What is the Targeted Investment Fund?

ICS funding allocation by region

One major funding announcement was made in the UK Government’s recent Spending Review. The review states a further £700 million has been allocated to all major regions across the UK to support the NHS this winter via the Targeted Investment Fund (TIF).

The funding will cover the costs of:

  • additional day surgery units to boost activity and avoid patients having to stay overnight or longer
  • additional permanent and modular theatres and surgical hubs in multiple trusts to drive up the number of operations which can be carried out
  • expanding outpatient space for those not staying overnight, to increase the numbers of patients that can be seen
  • upgraded or new imaging equipment, including MRI and mobile breast screening units

In total, 785 schemes have been approved, including the following major projects:

  • £13.8 million for new wards at University Hospitals Birmingham, delivering an expected 164 additional adult inpatient beds across the trust
  • £14.4 million at St George’s Hospitals to deliver a new modular facility providing 20 intensive treatment unit beds
  • £10.2 million to develop a new South Mersey Elective Hub, with 2 new theatres and recovery areas
  • £10 million for a day surgery site in Castle Hill Hospital in Hull, which will house 4 theatres, as well as all supporting services
  • £7.1 million to build a modular ward at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with 32 beds
  • £5.9 million at Bedford Hospital to create 20 flexible multi-purpose outpatient rooms

The funding is in addition to the increased healthcare funding of £36 billion over the next 3 years, set out in the  Health and Social Care Levy.

We can assume funding allocated to each major region will then be distributed to local ICSs, depending on their maturity.

The table below outlines the TIF funding across the UK:

Funding split across the UK via the TIF

Regional spotlight: Midlands

To showcase actual funding flows into ICS regions and expose the vast opportunity it creates for suppliers, this section explores how the Midlands ICS region is receiving funding from the TIF.

The Midlands has been allocated the most funding in England, with an additional £131 million granted to aid with NHS digitisation and the ICS transition.

💡 Stotles tip: Knowing where funding is flowing allows suppliers to prioritise and focus public sector selling efforts on the most promising buyer organisations.

This table pinpoints the number of approved bids and amount of funding a selection of ICS organisation within the Midlands ICS region has been granted, at the time of writing this blog.

Once ICSs take legal shape in July 2022, we’ll learn more about how each of the ICS regions will receive funding and how it will be allocated across the 42 IC organisations across the country. To learn more about the geographical landscape of ICSs, read this blogpost.

In addition to the TIF, the Unified Tech Fund (UTF) is another NHS initiative to fund the digitisation of England's healthcare. To learn more about the UTF, read this blogpost.

Despite the current ambiguity on overall funding, one thing is clear: the ICS transition will result in a tremendous amount of funding toward digitising the NHS, creating an enormous number of opportunities for technology suppliers to work with the public sector.

To learn more about the ICS transition, download our in-depth report; Digitising a changing NHS: The opportunities emerging for tech suppliers through the ICS transition, or sign up to Stotles today.