This briefing provides a summary of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2015 (CSR) and the implications for the NHS and Department of Health.  

The government' CSR sets out the budget for each department over the course of this parliament.

Health headlines within the CSR

• The government has confirmed an extra £10bn in real terms for the NHS by 2020/21 (figure 2). This includes the £2bn already announced for 2015/16 in last year’s Autumn Statement). The Treasury highlighted that this “investment will ensure that everyone will be able to access services in hospitals 7 days a week and GP services in the evenings and at the weekend”. 
• The £8bn for the NHS has been frontloaded, with a 3.6% real terms increase for 2016/17 (£3.8bn), £1.5bn in 2017/18, followed by a lower growth rate in the next two years followed by a larger rise in 2020/21.
• The £8bn of additional investment has been applied to NHS England’s budget only (table 1), with substantial reductions being required from non-NHS health budgets. This will likely lead to around 20-25% cuts in other health spending, for example to:
  o   Health Education England (HEE): it is estimated that their budget (currently around £4.9bn) will reduce significantly. Approximately £1.2bn of HEE funding, which currently pays for bursaries for nurse and other allied health professional education, will be removed over this Parliament as a student loans system is introduced for these professions. This action, coupled with the removal of the cap on training places, is expected to lead to an increase of up to 10,000 nurses in training. The budget pressures placed on HEE may lead to freezes in clinical placement fees for medical students and other NHS staff.
   o   Care Quality Commission (CQC): it is likely that the budget for the CQC will be significantly impacted by the spending settlement. The CQC is already consulting on proposals to significantly increase its fees, to offset proposed reductions in the grant-in-aid funding it receives from the Government.
  o   Department of Health (DH) capital budgets: the capital budget will be frozen at £4.8bn a year over the course of this parliament. 

NHS Providers will be working to provider further detail for members in the coming weeks on the implications of the CSR announcement and what the impact will be for the 2016/17 national tariff, planning round, contracting round and commissioner allocations.