CQUIN, which stands for Commissioning for Quality and Innovation, is a scheme introduced in 2009 to make a proportion of healthcare providers' income conditional on demonstrating improvements in quality and innovation in specified areas of care.
This means that a proportion of our income depends on achieving quality improvement and innovation goals, agreed between the Trust and its commissioners.
Each year, the Trust works with its commissioners to agree a number of CQUIN targets. The sum attached to each CQUIN changes each year and is based on a percentage of the contract value. It also depends on achieving quality improvement and goals.
In 2022/23 we were proud to achieve the maximum threshold for CQUINs.
CQUIN 2023/24
The CQUIN targets for 2023/24 set by NHS England were identified as a small number of core clinical priority areas, where improvement is expected across the year. In general, these are short-term clinical improvements, where there is a clear need to support reductions in clinical variation between providers.
For Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, the CQUIN is earned on four indicators for community providers that have been agreed with commissioners and are worth 1.25% of the actual contract value.
The following 2023/24 CQUIN were agreed for the Trust:
- flu vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers
- malnutrition screening in the community
- assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of lower leg wounds
- assessment and documentation of pressure ulcer risk
Further information is available at NHS England - 2023/24 CQUIN
