Guidance

Letter to the chief executives of integrated care boards from health ministers, the Women’s Health Ambassador and the Chief Nursing Officer

Updated 25 September 2023

Applies to England

Women’s Health Strategy for England and women’s health hubs

Dear chief executives of integrated care boards (ICBs)

The Women’s Health Strategy for England sets out our 10-year ambitions for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls and improving how the health and care system listens to women.

One of our top priorities is the expansion of women’s health hubs (‘hubs’). Hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services in the community, focusing on improving access to care and reducing health inequalities. We are working across the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England (NHSE), integrated care systems (ICSs) and other women’s health stakeholders to develop resources to help encourage their expansion.

£25 million investment in women’s health hubs

The £25 million investment announced in March will be distributed equally to ICBs, with £595,000 in total for each ICB. This will be transferred over the current and next financial year (that is, 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025), with 75% available in 2023 to 2024 for immediate use.

This is to enable the establishment of at least one women’s health hub in every ICS, covering activities such as project management and workforce development, including staff training and backfill. We encourage you to make full use of your funding allocation to accelerate progress, noting that ICBs will not be expected to incur costs implementing a model that is not recurrently affordable.

Systems can use the funding to establish a new hub or expand an existing hub - either geographically or in terms of services offered. A hub within each ICS can act as a proof of concept to support wider expansion.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to women’s health hubs. It is important that services are provided in a way that best meets population needs and reduces health inequalities. Equally, we need to ensure that hubs help to deliver the ambitions in the Women’s Health Strategy. To achieve this, we have developed a package of resources to support hub implementation, including:

• a core specification for hubs, including a health hubs delivery model

• a cost benefit analysis, which outlines the anticipated set-up costs this funding could be utilised on and the potential net social and financial value of hubs. The central scenario (based on evidence from existing hubs) estimates there will be £5 of benefits for every £1 spent on a primary care network-sized hub

• DHSC has developed a reporting template which should be completed and returned to NHSE by 30 September 2023. These returns will inform the approach to evaluating the implementation and benefits of women’s health hubs nationally, and further local data may be requested in the future. Further summary narrative updates will be requested through the 2024 to 2025 NHS operational planning system submissions

It is expected that the hubs will be established through collaborative working across integrated care partnerships (ICPs), including the NHS, public health and the voluntary and community sector, and through collaborative commissioning of contraception with local authorities. This funding is being transferred to ICBs to minimise administrative barriers, but our expectation is that it is used collaboratively to best meet population needs and must not be restricted by commissioning boundaries.

Engagement and further resources to support implementation

DHSC and NHSE will work together to develop further resources to support the wider expansion of hubs. In the autumn, we will publish a commissioning specification for hubs and a toolkit for virtual group consultations and virtual engagement events in hubs. Additionally, Dame Lesley is hosting a series of webinars with existing hubs and other experts to support you as you develop plans in your system.

A network of women’s health champions

Thank you all for nominating individuals from your system to join our new national network of women’s health champions, co-chaired by Dame Lesley and Charlotte McArdle, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, NHSE. This network brings together leaders in women’s health to support collaboration across system partners to improve provision for women’s health across the life course and reduce health inequalities. Some systems may want to have more than one champion, for example, an executive level ICB or ICP champion, and a place-based champion or clinical lead. The first meeting of the network was held today.

If you would like to share any other work you are doing in women’s health, be involved in developing resources, or have any questions, email sherree.fagge@nhs.uk

We are copying this letter to the chairs of ICBs, the chairs of ICPs, local authority chief executives, NHSE regional directors, and regional directors from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

Yours sincerely

Maria Caulfield, MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy)

The Rt Hon Steve Barclay, MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Professor Dame Lesley Regan
Women’s Health Ambassador for England

Dame Ruth May
Chief Nursing Officer, England