that levels of investment are high enough to address health needs in the most deprived areas.
Mike Wood, Chief Executive, NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald 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 achieving financial balance and building strong relationships with partners, we are very 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.”
The full assurance report for NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald is available at:
NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald - World Class Commissioning
