Trust leaders across all sectors – acute, mental health, specialist, community, and ambulance – are facing significant challenges. Increasing levels of demand, deteriorating finances, and rising operational pressures have created a difficult environment for trust boards to navigate. Trust leaders agree with national policy makers that we cannot meet these challenges acting as single organisations in isolation. Our leaders recognise the premium of partnership working, particularly through provider collaboration within the context of health and care systems.
Despite the challenging environment, the story of provider collaboration is one of optimism.
There are great examples of providers embracing the opportunity to build relationships and deliver better and more efficient services by working together both locally at place, and across systems. This includes standardisation to improve care and services, addressing unwarranted variation in care quality, bolstering service resilience, identifying approaches to support people experiencing inequalities and developing innovative ways of working with other local partners, such as social care providers and primary care services. Some collaborations are also exploring how they could, in time, take on a more formalised role within integrated care systems (ICSs) and lead on transformational change, allocating budgets, planning services, and redesigning pathways.
This guide recognises the local context of each collaboration, acknowledging that providers may also be involved in more than one partnership, across more than one system. It seeks to support and empower trust leaders to navigate key governance considerations, principles and legal models when establishing or reviewing collaborative arrangements.
Working with Browne Jacobson has been very fruitful and ensures we can provide our members with an authoritative legal viewpoint on the models that are available to providers. I’d like to thank them for acting as our partner to develop this resource, alongside colleagues from trusts who have contributed case studies.
Sir Julian Hartley
Chief Executive
NHS Providers