NHS organisations have continued to raise concerns over finances and been clear on what is needed from the centre to help them deliver better value.
Our recent member survey of over 300 NHS leaders highlighted worsening financial pressures and waning confidence in meeting savings targets.
When asked what they want from the government to support the NHS, senior leaders called for a binding agreement on health and social care, more funding and more frankness with the public about the need to change.
What we're doing
Our work aims to influence national policy to create the right environment for change and to support members to make necessary changes. This work is centred around our three priority areas: a settlement for health and social care, unlocking savings and reforming the NHS payment system.
Here's a snapshot of some of our key areas of work:
- The 2015 Spending Review set the conditions for the NHS in this Parliament. We influenced this process through our formal representation to HM Treasury and by working with partners across health and social care to promote our main asks and communicate what members need on funding to manage deficits and transform services.
- The national tariff has a big impact on members and we’re working closely with NHS Improvement and NHS England to improve it. This includes numerous engagement activities bringing members closer to the tariff-setting process and speaking on behalf of the whole system in calling for faster reform of payment mechanisms.
- Finance cannot be separated from quality and the NHS needs to focus on value to continue to deliver more with less resources, deliver efficiencies and contend with a funding gap. We’re working in partnership with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to be system leaders on value and promote closer collaboration between finance and clinical professionals to support better value in decision-making.