Welcome to the LP PS Provider Services Development Programme

The Local Partnerships (LP) Provider Services Development Programme for PCT Provider Arms was launched early in 2007.

The LP Public Services (PS) team, working with a cohort of PCTs, put the support framework together to aid the provider arms as they separate their services from the commissioning side of the PCT.

It was a response to the policy agenda outlined in the 2006 White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say and the 2008-09 NHS Operating Plan, which clearly indicated the need for PCTs in England to separate their provider functions from their commissioning responsibilities and derive higher quality health outcomes and value for money through a contestable and plural market place.

The programme is designed to enable robust decision-making and sound capability building for PCTs, on both the commissioning and providing side, as they put in place the structures and mechanisms needed to separate from each other.

The PCTs in the programme are securing real benefits through the ‘learning-set’ approach which gives them access to each other for shared experience and learning, jointly developed programme tools, processes and materials; and access to expert programme, project and technical expertise.