Women’s health hubs in every ICB by end of 2024
The recently published 2024/25 Priorities and operational planning guidance asks Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to “establish and develop at least one women’s health hub in every ICB by the end of December 2024 in the line with the core specification, improving access, experience and quality of care.” The ambition is to improve access to services and reduce health inequalities by bringing together healthcare professionals and integrating existing services as outlined in the Women’s Strategy.
On 22 April 2024 ICB chief executives and ICB chairs received a letter from NHS England outlining further guidance on women’s health hubs and their expectations that at least 75% of ICBs have a hub in place by July 2024 that meets the minimum requirements, including a virtual option.
The expansion of women’s health hubs is a key priority with a commitment to invest £25 million in women’s health hubs over 2023/24 and 2024/25, with £595,000 in total for each ICB. We understand the first instalment was issued in 2023/24 and NHS England is transferring the remaining balance to ICBs this month.
NHS England explain that the funding allocated to each ICB for hubs “must be spent only for this purpose and any ICB underspend against this funding will be adjusted for in month 12 2024/25. Each ICB is encouraged to make full use of their funding allocation to accelerate progress, noting that they will not be expected to incur costs implementing a model that is not recurrently affordable.”
Annex 1 to the letter outlines how funding can be used and the expectation of service provision both virtually and face-to-face. NHS England has also updated its resources to support hub implementation including:
- Core specification for hubs
- Cost benefit analysis of hubs
- NHS England also plan to publish hub collaborative commissioning guidance, which they will share with regional NHS England and ICB women’s health champions
ICBs will also be required to complete a data collection to help track progress in the development of the hubs and to enable NHS England to support those ICBs who require additional assistance. The monthly collection will happen until March 2025 to allow for all ICBs to have at least one hub fully operational.
ICBs need to ensure that they complete the first monthly collection using this form by 31 May 2024.
If you’d like to discuss any of the issues raised here or require support with your hub implementation, do contacts us. We have experience supporting commissioners on a range of NHS digital transformation projects.