Coventry and Warwickshire is set to become the first area in the West Midlands to take on an accountable care system (ACS) ‘as early as the autumn of this year’.
According to West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) wellbeing board meeting papers, the Coventry and Warwickshire sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) is likely to be the first partnership in the area to become an ACS.
Coventry and Warwickshire is set to become the first area in the West Midlands to take on an accountable care system (ACS) ‘as early as the autumn of this year’.
According to West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) wellbeing board meeting papers, the Coventry and Warwickshire sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) is likely to be the first partnership in the area to become an ACS.
NHS England announced in March that ‘evolved’ STPs would become further integrated ACSs that manage funding for their population and operate as vertically and horizontally integrated systems with hospital networks and GP practice hubs that serve up to 50,000 patients.
The Next Steps on the Five Year Forward View document presented nine areas that were likely candidates to become ACSs first. However, Coventry and Warwickshire was not on the list.
The board papers said: ‘In the West Midlands each STP is invited to have the discussion on their ambition and identify if they are ready now – to move to this in this year, or are confident they will be ready early in 2018-19, or are not ready yet.
‘Coventry and Warwickshire have indicated that this STP is likely to be the first in our WMCA area to go into this new ACS structure, potentially as early as the autumn of this year (2017), and offers great opportunities for learning for the other STP’s.’
The board paper also highlights the impact the new structure will have on local commissioners, saying that commissioning will take on a ‘strategic role’ in STPs, with CCGs adopting a ‘single view’ on key decisions.
The three CCGs in Coventry and Warwickshire STP are establishing a joint committee and a shared management team between two of the CCGs.
Elsewhere in the area, the three CCGs in Birmingham and Solihull STP are looking to merge subject to a consultation, while in The Black Country, two of the four CCGs have a shared management team.
