Business Challenges

• The introduction of Choice and the increased focus on commissioning is bringing about a significant change in the way PCTs relate to providers. PCTs now need to operate as ‘system intermediaries’ rather than providers in their own right. 
• The roll out of Practice-Based Commissioning will exacerbate this situation, adding further to the need for a PCT to make the journey to a mature provider intelligence service.

• Halton and St Helens PCT had no central resource of expertise that could be used to analyse providers and deliver intelligence about them. A key factor for the PCT in the new commissioning landscape was therefore to develop insight into their provider base in order to achieve three aims:

• Understand the capabilities and capacities of providers
• Understand provider performance.
• Be able to intervene and improve performance. 

Solutions

• We devised a multi-faceted solution that delivered both short-term gains and a platform to achieve next-stage objectives.
• Firstly, our solution focused on designingand implementing a provider prospectus to give Halton and St Helens the information they needed to make far more informed commissioning and provider management decisions.
• We created a vision for the PCT so that they were able to see how the provider prospectus fits into their strategy of a longer-term market intelligence journey.
• In addition, we worked with them to transfer the skills and knowledge needed to integrate the prospectus into the commissioning cycle.
• Finally, we developed a tri-sector solution that provides a foundation for performance improvement and development across the entire provider base – in the health, local authority and independent sectors.

Benefits

• Halton and St Helens now has a high quality prospectus of the provider market,in a format that can be interrogated and shared by all relevant parties within the PCT.
• The prospectus delivers the ability to identify significant spending with individual providers. Providers are categorised into different work streams for commissioning purposes,so that for the first time the PCT has an integrated picture of who provides which service, how much it costs, the commercial mechanisms that were used, and the level of management needed to control each service.
• Together, these attributes provide the information required within the Commissioning Directorate to make informed decisions, and create and maintain the most appropriate level of provider control.

Download the Halton and St Helens PCT 'NHS Provider Intelligence Support'