The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has detailed its plans for every Integrated Care Board (ICB) to have at least one women’s health hub. The announcement comes almost one year after the Women’s Health Strategy for England was published (on August 3, 2022).
A letter to the Chief Executives of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) - signed by the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Steve Barclay, along with Maria Caulfield MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy), Women’s Health Ambassador for England Professor Dame Lesley Regan and England’s Chief Nursing Officer Dame Ruth May - confirms that the £25m investment announced in March will be distributed equally to ICBs, that is £595,000 in total for each ICB. These funds will be transferred over the current and next financial year, with 75% to be available in 2023-2024 for immediate use to facilitate activities relating to setting up the hubs, such as project management and workforce development, including staff training and backfill.
There is recognition that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach and that services must be provided in a way that meets population needs and reduces health inequalities. Hubs must also help to deliver the ambitions in the Women’s Health Strategy.
A package of resources has been developed to support hub implementation, including:
• Core specification for hubs, including a health hubs delivery model
• 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
• A reporting template which should be completed and returned to NHS England (NHSE) by September 30, 2023, which will help to inform the approach to evaluating the implementation and benefits of women’s health hubs nationally. Further local data may be requested in the future, and summary narrative updates will be requested through the 2024-25 NHS operational planning system submissions.
Establishing these ‘hubs’ is one of the DHSC’s top priorities, and it expects that they will be established through collaborative working across Integrated Care Partnerships, to include the NHS, public health and the voluntary and community sector, and through collaborative commissioning of contraception with local authorities.
DHSC and NHSE will work together to develop further resources to support the wider expansion of hubs.
