Liberal Democrats in Walsall are accusing NHS England of trying to put a positive spin on what on the face of it amounts to a £1bn cut to NHS spending across England?

Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Ian Shires will be asking his Labour Coalition partners for a Cabinet debate on the effects that the Black Country STP will have on the Council’s Budget

“I couldn’t believe my ears. This morning I heard the biggest load of spin coming out of NHS England on Radio 4 where their spokesperson was explaining that the work done on producing the 44 Sustainable Transformation Plans (STPs) was good news as it would be making sure the best use of the funding available. No mention of the £1bn savings that these plans are supposed to deliver” said Cllr Shires.

The idea of STPs first saw the light of day back in December last year When NHS England outlined their approach to a five year vision of the future of our health service based on the needs of local populations senior figures have agreed to convene the STP process and to oversee the development of local plans. They have been selected following local discussions about who is best placed to play this role, together with discussions with national bodies – have to say I am not too sure who discussed what with whom – but selected they were and they were supposed to have submitted their findings in June with a view to starting to implement them by the autumn. Well they missed those two targets and they still have to “consult” on them.

So who are these “Partners” who decided all of this and are only now seeking our views on their plans for us and our health “going forward” using the vernacular. STPs are a key element on the NHS Shared Planning Guidance and the local implementation of the Five Year Forward View their words not mine. They are supported by six of the national health and care bodies: NHS England, NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Health Education England (HEE), Public Health England (PHE) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Forgive my jaundiced view on all of this but for me the whole thing looks like a stitch up. The secrecy that has surrounded the putting together of these plans, the omission of one of the key partners namely local authorities, from the whole process leads to many questions about the validity of the 44 STPs produced across England. How can you have a comprehensive plan for the future of health care without the full engagement of the provider of adult care?

Then there is the “consultation”. It’s nothing more than a sanitising process to convince people that it’s good to have plans which save £1bn and still provide us with a National Health Service which back in June in the run up to the Referendum had said the NHS would benefit from the £350 million a week we would save from withdrawing from the EU.