Weekly War on Waste (WWW): Declaration of Interest from Professor Sir Muir Gray on the ‘Model Integrated Care Board – Blueprint v1.0’

A Declaration of Interest is usually made to make it clear and public that the person making it was involved in the authorship of a document and their views on its importance should be considered. My declaration is of a different kind because I have made NO contribution to the writing of this document and therefore when I say that I think it is excellent, this has to be taken into account.

View Blueprint

Firstly, there is a very clear emphasis on the importance of Principle 6 of the NHS Constitution which states that The NHS is committed to providing best value for taxpayers’ money, and here are some key points in the document: 

• On page 3 ‘requiring ‘as strong a focus on strategy as much as performance’ and a parallel investment in the skills required to ‘commission care wisely as much as to provide it well’. The 10 Year Health Plan will reinforce the criticality of this role... to deliver better value for its customers – the population of England.’
• On page 9 ‘Deploying payment models to improve equity (for example, blended payments linked to reducing inequalities).’

And the importance of the right culture is correctly emphasised in the section correctly titled ‘Leadership and Culture’ because it is the creation of culture which differentiates leadership from management, for example on page 8 emphasising that ICBs need to be ‘Ensuring efficiency and equity using value-based approaches to prioritisation, underpinned by public health principles.’

Then, of great importance comes the need to accept the responsibility of stewardship:

• On page 9 ‘Using financial stewardship tools (cost-effectiveness thresholds, return on investment)’
• And on page 19 ‘ICBs are expected to maintain clear, accountable leadership with effective governance during the transition and beyond... Leadership structures and executive portfolios should also reflect the functions as set out above, including skills in population health data and insights, strategic commissioning... and clinical leadership and governance’

Finally, it emphasises that ICBs will concentrate on ‘Developing long term population health strategy: Long-term population health planning and strategy and care pathway redesign to maximise value based on evidence’.

Good work by the Health Service Journal in publicising this report and of course to the authors in NHS England and the DHSC, of which I declare I am not one.

Let’s do it.