Making it work: a guide to whole system commissioning for sexual and reproductive health and HIV

Commissioning responsibilities for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV have undergone major changes over the past 18 months, now shared between NHS England, Local Authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). These changes have brought both new opportunities and new challenges.

This January, Public Health England (PHE) announced plans to develop a guide to whole system commissioning for SRH and HIV. The guide will consider all those involved in commissioning SRH and HIV services and recommend a flexible and adaptable approach, which meets the needs of local populations. It will also support local teams to achieve the effective partnership working required to develop and maintain high quality services via seamless, integrated care pathways. It is intended to focus on how to pull the whole system together and will therefore complement rather than reproduce existing guidance.

Consultation with a range of stakeholders has been undertaken within PHE and externally, including working with an expert steering committee and advisory group, workshops and key informant interviews. Stakeholders are now being offered a final opportunity to comment on the draft guide, before its publication in July.

This initiative underpins PHE’s commitment to improving SRH, reducing sexually transmitted infections and securing best outcomes for people with HIV. The work is being supported by NHS England, Local Government Association, Association of Directors of Public Health and Department of Health, and MEDFASH has been appointed by PHE as project delivery agent.

The final draft guide is available below. Please note, the draft is in plain document format, but the final published guide will be fully designed. The final guide will be published online in full and, recognising the overall length of the document, available to download in three sections: main guide, case studies and annexes.

At this stage we are requesting feedback on a set of specific questions:

1. Does the guide provide clarity on the commissioning responsibilities of NHS England, Local Authorities and CCGs [Section 2]?
2. If no, please detail areas where the responsibility for commissioning is still unclear.
3. Does the document address all the key interfaces in commissioning responsibilities [Section 6]?
4. If no, please detail additional interfaces that you think the document should address.
5. Would you recommend any other useful documents for inclusion in Annex 1?
6. If yes, please detail the additional documents you feel should be added.
7. Any further comments.

Your input is greatly valued and will be used to finalise the guide - although PHE reserves the right not to accept all comments. Please use the below feedback form and return it to SRHcommissioningguide@phe.gov.uk.

The deadline for responses is Thursday 12 June 2014, at 5pm. Unfortunately we are not able to consider comments received after this date. All comments must be included on the feedback form to be considered and comments made in covering emails will not be taken into account.

This is the final stage of PHE’s engagement with stakeholders for this guide. We will not publish a summary of the feedback received. Due to the high volume of responses that may be received we will not be able to provide individual feedback. Responses will be considered and the final guidance will be published on the PHE website in late-July.