Purchasing the best care within the funds you have available can be a challenge when patients’ needs can’t be met by standard healthcare packages. Our expert support ensures that decisions are made transparently, supported by the right processes and administration to enable the delivery of the best patient care and use of public funds.

Our individual funding request (IFR) team has a specialist management and administration expertise to ensure that your IFR process is effective, transparent and consistent. We have extensive experience, having set up the IFR service in Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire.

Our service covers the screening and management of IFRs against clinical commissioning policies, exceptionality requests and developing policies to improve decision-making and equity. Our policies have been developed in conjunction with legal teams and commended by clients.

What we do

We provide comprehensive patient-specific IFR services as well as evidence-led and value-based policy development and implementation support. We’re already realising huge efficiencies for a range of NHS bodies through our extensive NHS expertise and robust evidence-based approach.

Individual funding requests

IFRs are designed to provide patients and healthcare workers with a thorough and transparent method for deciding the suitability of treatment and the healthcare benefits. Individual funding is a highly sensitive, highly detailed and highly specialised part of decision-making responsibilities. Rigour and transparency are vital but our research shows there’s wide variation in how IFRs are managed.

We provide an evidence-led, value-based efficient, robust and – most importantly – a consistent IFR service. We deliver expertise, experience, flexibility and economies of scale alongside specific knowledge, resources and technology that support the unique policies and circumstances of each health system. Our streamlined solution involves educating clinicians and implementing an electronic system for submitting applications for funding.

Policy development

Having clear treatment policies in place ensures that referral, treatment and funding decisions are appropriate, clinically- and cost-effective, and ethical. Policy development is made of important components that all need expert programme management, including:

• Clinical evidence review
• Consultation and engagement with health system stakeholders (GPs, consultants, providers, patient interest groups, the third sector)
• Equality impact and risk assessments
• Patient and clinician communications to support adoption, education and understanding
• Support for implementation, such as updating contracts, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of impact and outcomes.

Our best-in-class approach has influenced the development of NHS England’s nationwide toolkit for policy development. We’re already bringing the benefits of policy development to several clients in the North West and Lancashire – get in touch to learn how we could help your organisation.