Health Services Commissioning in Northern Ireland

In 2014, the Government of Northern Ireland asked the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to provide an assessment of its public-sector reform agenda. Public-administration reform was a key commitment in the 2011-15 Programme for Government (PfG). To help the Northern Ireland Executive give effect to this commitment, this Review assesses reforms already undertaken by Northern Ireland and makes recommendations on potential improvements to existing initiatives and provides advice on possible new reform avenues. As part of the broader Public Governance Review (PGR) of Northern Ireland that the OECD is undertaking, the OECD was asked to conduct a case study on the key elements of Health and Social Care commissioning in Northern Ireland. This document presents the findings of that case study and provides recommendations on potential ways to improve the effectiveness of the delivery of health and social care (HSC) services through better commissioning in Northern Ireland. The focus is on how the commissioning system as a whole functions, including a discussion of how well current commissioning arrangements are placed to support the delivery of health and social care in Northern Ireland. It does not discuss the performance of any individuals who are part of this system. The document builds on OECD experience in the field, existing literature, a small set of targeted interviews with key stakeholders in Northern Ireland to ascertain their perception, and on an international survey on commissioning and health service delivery across selected OECD countries, which was conducted specifically for this report. All analysis in this Case Study is based on information received by 27 August 2015, the date at which the OECD received final comments from the Government of Northern Ireland on the preliminary draft sent to DFP for fact-checking.