The Horse’s Mouth

We are all eagerly awaiting the NHS England bidding process for the diabetes transformation fund announced in the 2017-19 NHS Operational and Planning Guidance (page 22)

There is a huge amount of speculation and diabetes managers have been bombarded, since the announcement on the 22nd of September, with questions from providers, commissioners and businesses, about how to get their hands on some of the funding.

There are questions about who can bid; how much; how many bids can be submitted; what’s the evaluation process, etc, etc.

It is also believed that the bidding process will be one bite of the cherry.  That the funding bids will be for a portion of £80m across 2 years (£40m in 2017/18 and £40m in 2018/19).  That the bids will be the one and only opportunity.  However, this is probably incautious speculation. 

Much better to get information from the horse’s mouth.  So this week my action for Diabetes Managers is to sign up for the “Diabetes Programme E-Bulletin”.  It was formally called the “Diabetes Prevention Programme E-Bulletin” but now there is a national “Diabetes Treatment and Care Programme” it has expanded to include information on this as well.

Please follow this LINK to sign up.

This month’s bulletin has the following information regarding the bids which you may find helpful:

National Diabetes Treatment and Care Programme Update

• As announced in the 2017-19 Planning Guidance, NHS England will be launching a wider programme of investment to support the treatment and care of people who already have diabetes.
• CCGs and CCG-led partnerships will have the opportunity to bid for additional national funding of approximately £40m in 2017/18 to promote access to evidence based interventions which will improve:
• uptake of structured education;
• access to specialist inpatient support
• access to a multi-disciplinary foot team for people with diabetic foot disease; and
• the achievement of the NICE recommended treatment targets whilst driving down variation between CCGs.
• Using a Best Possible Value approach, the national team have reviewed the evidence base and identified key initiatives which will result in the highest return on investment in these four areas.

The bidding process

• The bidding process for the diabetes transformation fund will form part of a wider process alongside several other clinical priority areas, such as maternity, cancer and mental health.
• CCGs and CCG-led partnerships will be invited to submit bids including details of their current services for patients with diabetes and outline delivery plans for proposed new or expanded services/initiatives. The nature of who participates in the partnership, and the roles of each partner, will be for local determination.
• It is expected that the bidding documentation will be published during early November. This timeline should enable successful areas to be informed of their allocation ahead of the start of the 2017/18 financial year.

Ahead of the publication of bidding documentation, and throughout the bidding period, we will be holding webinars with the Clinical Network, Diabetes UK and CCG colleagues (dates to follow) to inform of progress, encourage feedback and respond to queries.

No doubt the official notification regarding the bid process will ensure that Diabetes Managers will be kept very busy in the weeks before Christmas but hopefully the effort put in will reap a nice post festive bonus for diabetes care.