The Barnet Project

Key stakeholders share their plans for Barnet at a lunch event
in March 2007

In March 2008, the Barnet project completed phases I and II. It is now handed over to Barnet Primary Care Trust, which will be leading the implementation of phase III.

In phase I, a Delivering Choice project team supported the local health and social care community to understand the current state of services, and then, in phase II, design new service models to address the barriers to quality care.

In partnership with local service providers, the project team facilitated five working groups to develop several solutions to improve services. The groups focused on:

• Improving access to palliative and end of life care services.
• Providing good quality palliative and end of life care in the community.
• Providing good quality palliative and end of life care in hospital, and appropriate and timely discharge.
• Education and training.
• Commissioning palliative and end of life care services.

Commissioning framework

Barnet is the first Delivering Choice project to focus from the outset on improving the commissioning of palliative and end of life care. The overall outcome of this project – the Commissioning Framework for Palliative and End of Life care in Barnet – will help Barnet PCT channel its funding towards supporting existing high quality palliative care services, and improving the areas of palliative care that need it most.

The commissioning framework describes:

• A shared local vision for palliative and end of life care in Barnet.
• Plans for improving commissioning of palliative and end of life care in future, with principles that will underpin all commissioning arrangements.
• An agreed patient pathway and service model for palliative and end of life care.
• Proposed service improvements that will be taken forward as a programme.

The Framework has been endorsed by the Project Stakeholder Board, Executive Committee and Barnet PCT Board as a robust document that will guide the PCT and local stakeholders in developing improvements to end of life care.

Download the Commissioning Framework summary (pdf document)

Next steps

Barnet PCT will now lead the project into Phase III, which will see:

• Implementation of proposed service improvements developed during phase II; and
• Negotiations with local providers to improve commissioning arrangements for palliative and end of life care and ensure that funding arrangements are placed on a firmer footing.

The Delivering Choice Programme team will continue to be involved in supporting the project and undertaking progress reviews. They will also ensure that learning from the project is made available for other health and social care communities.

Related links
Phase III project updates
Read more about the Barnet project launch.