When and where?
Tuesday 9 November
Holborn Bars, London
Conference summary
The event, supported by Hempsons, welcomed over 80 delegates from across the NHS Confederation representing PCT's, community service providers, ambulance services, foundation trusts, mental health trusts and independent sector providers. Mathew Winn, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Community Services and also chair of the PCT Networks provider forum, chaired the day.
Plenary sessions
Commissioning and community services - Dr Amit Bhargava, co-lead GP Commissioning Federation, NHS Alliance
Dr Bhargava provided delegates with an insight into how healthcare providers and commissioners can engage with patients and local populations in order to help redesign community services. Dr Bhargava emphasised the importance of ensuring consistency in quality and dignity throughout the patient experience during this transition period. His presentation also highlighted that it was vital organisations find clinically led solutions to the financial pressures that they face.
Delegate questions and discussion following Dr Amit’s presentation included the future commissioning of services for mental health and urgent care and how service providers can continue to improve the way they engage with GPs and commissioners in the new system.
Transferring commissioning - Dame Barbara Hakin, national managing diector of commissioning at the Department of Health
Dame Barbara presented to delegates on the transferring of commissioning responsibilities and functions from PCTs to new GP commissioning consortia, the NHS Commissioning Board and local government. Dame Barbara’s presentation also provided an overview of what the new architecture of these commissioning bodies would look like.
She highlighted the workforce and resourcing implications of transferring commissioning responsibilities over the coming months, including the need for some organisations to share resources such as management functions and skills. Dame Barbara also highlighted the significant contribution community services will need to make to meeting the productivity challenge facing the NHS and discussed how community clinicians should engage with GP commissioners.
Delegate questions and discussions after the presentation included the future management costs of GP commissioning consortia and conflicts of interest for GPs as both commissioners and providers.
The day also featured 3 workshop sessions. To find out more about these go to the workshop page of the website.
Closing session
Transferring community services and any willing provider - Bob Ricketts, Director of system management and new enterprise, Department of Health
Bob Ricketts ended the day by giving delegates an update on the any willing provider (AWP) policy for community services following the publication of the government’s white paper. Bob’s presentation outlined the rationale for the AWP model including the intention to extend patient choice and control of the healthcare they receive. The presentation also underlined the intention of AWP to enable market entry and to drive innovation.
Delegate questions and discussions were focused around pathway redesign for patient care, how AWP would apply to mental health services and how demand management within the system can be improved
Launch of PCT Network publication - Transfer and Transform During the conference, the PCT Network launched its latest publication. Transfer and Transform sets out the key points from discussions with members who have experience of transferring services, including their learning about how best to transfer services, what exactly should be transferred, the cultural issues to consider and the necessary governance arrangements. Download the publication.
All the presentations from the day are available to download from the related documents section on the right side of this page.
Just click here to fill out our online evaluation form for the day.