Ambulance Services: Private Sector
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial monitoring arrangements Integrated Care Boards are required to maintain for private ambulance contractors delivering NHS-funded services.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for their delegated functions, including services contracted to private providers such as non-emergency patient transport schemes (NEPTS). The delegation framework for commissioning in the National Health Service transfers the responsibility and financial accountability for managing contracts from NHS England to local ICBs. NHS England remains accountable for the discharge of these functions and will always seek to support an ICB to address issues of financial compliance and ensure resilience of patient transport services.
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the adequacy of the resilience of NEPTS, however NHS England works with ICBs to ensure continued resilience of NEPTS.
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