Daily Insight: Ring in the old

We are only five days into a new year, yet an “old” name has already cropped up.

Data firm Palantir has had its high-profile data contract with NHS England extended after a two-year deal ended last month.

The extension comes as NHSE attempts to launch its much-delayed procurement for a new “federated data platform”, which will replace the current service provided by Palantir.

The procurement should have gone live last year, but complexities with information governance and the political turmoil last autumn stymied the project.

Therefore, extending the current contract with Palantir until June was the logical choice, rather than the “impractical and uneconomic” option of procuring a new supplier for the transition – says NHSE.

It means another £11.5m for Palantir, whose previous two-year deal with NHSE was valued at £23.5m. Daily Insight is told the extension’s higher price is due to the increased work the firm is doing with NHSE under the contract.

While improving data flows across the NHS can only be a good thing, the news is likely to further anger some privacy campaigners who have voiced concerns about Palantir’s involvement in the NHS.

Expect more noise around this issue throughout 2023.

From must-haves to nice-to-haves

NHSE’s latest planning guidance is leaner and meaner, but some glaring asks have been left off the “must do” list for trust and system leaders.

The operational guidance, published shortly before Christmas, is much shorter compared with previous years at just 20 pages and underlines government officials’ efforts to micromanage less.

After analysing the 2023-24 document compared to 2022-23, HSJ has found some targets – such as on long covid and diversity and inclusion – have been left out.

For instance, a target to improve the service’s black, Asian and minority ethnic disparity ratio by “delivering the six high-impact actions to overhaul recruitment and promotional practices” no longer appears.

The ratio refers to the rate at which staff from different protected characteristics progress through the Agenda for Change grades, while the actions include “owning the agenda” of diversity recruitment, and introducing a “system of ‘comply or explain’”.

Meanwhile, plans to increase the number of patients referred to post-covid services, who are then seen within six weeks of their referral, also disappears.

These dropped actions come as HSJ also found the 41 mental health and wellbeing hubs set up during covid could be axed amid a cut to national funding.