News / King’s Fund calls for more transformation funding from STF

In a review of the first two years of the forward view, the fund said too much of the £2.1bn sustainability and transformation fund (STF) was being used to cover deficits in the provider sector. Some £1.8bn of the STF has been allocated to reducing deficits with just £300m left to invest in new services this year, it added.

The two-year operating plan for 2017/18 and 2018/19 also set aside£1.8bn for deficit reduction in each of the years.

King’s Fund chief executive Chris Ham said: ‘By ring-fencing £1.8bn for the next two years to reduce deficits, national NHS bodies are effectively leaving the NHS without the investment needed to deliver the transformation of services set out in the forward view.’

NHS Confederation chief executive Stephen Dalton said long-term improvement plans were being ‘put on the back burner’ because of short-term funding issues.

‘We understand the need to ensure services have enough money today but the tactic adopted is to effectively raid resources which were meant to enable change and ensure we develop a 21st century NHS offer,’ he added. 

‘If we are to have a sustainable NHS and care system, the government needs to urgently invest in social care, halt planned cuts to public health, get serious about preventing ill health and kick-start an honest, open public conversation about what needs to change if the next generation is to carry on benefitting from the high quality health care we have today.’

The fund said that much remained to be done to achieve the plan, but two of the five years had already elapsed. It believed most progress had been made in sites involved in the new care models programme, in work on sustainability and transformation plans and in the Greater Manchester devolution.

Rapid progress was needed in the development of payment mechanisms, such as capitated budgets, to support the new care models. The fund also noted that the law on procurement and tendering must be clarified to avoid unnecessary delays and cost in implementing new care models.

Professor Ham said the successful implementation of the forward view was critical to the future of the NHS.

‘New care models hold out the prospect of moderating rising levels of demand, including through better integration of health and social care and more investment in community services to provide alternatives to care in hospitals or care homes,’ he said. ‘These models are still under development, but the most advanced hold out real promise.

‘The challenge is that developing new care models requires investment, which is currently in short supply, as well as time. National leaders should hold their nerve, continue to support innovations now well under way, and work to remove legislative and policy barriers to progress.’