SW AHSN publishes a route map to creating an Accountable Care Environment
Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) bring local NHS organisations and local authorities together to find ways to improve health and care in their area. There are 44 STPs covering the whole of England. Their focus is on three aims set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View: better health, transformed quality of care delivery, and sustainable finances.
In many areas, STPs are thinking about their next steps toward creating an ‘Accountable Care Environment’, in which those who provide services and those who pay for them come together to combine budgets and resources.
When colleagues working as part of the Devon STP started to consider its options for the future, they engaged the South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) to look into the different options available for commissioning in the future.
The result is a toolkit – a route map for creating an Accountable Care Environment – that considers possible future options and a structured approach to determine the best solution locally.
Dr Tim Burke, Chair of NEW Devon CCG, said:
‘Determining how we organise ourselves to deliver care is a critical element for creating clinically and financially sustainable services which best meet the health and care needs of the population of Devon and the wider NHS. There is not a single ‘right’ answer and this route map will help us and other STPs make judgements based on relevant legislation, policy, evidence, and learning from elsewhere, combined with local opinion and preferences.’
The route map has been written by Rebecca Harriott, who has worked in a variety of executive commissioning roles, most recently as Chief Officer for NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, before joining the SW AHSN to develop the toolkit.
Rebecca Harriott said:
‘I hope that STPs find the route map a practical and accessible guide to developing their own approach to accountable care. It can be used in either a systematic or modular way with the emphasis on determining what works locally, whilst continuing to meet legal and regulatory requirements.’
Louise Witts, Deputy Chief Executive at the SW AHSN, said:
‘We are pleased to have had this opportunity to work with Rebecca to develop the Accountable Care Environment route map. We hope this will prove timely and useful for STPs nationally as they take on the challenge of bring services and commissioning ever closer.’
The toolkit is available here
