Transfoming Community Services

Enabling New Patterns of Provision
DH Jan 2009

A set of guiding principles underpin transformational change.

These include:

• The interests of patients and carers must be paramount
  
  
• Quality is the organising principle.  Organisations must enable the provision of safe, effective, personalised care. This will require the capacity and capability for transformational service change
  
  
• A pre-requisite for PCTs is a clear commissioning strategy, with improving quality and reducing inequalities at its core
  
  
• Proposals must also be able to deliver value for money for tax-payers
  
  
• Decisions about how services are provided should be led and made locally, with robust consultation processes
  
  
• Recognition that services differ in their characteristics and the people they serve, and therefore that different solutions may suit different services, even within the same locality
  
  
• High standards of human resource management should be followed
  
  
• Assurance, approval and authorisation processes must be clear, robust and transparent
  
  
• Proposals must enable integrated care including with Local Authority services where appropriate, World Class Commissioning and patient choice
  
  
• Proposals must fit with the Department’s published Principles and Rules for Cooperation and Competition
  
  
• Options are equality impact assessed
  
  
• Provision of safeguards for service continuity, assets and staff pensions