How will you know if your PCN is “mature”? What is maturity of a PCN, and who is to decide when you have reached it?

There is a danger that NHS management speak (I think it is fair to categorise “PCN maturity matrix” in this way!) can generate a life of its own. The PCN guidance suggests a national PCN maturity matrix will be produced (which was due at the end of July, and so should appear any day now). The PCN frequently asked questions says that “all systems should use the provided maturity matrix in the first instance to assist with assessing the relative maturity of networks”.

This response inevitably gave rise to the next question, “Will the PCN maturity matrix be used for performance management?”, and we are assured that, “the maturity matrix is not an assurance vehicle for PCN performance”. However, it does seem that creating a PCN development plan based on an assessment against this matrix will be a required gateway for accessing PCN development monies.

While there is clearly a value in laying out for nascent PCNs what “good” looks like, the danger of a national PCN maturity matrix is that it could impose requirements or expectations upon a PCN beyond those set in the national contract. It could start to impinge not just on what PCNs have to do, but how they have to do it. There is a fine line between a national framework (and NHS England has pushed back on any attempts by local areas to create their own framework) that helps PCNs to develop, and one the determines how they should operate.

Rather than let a national team decide what maturity looks like for your PCN, it may be better for the PCN itself to determine what maturity looks like. A PCN that decides for itself where it is going and how it will develop will be likely to progress more quickly, as it will retain ownership of its future. Equally, if a national framework is used to shift autonomy away from member practices and assert top down control on how PCNs are to operate, progress is likely to be laboured.

So what is maturity for your PCN? I would argue it is essentially framed around the ability to deliver:

• The ability of the PCN to deliver across the member practices (see last week’s blog for the importance of the relationships between the practices, an area unlikely to be given prominence in the national maturity matrix)
• The ability of the PCN to support member practices who struggle with delivery, and to support the delivery of core general practice
• The ability to remove blocks to delivery as they occur, such as resolving disputes between member practices
• The ability of the PCN to build productive relationships with system partners to enable effective delivery
• Having the infrastructure in place to enable effective delivery, such as data sharing, access to information, ability to attract, employ and retain staff, project management etc.
• The ability to access good ideas, new ways of working, solutions to challenges and support when needed from both inside and outside of the PCN to enable delivery
• Having effective leadership in place that can make delivery happen

Your PCN will inevitably have its own view on what its maturity looks like. The key is a good PCN is not necessarily one that is assessed as “mature” against all elements of a nationally set maturity matrix, but one that can turn ideas into actions and into tangible results, and is able to make the biggest possible difference for its practices and its patients.

Clearly it is worth jumping through a few hoops to access what is a significant amount of PCN development money. But don’t let the process determine how you will develop. Make that decision for yourselves.