Commissioning Support Unit

NEPHO have established a unit dedicated to supporting the information requirements of commissioners and World Class Commissioning. NEPHO has considerable resources of data and expertise which are available to the local health economy and we wish to encourage further use. Before expensive investments are made in commercial consultancies to support world class commissioning, there is a need to be aware of what is available locally – often already paid for by the NHS or available at a very modest cost and tailored to specific client requirements.

Current contributions to support World Class Commissioning include: (click to view / hide description)

• Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

  NEPHO is coordinating the core dataset for Joint Strategic Needs Assessment across the North East. JSNA is a statutory requirement for PCTs and Local Authorities. This work has been undertaken by the Public Health Intelligence North East (PHINE) which is led by NEPHO and comprises information specialist from most PCTs in the region, Government Office Public Health Group, SHA, HPA and Cancer Registry. The aim of PHINE is to pool expertise in the region and avoid duplication. A JSNA website has been developed through which a core of around 60 indicators are available. http://www.phine.org.uk

• Health Profiles

  Coordinated by the Association of Public Health Observatories, a set of 386 community health profiles heave been produced for the past three years. This provides a common set of 30 health indicators for every local authority in England. Community health profiles are available from http://www.communityhealthprofiles.info

• HES Service

  NEPHO acts as a regional safe haven for HES data. We provide a basic enquiry service, but more recently have been providing an enhanced service for PCTs on a SLA basis. We are currently working with a private sector partner to develop a more readily available service to local health organisations. http://www.nepho.org.uk/index.php?c=190

• Commissioning Audit Tool

  NEPHO has developed a commissioning audit tool which provides an assessment of a PCT’s commissioning responsibilities and competencies. The overall aim of the tool is to ascertain staff and partner’s evaluation of a PCT as a ‘World Class Commissioner (WCC).’ This audit tool can be used to provide evidence about how a PCT currently performs against the 11 WCC competencies as well as identifying the areas in which the PCT is under-achieving. The tool includes a baseline assessment to help assess the extent to which a PCT has improved over time (or identify areas where it has not improved) in regards to building its competencies.

• SHAPE (Strategic Health Asset Planning and Evaluation toolkit)

  NEPHO is a partner with the Department of Health and a number of other private organisations in developing this tool which provides an evidence base for commissioning in the NHS. Initially making better use of HES, estates and mapping information, SHAPE is currently being expanded to incorporate public health and mental health data. The tool is available at http://www.shape.dh.gov.uk

• Mental Health Observatory (NEPHO Lead area)

  NEPHO has the lead for mental health among the PHOs and has received specific funding from NIMHE to undertake this task. A vast array of comparative mental health data is available from the mental health workbook which is available from the mental Health observatory website at www.mentalhealthobservatory.org.uk

• Drugs and Alcohol

  NEPHO acts as the regional hub for the National Drug Treatment Monitoring service. Data is collected from all organisations providing support to drug misusers. We are about to expand this data collection and reporting service to include alcohol. These data are used extensively to support the work of the DATs and CDRPs.

• Cancer data

  NEPHO has access to cancer registration data, shortly to be improved by a joint appointment with the Northern Cancer Network and the Cancer Registry. An example of a recent output is the cancer e-atlas, which for the first time makes cancer registry data publically available in an interactive manner on the website. This can be accessed through http://www.nepho.org.uk

• National Library for Public Health

  NEPHO has been commissioned to develop the National Library for Public Health - thus making available the core evidence base for public health in an easily accessible format. The library was formally launched on the 28th April 2008 and is available from http://www.library.nhs.uk/publichealth. We have also been commissioned recently by Health England to provide a database on cost effectiveness of public health interventions

• Regional Maternity Survey Office

  The RMSO collects data on a number of surveys:

  • Northern congenital abnormality survey
  • Perinatal mortality survey
  • Cerebral palsy register
  • Multiple pregnancy register
  • Diabetic Pregnancy register

  The aim of the service is to provide information to commissioners which will enable them to review the service provision for their population more effectively, including, assessing the potential for improvement in existing services as well as providing information to support new modalities of service. It also enables commissioners to monitor inequalities in maternal and child health and benchmark maternity units.

• Europe (NEPHO Lead area)

  We are involved in a number of European funded projects which are concentrating on benchmarking public health indicators across the regions of Europe. This work was originally requested by certain SHAs which demonstrate good health and were looking for wider comparisons. This project now means that NEPHO has the expertise and knowledge to benchmark across the whole of Europe – so that the claim to be providing a world class service can begin to be tested.

• Offender Health (NEPHO Lead area)

  NEPHO is currently working on the development of an offender health observatory. The intention is to collect data that will support the commissioning and provision of offender health services in prisons and in the community and research and development initiatives.

Recent Events

NEPHO hosted an event - "Working together to deliver World Class Commissioning in the North East" which brought together Commissioners, Public Health practitioners, Local Authority and academics from the North East to discuss how we as a region could work together to deliver World Class Commissioning. For more details go here

Further Information

If you would like to discuss any of the above please contact:
Barbara Coyle
Senior Information and Research Manager
NEPHO, Wolfson Research Institute
Durham University, Queens Campus
Stockton on Tees, TS17 6BH
Direct: 0191 334 0368
Office: 0191 334 0392
Email: Barbara.coyle@nepho.org.uk