Guidance

Annex C: additional functions from 1 October 2021

Published 22 February 2023

Applies to England

With effect from 1 October 2021, delegated exercise of the Secretary of State’s public health functions by NHS England also includes the following functions (previously exercised by Public Health England).

Screening

i) Functions providing national support for service commissioning and delivery of high-quality, safe, effective, equitable and acceptable screening programmes

Functions relating to the development, oversight and quality improvement of extant and new population screening programmes, including:

• undertaking work to evaluate the effectiveness of innovation and changes in delivery models, and advising other bodies and organisations about these functions
• arranging or securing the provision of IT and other services to support the provision of population screening programmes, and enable reporting and evaluation
• responsibility for data publications and the necessary analysis for the production of these reports
• responsibility for commissioning live IT services for screening
• responsibility for production of all public-facing information
• responsibility for running the research advisory committee process and access to screening data for academic purposes via the Office for Data Release
• responsibility for delivery of in-service evaluations for UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC)

Screening programmes will continue to be defined by the Secretary of State drawing upon recommendations of the UKNSC.

ii) Provision of an effective Screening Quality Assurance Service (SQAS)

Functions undertaking analysis, audits and inspections to assess and assure the quality of screening programmes including:

• with appropriate arrangements for timely internal sharing of quality assessments to support learning and mitigations, and transparency via published reports to ensure public confidence
• SQAS should closely support commissioning and operational delivery, with the ability to escalate through a separate NHS England reporting line or to the Care Quality Commission if necessary

Healthcare: public health functions – applying public health sciences to the planning, commissioning and provision of healthcare services

The promotion of healthcare public health, including through:

• the provision of training in public health with due regard to any standards and requirements set by other national bodies
• supporting healthcare organisations to understand and use population health data, including understanding their existing health inequalities and the evidence base for improving population health and reducing inequalities
• supporting healthcare organisations to:
  • interpret population health data and evidence
  • undertake reviews of the likely effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a range of interventions, developments and strategies on population health outcomes
  • identify gaps or deficiencies in current care and produce recommendations for improvements, including in relation to specific pathways of care
• using and supporting health organisations to use health economic tools to:
  • support decision-making and interpreting data about the surveillance or assessment of a population’s health
  • improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities
• the development of population health policies and strategies, and their implementation

Other arrangements and practicalities

The arrangements set out here are expected to be broadly stable and enduring from year to year, and may be assumed as a basis for future planning.

For the avoidance of doubt, NHS England may take whatever steps it reasonably considers calculated to achieve the effective exercise of these functions within the available resource envelope.

Further details to aid safe transition of the functions and associated data and support are set out in one or more memorandums of understanding and co-operation between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency.