Commissioning services

Corporate objectives

Our Board has set five broad tasks for NHS Brighton and Hove:

to be the leading advocate for health and health care in the city

• promote healthy living and a healthy city
• provide strong leadership to the local NHS
• develop effective relationships with social care and other organisations across the city

to improve health and reduce health inequalities

• deliver measurable improvements in the health of local people
• reduce the health gap between different local communities

to increase service quality and choice

• commission high quality, evidence-based services
• use people’s experiences to improve the quality of services
• offer people a choice of providers where this is realistic
• achieve and maintain an “excellent” rating in the annual health check

to increase people’s confidence in, and engagement with, the NHS

• extend public confidence in local health services
• give people a stronger voice in the NHS
• be an excellent employer

to manage resources effectively

• deliver a sustainable financial position for NHS Brighton and Hove
• help the rest of the local health economy do the same
• demonstrate value for money and effective stewardship of public funds

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How will we deliver those aims?

We will meet these aims through a process called commissioning which includes:

• assessing health needs across the city
• agreeing the most important health outcomes to achieve
• deciding how to invest any extra money
• arranging contracts for services.

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Our commissioning plans

We have developed a Strategic Commissioning Plan which describes how we intend to help people stay well and provide high quality care for them when they are not.

The plan reflects discussions with many local people and organisations, and builds on a number of other important documents including:

• High Quality Care for All (Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review)
• Healthier people, excellent care (the strategic vision for health across the south east coast)
• Our health, Our care, Our say (which focuses on the need for closer working between the NHS and local government to foster prevention, independence and wellbeing).

The plan also includes eight locally-selected health improvement targets which reflect the city’s health priorities. These measures will be used to measure the impact and success of our commissioning plan.

Mental health strategy for adults

This joint commissioning strategy for mental health between Brighton and Hove City Council and NHS Brighton and Hove was published on the 26th January 2010.  It has been based on what people told us is important to them.  It is a three year vision and will be put into action with partners across the city.

• Mental health joint commissioning strategy for Adults 2010 - 2013

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World Class Commissioning

Becoming a world class commissioner will help us deliver:

Better health and wellbeing

• people will live healthier and longer lives
• health inequalities will be reduced dramatically

Better care

• services will be top quality and based on solid evidence
• People will have choices and control over the services they use

Better value

• investment decisions will be made in an informed and considered way
• PCTs will work with partner organisations to improve effective care

Further information

• World Class Commissioning Panel Report - July 2010
  (450kb pdf file)

You can read more about World Class Commissioning by visiting the Department of Health website.

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Procurement and tendering

NHS Brighton and Hove purchases a varied range of services including:

• health and social care from NHS and non-NHS organisations
• IT systems, hardware, software and telecoms services
• office services and equipment
• general supplies and services
• contract staffing and consultancy services

We aim to tender for and procure services in an open, transparent way that delivers value for money and supports our objectives.

We follow the Department of Health’s PCT Procurement Guide and its Principles and rules for co-operation and competition.

Progress on our major procurements is reported regularly to Trust Board; the Documents section on the right contains the latest report.

Other relevant documents (e.g. our procurement strategy, Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions) are available through the Freedom of Information links on this site.

• Current tenders and contracts

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Becoming a provider of NHS services

NHS Brighton and Hove commissions a wide range of services and projects from NHS, Council, social enterprise, community, voluntary and private sector 'provider' organisations.

We are continuing to develop and move health services from hospital settings into community settings closer to where patients live. These changes are creating opportunities for new and existing providers to be commissioned to run some of these services. NHS Brighton and Hove is, therefore, keen to inform these providers how it intends to commission services via tendering processes, procurement and contracts.

Information on how NHS Brighton and Hove intends to commission, tender, procure and contract in the future is available in the
tenders and contracts section on this website.

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