CCGs protected from cuts in NHS funding allocations

20 Dec 13
All Clinical Commissioning Groups in England are to have their budgets protected from cuts in 2014/15, and areas with the greatest healthcare need will receive real-terms increases in funding, NHS England has said.

By Richard Johnstone | 20 December 2013

All Clinical Commissioning Groups in England are to have their budgets protected from cuts in 2014/15, and areas with the greatest healthcare need will receive real-terms increases in funding, NHS England has said.

Publishing the funding details for the 211 CCGs in both 2014/15 and 2015/16, NHS England said it had undertaken a fundamental review of the formula used to allocate £100bn.

As a result, the division of funding now more accurately reflected local populations, and also included a specific allocation based on deprivation measures.

NHS England said these changes would help ensure funding matches the needs of individual areas.

Chief financial officer Paul Baumann highlighted that the NHS had a duty to tackle health inequalities and ensure equal access for equal need across the country.

Allocations for the first year of CCGs – which replaced primary care trusts in the NHS from April 2013 – used data that was now at least three years out of date. Failure to update this would have meant that CCGs or providers were unable to provide the services required, or to live within their financial resources, Baumann said.

‘That is why we conducted a year-long review of funding allocations taking on board many views and extensively engaging with local healthcare commissioners and partners.

‘We must ensure funding is equitable and fair and we have used the review period to ensure that funding is based on up-to-date and detailed information and it takes into account the three main factors in healthcare needs –population growth, deprivation and the impact of an ageing population.’

All CCGs will receive increases in funding in line with inflation, while areas deemed by the new formula to have been underfunded in the past, or with fast growing populations, will receive as much as 2.8% extra.

Baumann said it was a ‘very testing period’ for the NHS as it attempts to meet a £20bn efficiency savings target by 2015, and therefore every pound must be invested wisely. ‘We now have a funding formula that we think does this more accurately and more fairly.’

The funding allocations were today backed by Public Health England. Chief executive Duncan Selbie said: ‘We welcome these allocations and congratulate NHS England for weighting on inequalities and especially for recognising the extra contribution of primary care in addressing these.’

Spacer

CIPFA logo

PF Jobsite logo

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top