Policy paper: NHS Mandate 2015 to 2016

Policy paper: NHS Mandate 2015 to 2016 The NHS mandate for 2015 to 2016 carries forward all existing objectives from the mandate for 2014 to 2015. There are 2 important updates to existing objectives where we expect NHS England to make further progress:

• to join up health and social care services through the Better Care Fund
• to introduce access and waiting time standards in important areas of mental health services by March 2016, as part of its wider objective to work towards parity of esteem between mental and physical health.

It ensures that the Mandate to the NHS: April 2014 to March 2015 remains up to date and relevant. To provide stability, and to ensure the mandate remains affordable and focused on outcomes, changes have been kept to an essential minimum. The updated mandate was produced following engagement with stakeholders, who broadly welcomed a stable mandate for 2015 to 2016.

The NHS Mandate is structured around 5 main areas where the government expects NHS England to make improvements:
preventing people from dying prematurely
enhancing quality of life for people with long-term conditions
helping people to recover from episodes of ill health or following injury
ensuring that people have a positive experience of care
treating and caring for people in a safe environment and protecting them from avoidable harm

The mandate reaffirms the government’s commitment to an NHS that remains available to all, based on clinical need and not ability to pay – and that is able to meet patients’ needs and expectations now and in the future. Department of Health

See also:

• NHS Outcomes Framework 2015 to 2016. Department of Health