Transforming Community Services
Transforming Community Services (TCS) is a change programme for the delivery of primary health care services to help meet the aspirations of the NHS Next Stage Review and new requirements in commissioning health care designed to promote high quality standards of care.
The TCS programme includes a number of initiatives which have been designed to help staff provide high quality evidence-based care, and achieve positive outcomes for the community they serve. These include:
- strengthening clinical skills and leadership
- support for quality and time to care
- embedding new evidence-based child health promotion
- developing evidence-based practice (including research)
- policy analysis and alignment of policy to community practice
- a quality framework for community services
- a world class commissioning toolkit for community health services
- a national contract for community services
- a framework to pilot metrics and currencies and support local development
- an assessment of innovative information management and technology.
Share your experiences and views on these initiatives to improve the way primary healthcare is delivered with the RCN. Email the RCN Primary Health Care Adviser, Lynn Young: lynn.young@rcn.org.uk.
In addition, under TCS, every Primary Care Trust in England will cease to be a direct provider of primary care services such as community nursing and health visiting. PCTs will, however, continue to be responsible for planning and commissioning health care provision in their area, contracting with different providers to deliver services.
PCT provider services restructuring
Since April 2009, PCTs have been required to have separate commissioning and provider arms and to have adopted a contractual relationship with provider organisations. Initially PCTs were expected to have agreed their intentions for the future structure of provider services by October 2009. Nationally this deadline has now been removed. PCT provider services should be moving towards functioning as arms-length organisations. There is a requirement to consult trade unions, staff and other stakeholders as PCTs develop their proposals for their provider arms.
For staff employed by a PCT, this legally prescribed separation of commissioning and provider functions may have an impact on security and employment terms and conditions.
When Primary Care Groups (PCGs) were established in the late 1990s and in the subsequent transition to PCTs, staff providing the services on the ground continued to be NHS employees. The difference with the Transforming Community Services programme is that some of the options for the future provision of services mean that staff providing the services would no longer work in the NHS.
The precise implications will differ depending on which organisational model of provider services each PCT decides to implement following consultation with staff and trade unions.