NHS Franchising Register of Expertise (Hansard, 19 December 2002)

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

National Health Service franchising is a new approach being taken by the Department of Health to find the best available managers to take over the functions of the chief executive and, where necessary, other senior management positions in, and to identify organisations which might be called upon to exercise the functions of, some of the most poorly performing NHS trusts in England. The prime goal under new franchised management arrangements will be to address the particular areas where a trust has performed poorly and to demonstrate its capacity to sustain improved performance.

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Franchising will bring in new management skills to trusts that have been under-performing, as part of the Government's wider drive to raise standards in all parts of the NHS.

Until now, NHS franchises have only been awarded to suitably qualified people within the NHS. The department has now widened these opportunities to other areas of the public sector, the voluntary sector and the private sector, as well as to suitably qualified individuals, by inviting formal applications from both within and outside the NHS for inclusion on the NHS franchising register of expertise.

The names of the organisations on the National Health Service franchising register of expertise have been published today and a copy has been placed in the Library. It is also available on the Department of Health's website at www.doh.gov.uk/nhsfranchising. The register includes 62 NHS trusts whose three star status gives them automatic inclusion on the register, Trent Strategic Health Authority and eight private sector organizations—five of which are based in Britain, one in Germany, one in Canada and one has its parent company based in Sweden.

The NHS Appointments Commission set up an independent panel, under the chairmanship of Sir William Wells, to assess the applications received from organisations and individuals who expressed an interest following national advertisements in May 2002. The criteria for entry to the register were designed to assess interested parties' expertise and commitment to the public service ethos necessary to turn round failing NHS organisations and services in the future. The criteria included a commitment to the ethos of public services, expertise in managing and improving performance in large and complex service delivery organisations and an excellent track record in both financial and human resource management.

Following the July 2002 performance star ratings, the management of two zero star trusts will be franchised. These are United Bristol Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust.

The Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust, Birmingham, will also be franchised following an investigation around the mismanagement of waiting list figures. As a result the trust has been reclassified to zero star. The trust held a disciplinary hearing at which the chief executive was found guilty of gross misconduct and summarily dismissed. The data underlying the trust's star rating has been reviewed and the performance rating recalculated.

The department will shortly be inviting those on the NHS franchising register of expertise to tender for the franchises in these trusts early in the new year, along with the interim management team at Bath.