Commissioning

James Sanderson welcomes the publication of the Voluntary Voices report exploring the voluntary sector's vital role in delivering personal health budgets. 

Co-production has become the latest buzzword to capture the imagination of commissioners and health and social care providers, in their quest to provide genuine person centred support to the people they provide services for. Too often though, it has been reduced to being a simple rebranding of its predecessor, "user involvement", with no real or meaningful change taking place.

Reflections on 'Next Steps for the Five Year Forward View’, NHS England's delivery plan for the Five Year Forward View.

Today (14 March) sees the launch of the report of the Neurological Alliance's second patient experience survey. Sadly, it appears that across all measures, we are falling short.

You can view the report here.

A quest to find, identify and manage differently the ‘top 2%’ of patients is increasingly occupying NHS managers. Don Redding, National Voices Director of Policty explores the consequences.

Following publication of the Six principles for engaging people and communities, the NHS Youth Forum provide a constructive response outlining how and why children and young people’s voices must be heard.

Dear NHS commissioner,

The Five Year Forward View and the recent NHS Planning Guidance have asked you to plan for new ways of working with the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS).

The latest stage of NHS reform under the Five Year Forward View has created a classic Catch 22, says National Voices’ Director of Policy, Don Redding.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, was recently described by the Guardian as ‘trickier to pin down than his predecessors’. Last week Mr Stevens met with National Voices members to discuss the future of the NHS and the role of voluntary organisations in health and care. So did we manage to ‘pin him down’?

The English Pharmacy Board of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the National Association for Primary Care (NAPC) have come together for a joint consultation to create a debate around how community pharmacy and General Practice can work better together in the interest of patients. 

In this blog, Howard Duff, Director for Team England at the RPS, shares his perspectives on centralised and localised models for commissioning pharmacy services – a key question for the consultation – and encourages all those with an interest in this area to get involved.