The planning guidance for 2022/23 focuses on 10 priority areas for the healthcare system including workforce, COVID-19 response, elective care, urgent care, primary care, mental health, population health management, digital, resources, and integrated care boards. Key actions include reducing the elective backlog, improving access to primary care and mental health services, using digital tools and data to redesign care, and establishing integrated care boards to develop 5-year strategic plans. The overall message is that the system must have a population health focus, primary care must influence plans, and partnership working is needed to implement new models of care.

1. Planning guidance 2022/23
Implications, actions and
directions…what does it mean for
primary care?

2. Ten
priority
areas
Focus across all areas on :
• Prevention of ill-health
• Tackling of health inequalities
• Enhancing productivity and
value for money
• Supporting broader social and
economic development
Workforce
* COVID-19
response
Elective care
Urgent care Primary care
Mental health and
learning disability
Population health
management
Digital
Effective use of
resources
Integrated care
boards
Based on the proviso that COVID-19 infection rates return to low levels
*At the time of publication level 4 incident level in place as a result of omicron variant
Financial plan – revenue allocations- for one year; capital allocations - for three years
All under continual review
New target date for statutory
arrangements- 1 July 2022
SYSTEM FOCUSSED

3. Workforce
• Continued investment
• New ways of working
• Strengthening compassionate
and inclusive culture
COVID-19
• Vaccination programme
• Care for patients with COVID
Points to note
• Whole system workforce plans to set
out how to increase workforce
• ARRS to deliver 26,000 roles to support
creation of multidisciplinary teams
• Accelerated introduction of new roles
such as first contact practitioners and
expanding advanced clinical
practitioners
• Suite of national GP recruitment and
retention initiatives
Impact on primary care
• General practice and community
pharmacy remain a key component of
the infrastructure to deliver the
vaccination programme
• Activity of other primary care
contractors is compromised by
guidelines around infection control

4. Elective care
• Increased activity to tackle backlog
• Reduce long waits - over 104 weeks
• Improve cancer waiting times
• £2.3 billion elective recovery
funding
• £1.5 billion of capital
Urgent and emergency care
• Improve responsiveness
• 5,000 extra beds
• National funding to develop virtual ward
models by Dec 2022
• Improved urgent two hour community
response
Points to note
• Every system has to develop an elective
care recovery plan
• Systems and providers will need to be
involved in plans to prioritise and assess
risk.
• Systems to draw up plans across inpatient,
outpatient and diagnostic services
• PCNs to support implementation of early
cancer diagnoses as per the contract DES
Points to note
• Systems asked to build on work in the 10
point action plan
• Plans to be put in place for integrated health
and care plans for children and young
people’s services
• A key focus will be on anticipatory care

5. Primary care
• Improve timely access
• Maximise the impact of investment to
expand capacity
• Drive integrated working at neighbourhood
and place level
• Digital first primary care by 2023/24
Community pharmacist consultation service
- timescale Oct 2022
• Every opportunity to secure universal
participation and to drive lower acuity of
care from GP and NHS 111
• Supported by the impact and investment
fund indicator for PCNs.
• Community pharmacy to support delivery
of care processes such as BP monitoring
Network DES
• Phased introduction of anticipatory care and
personalised care
• CVD diagnosis and prevention to be
expanded
Dental Services
Focus on maximising clinically appropriate
activity in light of infection control measures
Targeting capacity to meet urgent care demand
Points to note
• Systems are to ensure the involvement of
PCNs, community services and also
community pharmacy.
• Systems to support PCN recruitment
including shared employment models
• Expansion of number of GPs to continue
• Promotion of community pharmacist
consultation service to continue
From July 2022- ICBs will become delegated commissioners for primary medical services (and in some cases dental, community
pharmacy and optometry).

6. Mental health and learning
disability services
• Continued investment
• Transform and expand
community health services and
improve access
Population health management
• Continued focus
• Using data to redesign care
pathways with a focus on improving
access and health equity for
underserved communities
Points to note
• PCNs asked to continue to use the
mental health practitioner roles
• Learning disabilities- Increase the rate
of annual health checks to 75% by
2023/24
• Continue to improve the accuracy of
coding on GP systems
Points to note
• By April 2023 - every system will have
the technical capability for population
health management
• Will allow prediction and risk
stratification
• The system will also restore diagnosis,
treatment and management of
hypertension, AF and high cholesterol
and diabetes.
• Renewed focus on screening

7. Digital
• Exploit potential of digital
technologies
• Achievement of a core level of
digitisation in every service
across systems
• General practices to promote
NHS App and NHS.UK to
reach 60% of population by
2023
• Shared care record expansion,
including social care
• Provision of robust cyber
security
Resources
• Return to pre-pandemic levels
and beyond
• Fully restore core services
• Make in-roads to address
elective backlog
• ICB and partner objective to
deliver financially balanced
system

8. Establishment of ICBs
Working together with local
stakeholders across the ICS to
develop a five year strategic plan
Continued focus…
• Five priority areas for tackling
health inequalities
• Population health management
• Core20PLUS5 – approach to
reducing health inequalities
From July 2022- ICBs will become delegated
commissioners for primary medical services
(and in some cases dental, community
pharmacy and optometry) .
2023/24- Dental, community pharmacy and
optometry will all be delegated.
Subject to the passage of the Health and Care
bill

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Overall message from the plan
● System population health focussed, primary care will need to ensure it has a
voice and influences
● Clear targets, but acknowledgement that this will be under review due to the
changing situation with the pandemic
● Partnership working, grow workforce, work differently
● Implement new models of care, build community care capacity and virtual
wards
● Digital tools and timely, accurate information are a continued focus
Link to document

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