PCT Spend and Outcome Factsheets and Tool (SPOT)

The Department of Health has commissioned the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) to develop a tool which helps commissioners to link health outcomes and expenditure. The development of this tool and a Spend and Outcome Factsheet for every PCT in England has been led by Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory.

Programme Budgeting is a well-established technique for assessing investment in programmes of care rather than services. All PCTs in England have submitted an annual programme budgeting return since 2003/4. The tool and factsheets use this Programme Budgeting data and overall indicators of health outcome by programme (where available) to present PCTs with an analysis of the impact of their expenditure. This allows easy identification of those areas which require priority attention, where relative potential shifts in investment opportunities will optimise local health gains and increase quality.

The ability to link expenditure and outcome is explicit in two of the World Class Commissioning competencies; '6 prioritise investment' and '11 make sound financial investments'.

PCTs can use the tool and the factsheets to gain an overview of outcome and expenditure across all programmes. The Health Investment Network section of the World Class Commissioning website contains an E-guide to further tools which are available to analyse programme budget spend by programme and sub-programme and to explore the relationship between spend and outcome within a programme. http://wcc.networks.nhs.uk/healthinvestment

You can choose to either download the Spend and Outcome Factsheet for your PCT or to go to the Spend and Outcome Tool which allows you to explore the data in greater depth and to download the Spend and Outcome Factsheet for your PCT. We have produced a user guide, should you need help interpreting the charts in the profile.