The must-read stories and debate in health policy and leadership.

Back in 2000, the NHS Plan took just four months to write, Sir Chris Ham, one of its key contributors told us in HSJ last week.

More recently, Simon Stevens took around six months from rejoining the NHS in 2014 to publishing the pithy Five Year Forward View, while the gestation of the NHS long-term plan was also about six months.

The incoming Labour government seems to be giving itself a little more breathing space with, as we reported on Monday, a current target date of next spring for its own new 10-year NHS plan.

More time seems a good thing: it gives more space for discussion about the NHS’s future to cut through to the thinking of at least a smattering of real staff and citizens; and hopefully allow the wonks in darkened rooms enough time to refine policy levers and means of delivery which might actually stick.

The scope is wide – excluding primary prevention (eg the debate around further “sin taxes” and other controls) – but including borderline issues like how public health skills and advice works locally; and pooled health and social care issues.

In Whitehall lingo, spring could of course mean anywhere between February and well into next summer.

Slippage is always the most likely risk, but there will also be pressure for it to reach conclusions faster. Work on the plan will need to influence NHS planning guidance as soon as this winter (since the longer term will fail if the short-term policy goes off in another direction), and to feed into the 2025-26 GP contract, for example.

Spending review timing is – as ever – particularly crucial, and the chancellor has not yet decided whether she will use her statement this autumn to fix departmental budgets for just one year, or for a longer period.

On the face of it, the best hope for the NHS would be a one-year SR this autumn; giving time for the 10-year plan to persuade a sceptical Treasury and Number 10 to loosen the purse strings in a subsequent three-year settlement, to span 2026-2029.

Then again, hope is not a plan.

 

The price of advice

A contract valued up to £40m for advising NHS England on strategic and productivity matters has been awarded to a consortium led by PA Consulting, HSJ has learned.

HSJ also understands that advisers Baringa Management Consulting and supply chain specialists Efficio Consulting are part of this consortium, which secured the contract to advise NHSE’s commercial directorate.

The four-year agreement includes advising on commercial management and transformation, public procurement, policy, strategy and governance, contract and supplier management, logistics and supply chain, and technology and data.

NHSE went out to market in March, as previously reported by HSJ. Tender documents indicated its commercial directorate required specialists to support a major strategic transformation programme, efforts to find £1.5bn in savings, and everyday activities.

The commercial team currently procures external expertise as needed. However, NHSE’s tender documents indicated this new contract would unify these ad hoc support requests under one agreement, aiming to deliver better value for money and increased efficiencies.

Also on hsj.co.uk

“Mythbuster” Steve Black highlights the need for Lord Ara Darzi’s review of NHS performance to focus on diagnosing systemic issues through comprehensive evidence gathering, rather than jumping to premature solutions. And David Gilbert sheds light on an initiative to enhance mental health wards by improving relationships, environment and care to foster safety and therapeutic effectiveness.