Financial strategy - Central East ICB

Making every pound count for local people

Our simple rule is: every pound we spend must give clear value and help improve outcomes for local people.

Financial decisions are linked to:

quality of care
our improvement work
our five-layer care model, which shapes all care pathways.

We will focus our money on:

prevention
early help
reliable day-to-day care
reducing unfair differences in care

We will do this while keeping the system stable and sustainable.

Funding and demand

We expect only small increases in funding from NHS England in future years. Most ringfenced money is likely to be removed, which gives us more flexibility but not more money.

At the same time we must keep improving efficiency and productivity.

This means we cannot rely on extra funding to meet rising demand. Instead, we must:

use our resources more effectively
move investment “upstream” into prevention and early help
reduce low-value activity
improve how reliable our processes are.

Around £1 billion of health spend for our population is currently invested outside the Central East area. We will take a more active approach to this money, so it supports better use of NHS services for our residents.

Creating space for change

We will deliberately create financial “headroom” each year to support change and improvement.

Each year we will:

set aside part of our budget for time-limited investment
use this money to support service changes that back our priority programmes
focus on national shifts toward prevention, early intervention, and care closer to home.

These investments will be:

targeted
based on evidence
linked to clear expectations of impact

If they do not deliver the expected benefits, we will review and stop or change them.

Using resources fairly and sustainably

We will work within our fair share of available NHS resources.

This means: aligning funding with healthcare need and avoiding cost pressures being pushed from one part of the system to another.

Financial sustainability is not about doing less for people. It is about:

using money where it brings the greatest benefit
stopping or changing activity that does not improve outcomes.

How we will allocate money in future

From 2026/27, we will move more towards allocating resources based on outcomes and population need and moving away from historic patterns of spend

This approach will follow national guidance and business rules as they are confirmed. Our approach will change over time in a planned way.

Where block contracts remain, we will:

apply NHS England guidance
use pace-of-change thresholds
support a managed and safe transition away from block contracts
protect stability for key services

National payment rules and models

We will continue to work within national financial frameworks. This includes:

using blended payment models in areas such as urgent and emergency care and radiotherapy
paying for elective and other variable activity on a cost and volume basis

These payments will follow: