Guidance published by NHS England in December 2015 asked every health and care system to come together to create their own ambitious local blueprint 
for accelerating the implementation of the Five Year Forward View. These blueprints, known as Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs), set a clear vision for how the challenges presented in the Five Year Forward View will be met at a local level by 2020/21. These challenges are grouped into three main categories:
- Closing the health and wellbeing gap
- Closing the care quality gap
- Closing the funding gap
STPs will be delivered by local health and care ‘footprints’, which are organisations working together to deliver transformation and sustainability. There are 44 footprints in total across England, one of which is Humber, Coast and Vale. The Humber, Coast and Vale footprint covers six CCG boundaries, six local authority boundaries as well as services provided by a number of health and social care organisations:
NHS commissioning organisations
- NHS East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group
Healthcare provider organisations
- Humber NHS Foundation Trust
- North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust
- Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
- City Health Care Partnerships CIC
- Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust
- Navigo
- Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust
- York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Local Authorities
- City of York Council
- East Riding of Yorkshire Council
- Hull City Council
- North Lincolnshire Council
- North East Lincolnshire Council
- North Yorkshire County Council
The Humber, Coast and Vale STP is being developed in partnership by each of these organisations and will be led by a Strategic Partnership Board comprising senior representatives from across the system. Decisions relating to the STP are taken by senior members from each Clinical Commissioning Group.
Emma Latimer, Chief Officer for NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group and interim lead for the Humber, Coast and Vale STP, said: “Building strong partnerships between health and social care organisations is at the heart of our STP. However, it’s important to recognise that STPs will not cover all planning eventualities. As with the current arrangements for planning and delivering healthcare, there are different layers of plans which sit above and below STPs. There are still requirements for CCGs to focus on the needs of their local communities and this work will carry on.
“STPs are not an end in themselves, but a means to build and strengthen local relationships, enabling a shared understanding of where we are now, our ambition for 2020/21 and the steps we need to take to get there.”
NHS England has requested that each footprint submits the first version of their STP by the end of June, with delivery of plans expected to commence from September 2016.
Ms Latimer continued: “I’d like to reassure people that the plan we submit at the end of June will not contain specific details of proposed changes we wish to make to health and care services. Instead, it will highlight the areas of health and care we feel are the main priorities for closing the health, quality and funding gaps supported by robust local intelligence.
“We expect to receive feedback from NHS England on our plan by the end of July, after which time we will take the opportunity to share it with people more widely in order to help us develop the detail and identify opportunities for closing the gaps.
“Whilst the need to take action is critical, we are committed to working with our staff, patients and stakeholders to help us overcome the challenges we face.”
The STP team is committed to keeping staff, stakeholders and members of the public informed of progress and further updates will be issued in due course. If you have any questions relating to STP, please email hullccg.contactus@nhs.net stating ‘STP’ in the subject line.
