Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

You are here:

The NHS in England: The operating framework for 2009/10

  • Document type:
    Guidance
  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    8 December 2008
  • Publication format:
    A4
  • Product number:
    290516
  • Gateway reference:
    10967
  • Pages:
    52
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown

The operating framework sets out a brief overview of the priorities for the NHS next year. It is accompanied by annexes (some part of the document, some web-based only) which provide more detail on the priorities, how they are measured and how the new arrangements for managing the system will work.

The operating framework 2009-10: for the NHS in England sets out:

  1. The health and service priorities for 2009/10:  Strengthening the focus on subsidiarity whilst maintaining the 5 national priorities and the Vital Signs agreed for the 3 year CSR period 2008/09 – 2010/11. Patient experience is the final arbiter of success.
  2. A system designed to deliver quality:  making quality the organising principle of the NHS.  The local visions set out in High Quality Care for All puts quality at the centre of all the NHS does, this focuses on the levers and incentives to further build on this, including staff engagement for the benefit of patients and the public.
  3. The financial regime:  Maintaining a framework that supports quality and innovative improvements in services within available resources.  Key to this is asking the NHS to go further to ensure it makes the best use of taxpayers’ money.
  4. The business processes:  Ensuring that planning is based on locally led decision making and maintaining the emphasis on genuine partnership working at a local level with local government and other partners. 

As referenced in Annex D of the operating framework, the new standard NHS contracts for acute hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services have been published on 10 December. It is hoped to publish supporting guidance by Friday 12 December.

The operating framework is underpinned by the PCT allocations, the road testing of the new tariff, the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation Payment Framework, and Informatics planning guidance.

David Nicholson on The NHS in England: The operating framework for 2009/10

David Nicholson provides an overview of the 2009-10 Operating Framework and the PCT allocations that underpin it.

Additional links

Related links

Ordering publications

Contact details for obtaining hard-copy DH publications.

Help viewing PDFs

Help viewing PDFs

Useful tips to ensure you get the most from PDFs and the free Reader program. Topics covered include accessibility, troubleshooting and searching files.

Additional Links

Access keys