NHS England: Update on the Recovery Support Programme (5 December 2024)

Summary

 The NHS Oversight Framework (NOF) outlines NHS England’s national approach to oversight of integrated care board (ICBs) and trusts, and how it monitors performance against key NHS commitments.

The Recovery Support Programme (RSP), working with regional and national NHS England teams, provides focused intensive support and oversight to ICBs and NHS trusts/foundation trusts that are in segment 4 of the NHS Oversight Framework.

The RSP has been in place since July 2021 and replaced the previous special measures’ programmes. There are currently 20 NHS providers and 3 ICBs enrolled in the RSP and the list of organisations is published on the NHS England website.

Organisations in the RSP receive support (for example, financially and through the provision of additional resource) for a time-limited period with exit criteria agreed that will demonstrate sustainable improvement and recovery. The RSP approach can be applied to an individual NHS organisation, or across a whole system, comprising the ICB and constituent NHS providers.

This paper outlines the current RSP approach and describes the work underway to update NHS England’s approach to improve performance in the most challenged organisations.