NHSU folds in arm’s length review

A new Special Health Authority, the NHS Institute for Learning, Skills and Innovation (NILSI), is to replace the NHSU, NHS Modernisation Agency and the NHS Leadership Centre as well as supporting a new Innovation Centre.

The announcement comes in health secretary John Reid’s publication of the full implementation framework for the DH’s arms-length bodies review, and represents another step towards reducing the total number by nearly half.

Chair of the NHSU Barbara Stephens said: “We see this new organisation as an opportunity to drive forward the agenda for innovation, learning and improvement in the NHS, building on the successes of both NHSU and the Modernisation Agency."

In a statement, the NHSU said that it counted the creation of e-learning strategies and systems for the NHS as one of its main achievements in the year of its existence.

Signs of difficulties emerged earlier this year when the NHSU – which never managed to obtain its full university title – cancelled the procurement for a virtual campus

NILSI is planned to start up by July next year, and will incorporate the management of a new Innovation Centre that will help to nationally spread new ideas from individual members of the NHS. The site of the new SHA has not yet been decided, although it will be outside the south-east of England – in compliance with the Lyons review.

In addition, the implementation formalises the creation of the Health and Social Care Information Centre as an SHA, and paves the way for the formation of a shadow HSCIC next month. Bob Allen, chief executive of Airedale NHS Trust, has been seconded to the position of interim chief executive of the HSCIC until it is established on 1 April 2005.

Also confirmed is the creation of the National Programme for IT as an executive agency on the same date, and a chair and a chief executive is to be appointed in time for this. The role of the NHS Information Authority is to be split between HSCIC and NPfIT as recommended in the arm’s length bodies review.

The DH claims that the merge of the NHSU, NHS Modernisation Agency and the Leadership Centre will save £100m through “more efficient procurement".

John Reid said: “The organisation of arm’s length bodies has grown over several decades and no longer meets the health and social care needs of today or the future… This is a vital step in the NHS’s long-term programme of reform to improve efficiency and reduce bureaucracy."