The Department will publish a value for money delivery agreement in December. This will set out the approach to delivering and monitoring value for money gains in the national health service for 2008-09 to 2010-11. The NHS Operating Framework will also support delivery of value for money in the NHS.
The Government are committed to creating a more locally led, innovative health service, that puts the needs and wishes of patients, staff and the public at the heart of care. Given this increased local emphasis, it is right that the Department supports the NHS locally in determining the most suitable value for money opportunities for local health communities, without imposing solutions from the centre. The delivery agreement will therefore set out both the value for money opportunities which the Department can deliver on behalf of the NHS and the Department’s role in supporting the NHS to deliver value for money locally, without setting a prescriptive breakdown of individual value for money activities.
The Department has ring-fenced revenue grants for the following reasons in 2007-08:
AIDS Support £16.5 million: The Public Health White Paper “Choosing Health” highlighted sexual health as a priority area for action, and the ring-fencing encourages spending in accordance with that priority.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)—£90.5 million: The purpose of the CAMHS Grant is to enable local authorities, in consultation with local health organisations, to deliver a comprehensive CAMHS in line with the Department’s National Service Framework for Children and the cross-Government Every Child Matters programme. The ring-fencing is designed to ensure that the money is spent on improving CAMHS, as provision is geographically variable and improvements have been made from a low baseline.
Mental health—£132.9 million: ring-fenced to encourage spending on mental health services, considered historically to have received comparatively low investment.
Individual Budget Pilots—£6 million: The grant is paid to 13 councils to support their work to pilot the individual budget programme. Ring-fenced in view of this pilot status to ensure that spending on the area occurs to inform the outcomes.
Partnerships for Older People Pilots—£40 million: enables councils to establish joint pilot projects with their health and other partners to deliver and evaluate approaches which will create a sustainable shift in resources and culture away from crisis-based institutionalised care towards ‘preventative’ care for older people within their own homes and communities: ring-fenced given its pilot status.