WIREDGOV

On 4 June, NHS England published 'Five Year Forward Plan: Time to Deliver' at the NHS Confederation's annual conference.

The report reviews the progress made to date since the publication of Simon Steven's FYFV in October 2014, which techUK responded to at the time.

Time to Deliver focuses on three key areas; what has been achieved to date, conditions for success in 2015/16 and next steps to deliver the vision by 2020. Below is a summary of the key points:

Achievements
• 29 Vanguards have been selected as the initial cohort to deliver the New Models of Care programme; including Integrated Primary and Acute Care Systems, Multi-speciality Community providers and Enhanced health in care homes
• Agreement for Greater Manchester to gain full control over its health and social care spend in 2016/17, as part of an extension of its devolved powers
• Establishment of the NHS FYFV Board* compromised by CEOs of the NHS's principal leadership bodies
• Greater engagement and collaboration with the voluntary sector through the Peoples and Communities Board*
• Publication of a 10 point plan for a new deal for primary care, including recruitment of more GPs and a £250m per a year investment fund into premises

Conditions for Success
This section of the paper largely focuses on the announcement from Jeremy Hunt last week on the decision to reduce the costs currently charged by agencies staff.

Next steps

The final section focuses on addressing the 'shared challenge' of closing the gaps between; health and well-being, care and quality and funding and efficiency. The work of the Vanguards feature heavily and plans for additional cohorts are outlined, including Urgent and Emergency Care Vanguards. These will focus on developing a two-tiered approach to service delivery whereby life-threatening needs are treated in hospital, whilst convenient and technologically enabled out of hospital services will be made available for urgent but non-life threatening needs.

In recognition that there are a number of local health and care systems where, unlike Vanguard cohorts, the conditions for service transformation do not yet exist due to financial or quality challenges, a 'Success Regime' will be introduced. North Cumbria, Essex and Northern, Eastern and Western Devon are the first to receive the regime support. Further details can be found here.

The paper concludes with an emphasis on working with stakeholders on the delivery of the FYFV and highlights a number of engagement opportunities, including roundtable discussions that bring together local and national leaders from all the relevant professions.

Natalie Bateman, Head of Health, Social Care and Local Government responded by saying,

"We welcome the continued emphasis on the role of technology in delivering the ambitions of the Five Year Forward View, particularly the recognition that service transformation driven by digital is not a distinct project but inherent in the ongoing changes in the NHS and Local Government.

Whilst this paper highlights some of the initial progress, there is a significant amount still to do to meet the ambitions set out by Simon Stevens. For NHS England and the FYFV Board to be successful, it's vital that the relevant stakeholders involved in the delivery of health and care services are involved in its implementation. As the voice of the informatics and technology industry, we look forward to having the opportunity to feed into developments now and in the future."

* Monitor, NHS England, NHS Trust Development Authority, Public Health England, Care Quality Commission and Health Education England (the Board consists of CEOs of each of the 7 Arm's Length Bodies)