Beginning with the end in mind: how outcomes-based commissioning can help unlock the potential of community services

Author(s)

NHS CONFEDERATION. Community Health Services Forum

Publisher(s):

NHS Confederation

Publication year:

2014

Explains outcomes-based commissioning and outlines how it might help enable service transformation. Outcomes-based commissioning incentivises high-value interventions, shifting resources to services in the community, a focus on keeping people healthy and in their own homes, delivering outcomes that matter to people using the services, and coordinated care. It discusses the opportunities that outcomes-based commissioning gives for providers of community services, including the main technical considerations that will need to be addressed. Health outcomes have become the standard for measuring successful care. More and more people are living with long-term, and often multiple, conditions. This briefing argues that successful care for this group of people is not about providing a cure or a certain number of procedures, but about enabling and supporting them to live as well as possible with their conditions over the long term. Achieving this will involve transforming the system so that all of its parts work in an integrated way towards the outcomes people want and need most. Unlocking the unmet potential in community settings is crucial in both transforming care and improving efficiency. The briefing includes practical examples showcasing how community providers are using innovative ways of supporting and enabling people with high levels of clinical need to be cared for at home or more locally, and are working in partnership with other health and care providers. It will be of interest to all commissioners and providers considering developing an outcomes-based commissioning approach that includes community health services. It is particularly relevant to providers of community services. (Edited publisher abstract)