We are pleased to present this Annual Plan 2025/26 for Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB), building on the progress of delivering the health board’s previous five-year Integrated Plan for 2024-29. Under the strong, stable leadership of the Board, during 2024/25, the health board has delivered good quality and performance in our directly-provided services. Through our expert teams the board has started to modernise our service models with the agreement of temporary changes to the Ready to Go Home Units and Minor Injuries Services, which will be evaluated and formally considered by the Board in 2025/26.
Internally, the health board has tightened financial grip and control and implemented urgent actions to ensure that the challenging financial deficit was managed and minimised. As a result, and with some Welsh Government support, the health board has delivered its financial plan, but the organisation has further to go to fully achieve sustainability and the severe financial challenges remain. As a result, PTHB was escalated to level 4 of the Welsh Government’s Escalation Framework in late 2024 for strategy, planning and finance, and is unable to put forward a Plan that meets the statutory break-even duty within 2025/26.
The Board has had clear oversight and direction of the development of this Plan and it sets out work of the health board to create ‘A Healthy, Caring Powys’, the shared long-term health and care strategy for the County up to 2027. It responds to the NHS Wales Planning Framework 2025-28, covering the health board’s whole range of responsibilities for healthcare for the people of Powys, both as a provider and a commissioner of services. However, due to the board’s escalation status, a set of ‘critical actions’ has been agreed to focus on maintaining grip and control, addressing the known drivers of our financial deficit, and effectively prioritising our resources to address them.
Due to these challenges this Plan has the themes of Risk, Recovery and Sustainability; with the Risk theme ensuring that the board continues to deliver safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and person-centred care that meets the needs of the population of Powys. The drivers of the financial deficit are addressed through the Recovery theme, with key choices and options included in the Plan to improve the financial position.
The longer-term programme of work to change our service models to enable the board to become sustainable in the longer term, in line with agreed Strategy, is also important.
During 2024/25 the Better Together portfolio has been established and will support change and improvement across a number of key areas of the delivery plan.
Building on our extensive engagement work to date, the timeline to develop the exciting future vision for sustainable Community and Frailty and Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Models, in collaboration with our communities, is also set out in this Plan.
The Board look forward to leading this work in the Summer and Autumn of 2025, and the new models will inform the development and delivery of our Plans for 2026/27 and beyond.
Hayley Thomas, Chief Executive
Dr Carl Cooper, Chair
The summary version and full version is available in English and Welsh and other formats can be provided on request.
For further information please contact the PTHB Planning Team via email at: planning.powys@wales.nhs.uk
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