C2D2 research 4a - A feasibility study to examine the suitability of the new funding approach, Payment by Results (PbR), to improve mental health services in England

A new method of funding mental health services, Payment by Results (PbR), is being rolled out in England. This represents a fundamental change to the way psychiatric services will be paid for. It is argued that those responsible for deciding what services to buy/organise on behalf of the population (commissioners of mental health services), lack the capacity to steer service improvements and the potential to use large-scale routine data to support their decisions. This project will analyse the suitability of PbR using the national Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS). Care ‘clusters’ are proposed as the basis for payment in PbR and MHMDS captures individual patient assignment by clinicians into clusters based on patient need. There has been little analysis of clusters and their associated costs to assess the appropriateness of payments based upon them. We will explore the feasibility of analysing MHMDS for this purpose and explore with commissioners what would assist them to better use the MHMDS to drive service improvement. This project enables us to establish a multidisciplinary team that would be in a strong position to attract a larger grant to undertake more in-depth analysis and develop this neglected research area.