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Our journey – NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU
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MLCSU – your NHS partner for improving health and integrating care

Midlands & Lancashire CSU has such a privileged position within the NHS. Created even before the NHS changes brought about by the Health & Social Care Act 2012, our services formed in 2011 around the needs of PCT clusters and emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups. They needed safe, strong and effective business support that operated at scale and was therefore resilient and cost effective.

Our staff within those services brought– in some cases – decades of both commissioner and provider experience to the CSU. What followed was a period of maturation, where the CCGs we supported got to grips with their responsibilities and began to demand a different type of support. Operational efficiency was important to them, especially as government austerity meant the NHS had to do more with less. We responded by consolidating three regional CSUs to create a single Midlands & Lancashire body. This allowed us to create centralised hubs of service excellence, amplifying good practice and innovation, while providing embedded, local support on the ground.

The launch of the Lead Provider Framework (LPF) in 2015 provided CCGs the opportunity to test the market and commission business support from England’s six CSUs. LPF was advantageous for us and saw us retain a foothold in all our original regions of Birmingham and Solihull, the Black Country, Shropshire (inc Telford & Wrekin), Staffordshire (inc. Stoke-on-Trent), Herefordshire and Lancashire, while gaining new customers in Cheshire and Merseyside, Worcestershire (inc. Redditch and Bromsgrove), Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

The Five Year Forward View (2014) compelled CCGs to start removing competition of providers and commissioners in favour of collaboration. This is when we began to see NHS support needs shift. Integrated business support is still very important to our CCGs, but emerging structures like Sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) and accountable care systems (ACSs) mean clients require intelligent support to transform and improve care for the people they serve. We’re already working alongside 9 STPs and are ready to deliver the support the ACSs will need.

Today, MLCSU has grown to become a strong, resilient, innovative organisation of 1,600 staff supporting 30 providers and 50 CCGs with a commissioning budget of £13.5 billion and covering a quarter of England’s population. See our journey to date and some the success of which we’re rightly proud.

Get in touch

Sandwell Council House
Freeth St
Oldbury
B69 3DB
Jubilee House

Midlands and Lancashire CSU
Lancashire Business Park
Leyland
Lancashire
PR26 6TR

01772 214200
Bevan House

3rd Floor
Stephenson Way
Wavertree Technology Park
Wavertree
Merseyside
L13 1HN

0151 295 8612/8619
Cardinal Square

3rd Floor North Point,
10 Nottingham Road,
Derby DE1 3QT
East Midlands

01332 868700
St Johns House

St Johns House
30 East Street
Leicester
Leicestershire
LE1 6NB
United Kingdom

0121 611 0100
Wildwood

Drive
Worcester
Worcestershire
WR5 2LG

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