Community services transfers to Blackpool FT face five month delay

BTHFT is due to absorb services from Blackpool and North Lancashire’s PCTs, as part of the Transforming Community Services programme to divest commissioners of their provider arms.

All TCS transfers were due to be completed by the end of the last financial year, but the Blackpool transfers are among six in the North West that have been delayed by a backlog at FT regulator Monitor, which has to assess the impact of the proposed transactions.

The transfers to BTHFT are the only ones NHS North West expects to be held up until September, with the other four expected to go through in July.

The strategic health authority’s most recent report gives no suggestion of why BTHFT should be subject to a longer delay, but a previous update, issued by the SHA in March, stated: “For Blackpool there is additional assurance that Monitor is undertaking, due to the fact that Blackpool FT is currently in breach with the [regulator’s] compliance framework.”