Chloe Smith: extra funding for health commissioning in Norwich NHS

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, has welcomed the funding allocation for Norwich’s clinical commissioning group (CCG), announced today.

The budget provided to NHS England by the government is divided into three areas - specialist commissioning, primary care and CCG allocations. Today the NHS England board has announced how much goes into each area.  Norwich CCG has received £216 Million, up from £211 Million. Norwich CCG will also get £4.3 Million as the CCG’s share of the social care and health integration fund.

Because of the Government’s decision to deliver a real terms increase in the NHS budget, NHS England is announcing increases in primary care and CCG allocations with a particularly large increase in specialist commissioning over the next two years. The budgets for specialist commissioning and primary care are central budgets.

NHS England has increased in the budget for every CCG, so everywhere gets at least an uplift in line with inflation. In addition those CCGs which have seen the biggest population increases or have an ageing population, will receive a further budget increase over and above inflation.

The allocation formula has been independently designed by the Advisory Council for Resource Allocation (ACRA), with a full consultation by NHS England. This is a key change in the decision making process over previous years.  Local NHS funding is now, therefore, an independent matter for NHS England. 

An additional inequalities weighting remains as part of the calculation, and will be at 10% - the same level as before - but will be based on a new measure which is far better at picking up pockets of deprivation in more affluent areas than the previous measure.

Chloe said:  “I welcome extra health funding for Norwich.  The new formula means that previously unidentified areas of deprivation will now be picked up and the funds for tackling deprivation spread over more areas.  The reality is that this government has increased the NHS budget in real terms, plus NHS England has a better model for identifying need.  This decision will help Norwich.”