Leak reveals management consultants’ role in recovery plans

Earlier this week, HSJ reported that seven management consultancy firms would be paid up to £21m to “support” every ICS design its elective recovery plans by April.

According to internal NHS documents, leaked to HSJ, the firms will provide “tailored skills and expertise” to help ICS teams develop their plans.

This includes “programme management and delivery, strategy and planning support and analytics and modelling”, the document states.

The ICS plans are expected to form the start of a “multi-year planning approach”.

ICSs have not yet finished appointing their leadership teams and are not set to become statutory organisations until July.

The document, shared with ICS and regional chiefs in a presentation by NHS elective care chief Sir Jim Mackey, states the consultancies will work alongside ICS teams to “ensure” the ICS plans achieve many objectives.

These objectives include:

• Delivering or exceeding the expected performance ambitions… and are “triangulated across activity, finance and workforce capacity”;
• Making “full use of transformational opportunities” to manage demand, increase capacity or improve productivity; 
• Having a clear link to the health inequalities agenda; and
• Maximising elective activity through all available options including making use of the available independent sector capacity. 

NHSE says in the document it recognises that ICSs have “different and varying needs” and adds that the consultancy firms must “make use of existing data flows and nationally developed models and planning tools”.

The regulator has set up a “national co-ordination function” hosted by NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, which will “ensure ICSs have access to the required skills and expertise from delivery partners”.

While the firms will play a prominent role in the creation of each ICS’ plan for 2022-23, the plans must be signed off by both ICS and NHS providers’ chief executives.

A timeline in the document states the firms have an internal deadline at the start of March to commence sign-off processes for ICS plans, with plans due to be finalised for sign-off by local NHS chiefs by the end of March.

The seven selected suppliers are: Bramble Hub Limited, Deloitte LLP, EY LLP, KPMG LLP, McKinsey & Co, Newton Europe and PwC LLP.

Earlier this week NHSE told HSJ the firms’ “short-term analytical and planning support from existing approved suppliers will be made available for local areas to use as needed”.