As part of the WCC commissioning assurance system, and to demonstrate skills in prioritising and strategic planning, all PCTs are required to choose up to ten local health outcomes that they will be assessed against as part of the assurance of commissioning capability.
This process does not cut across the performance role in delivering against the wider set
of national targets and making progress against the indicators in the Vital Signs. All PCTs
are still required to meet these commitments. The outcomes element of the
commissioning assurance system assesses PCTs on their ability to reflect the strategic
priorities of their partners and local populations and their own abilities to accept that
there are prioritisation decisions to be made locally.
Two of these 10 local outcomes are nationally set (life expectancy and health inequality) and the others are for selection locally in line with the five-year strategic plan being developed by every PCT with its partners. To support PCTs in the selection of these local outcome measures, a national list has been produced based on the Vital Signs. Outcomes are central to WCC and the national list of outcomes for WCC focuses on the subset of the Vital Signs that best reflect outcome metrics.
There are two metrics within the WCC national list that focus on smoking:
smoking quitters at four weeks – rate per 100,000 population aged 16 and over
smoking during pregnancy – actual percentage of women known to be smokers at the time of delivery
Early informal feedback on the 10 local priorities that PCTs are choosing as part of WCC and including in their strategic plans suggests that smoking is featuring highly. This reflects the greater emphasis towards health prevention and promotion. The precise outcomes are not submitted to DH centrally and so feedback is informal at this stage.