To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria will be used to judge whether NHS sustainability and transformation plans have been the result of meaningful local community engagement and reflect local context, needs and financial situations.
Answered on
8 February 2017
In NHS England’s 30 June and 21 October 2016 STP submission guidance, NHS England set out clear expectations that STPs would include the following elements as part of their plans:
- A plan to engage more formally with NHS boards and those of their partners after the July conversations between STP leads and representatives from national bodies;
- Evidence of how footprints have engaged organisations and other key stakeholders so far, and with whom they are still to engaged; and
- Evidence or plans to involve staff, clinicians and care professionals, patients and Health and Wellbeing Boards etc.
Copies of the 30 June and 21 October guidance documents are attached.
NHS England has made clear that STP partners should work with the knowledge, skills and experience of people in their communities. To support this, it jointly produced a practical guide for those developing plans in each of the 44 footprint areas and the statutory organisations that form part of them.
A copy of this guidance Engaging local people: A guide for local areas developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans is attached.
Those STP areas that are more advanced in their plans have begun formal consultation in line with business as usual requirements for service changes. Even where this is not taking place, dialogue with local people is essential throughout. Local community and voluntary sector engagement will be a central factor in national bodies’ consideration of individual local proposals and the support they give to local areas to deliver them.