numbers basically decimated the financial position of every organisation apart from primary care.” Optum’s involvement in the programme had added to the complexity of partnership working. The nature of the Modality/Optum relationship, with a perceived strong commercial orientation towards growing opportunities in primary care, had fuelled in the words of one – interviewee perceptions” and fostered some wariness about information sharing. – “negative Questions were also raised about the extent of Optum’s commitment to transforming services in Sandwell and West Birmingham, and the possibility that this commitment was dependent on them seeing a financial return on investment in the short-medium term, which given the – scale and complexity of the changes being made was unlikely to be achievable. – a provider-led vanguard An important feature of Connected Care is that is it a provider-led vanguard, one of only four such MCP vanguards in NHS England’s New Care Model’s programme. While Connected Care was demonstrating the potential for GP organisations to lead service and pathway redesign, being a provider-led vanguard had also created additional challenges. Most strikingly, there was a lack of clarity and agreement about what role the commissioner (Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG) should be playing, but at the same time many held the view that the programme would have benefited from engaging commissioners at an earlier stage. Tensions between the national New Care Models programme and local implementation were evident, with the negotiation and signing off of the vanguard’s value proposition by NHS England leaving the CCG feeling somewhat sidelined in the design process. The CCG reported
numbers basically decimated the financial position of every organisation apart from primary care.” Optum’s involvement in the programme had added to the complexity of partnership working. The nature of the Modality/Optum relationship, with a perceived strong commercial orientation towards growing opportunities in primary care, had fuelled – in the words of one interviewee – “negative perceptions” and fostered some wariness about information sharing. Questions were also raised about the extent of Optum’s commitment to transforming services in Sandwell and West Birmingham, and the possibility that this commitment was dependent on them seeing a financial return on investment in the short-medium term, which – given the scale and complexity of the changes being made – was unlikely to be achievable. a provider-led vanguard An important feature of Connected Care is that is it a provider-led vanguard, one of only four such MCP vanguards in NHS England’s New Care Model’s programme. While Connected Care was demonstrating the potential for GP organisations to lead service and pathway redesign, being a provider-led vanguard had also created additional challenges. Most strikingly, there was a lack of clarity and agreement about what role the commissioner (Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG) should be playing, but at the same time many held the view that the programme would have benefited from engaging commissioners at an earlier stage. Tensions between the national New Care Models programme and local implementation were evident, with the negotiation and signing off of the vanguard’s value proposition by NHS England leaving the CCG feeling somewhat sidelined in the design process. The CCG reported