Suffolk Community Contract Review

The NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG and NHS West Suffolk CCG (the CCGs) conducted a comprehensive review of community services culminating in the re-writing of the service specifications to reflect a widely held desire for greater service integration, a shift from reactive to proactive services and to have a more patient focused approach. The CCGs undertook a market review exercise and concluded that the key local service providers would be best placed to deliver the specifications and most likely to achieve the objectives set out within them. To ensure this was a valid conclusion an extensive 'most capable provider' exercise was undertaken which resulted in the east Suffolk alliance (ESNEFT (Ipswich Hospital site), Suffolk GP Federation, Suffolk County Council and NSFT) and the West Suffolk alliance (WSFT, Suffolk GP Federation, Suffolk County Council and NSFT) being awarded a contract. Different contract options were considered but it was agreed by all parties that the contracts should be held by ESNEFT and WSFT on behalf of all the alliance partners. The contracts began in October 2017 and are for seven years with an option to extend for a further three. The combined contract annual value is in the region of £68m. As we are now more than four years into the contracts, partners feel it is a good opportunity to review progress to date against the original objectives, acknowledge and celebrate key achievements and to identify and prioritise areas needing greater focus, more pace or review.