What is the Managed Clinical Network (East of
England)?
Over a number of years, commissioners and providers of mental
health and learning disability services in the East of England have
worked with patients and members of the public to improve the
quality of local services. Changes to commissioning
arrangements mean that structures that previously supported this
work has now ended. However, the commissioning bodies and
local service providers remain committed to working together to
identify problems with current service provision and find ways to
improve service quality.
The NHS Midlands and East mental health and
learning disabilities programme is contracted with the Royal
College of Psychiatrist’s Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) to
pilot a strategic managed clinical network (MCN) for mental health
and learning disabilities (MHLD) across the 6 counties of the East
of England region. The pilot began in July 2012 and
is currently running for 18 months. The MCN will be aligned to
existing formally mandated networks and those currently being
developed by the national
commissioning board.
The key function and role for the MCN is to
support commissioning and delivery of safe, sustainable, high
quality MHLD services across the East of England. The
pilot is building on successful collaboration between
service commissioners, providers and service users in the East of
England region to provide administrative and technical
assistance to help stakeholders:
- identify priorities for service
improvement;
- establish standards for service provision
which reflect national recommendations, policy and guidelines,
taking account of local context;
- collect data to compare current practice
against these standards;
- develop and implement changes to the
organisation and delivery of services aimed at driving up standards
of care;
- improve capacity to deliver
improvement;
- use valid measures to monitor the impact of these changes
and set new areas for further quality improvement.
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