NHS Providers welcomes the opportunity to comment on the draft 2019/20 NHS standard contract. This exercise demonstrates the value and importance of engaging with the sector to help develop national policy. Taken as a whole, the changes to the contract represent a positive step forward in reducing the transactional burden on both commissioners and providers, particularly as organisations increasingly look to undertake more collaborative system working. Nevertheless, there are several changes that we have concerns about and urge NHS England to rethink ahead of final publication.

We have previously expressed concerns over the lack of alignment between the aggregate contract monitoring report consultation, launched in December 2017, and the standard contract national consultation. While we are please to see a more joined up approach this year, it is frustrating to see a repeat of this consultation a year after we first responded. We hope for more joined up approached on national consultations in the future, so that frontline NHS staff can spend less time formulating response. We have resubmitted out concerns to these changes separately.