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CRN North Thames funding model 2022/23

Contents

Background

The NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN)  is directly funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

CRN North Thames, which is part of the NIHR CRN, received £31.1m in 2022/23 as part of this funding. 

In the previous two years – 2020/21 and 2021/22 – CRN North Thames introduced a performance element to the funding allocation model for our Partner Organisations (POs). Last year, the breakdown of this element was 57.5% historic funding, 40% cost per weighted recruit (CPWR) and 2.5% recruitment to time and target for commercial contract studies (CRN High Level Objective 2a). At the same time, the POs were given more autonomy to manage their resources and CRN funding.

Since March 2020, clinical services and research at POs have been largely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes standard performance metrics (weighted recruitment and CPWR) difficult to apply or measure relative performance across our POs.  

In 2021/22, the DHSC provided £1.7m of one-off additional funding to alleviate cost pressures from previous years. CRN North Thames does not expect to receive any additional funding in 2022/23. 

2022/23 approach

DHSC has directed all  Clinical Research Networks  to ring-fence a minimum of 2% of their budget for delivering initiatives to help increase access of research to the underserved communities in their local regions. The increase to pensions for NHS employees will be funded centrally by the government.

Due to CRN North Thames receiving the same funding as last year (excluding any one-off funding streams to support restart of research) and due to the unique situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was recognised by the CRN North Thames Executive Group that implementing a performance measure would be extremely difficult, even though this group recognises the importance of promoting and rewarding efficient use of public funds. The proposal for this year will be to keep the PO allocations unchanged from 2021/22 and if an increase in funding is received from DHSC, CRN North Thames will allocate this using a performance-based model, which will be agreed beforehand. 

Cap and collar: These are in place to protect the amount of funding allocated to our POs by ensuring any change in year-on-year funding is limited. They will remain unchanged at +10% (cap/increase) and -20% (collar/decrease).

2021/22 Budget

This year's allocation for CRN North Thames from the DHSC is the same as last year, excluding £1.9m of one-off funding to support restart of research, at £31.1m.  

 22/23 (£m)21/22 (£m)
Core 30.1 30.1
Top slice 0.1 0.1
Transforming research 0.8 0.8
Public Health prevention research 0.1 0.1
Annual Financial plan (AFP) 31.1 31.1
Restart of research  0 1.9
Total budget  31.1 33.1

Annual Financial Plan 2022/23

Annual Financial Plan 2022/23£'s
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust 862,055
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust  218,866
Barts Health NHS Trust (Delivery)  5,915,301
Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust  577,621
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (North Thames)  712,633
East London NHS Foundation Trust  332,757
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust  442,142
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust  1,631,779
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust  67,462
Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust  579,905
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust 2,447,909
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust  701,404
North East London NHS Foundation Trust  691,116
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust  377,509
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust  407,590
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust  2,319,218
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust 208,751 216,704
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust 61,277
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 5,538,213
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust  470,877
Whittington Health NHS Trust  407,435
Trust Total  24,979,783
   
Primary Care - London  739,061
Primary Care - LEH  312,598
Primary Care Total  1,051,659
   
Barts Health NHS Trust (Host)  3,155,339
Direct Delivery Workforce 833,333
Local Specialty Leads 342,969
National Specialty Leads 72,468
Local Authority Support 87,510
Strategic Activity 500,000
Contingency  74,818
Total  31,097,879