District Health Boards: Learning from 2010–13 Statements of Intent

1 Introduction

This paper has been written to help district health boards (DHBs) as they prepare their 2011-14 and future Statements of Intent (SOIs). It sets out:

• an overview of the findings of a Consistency Panel, which reviewed the 2010-13 SOIs;
• examples of better practice in:
  • a performance story (Canterbury DHB);
  • main measures and targets (Northland DHB);
  • differentiating impacts from outputs (Hawke’s Bay DHB);
  • service descriptions (Hutt Valley DHB);
  • the coverage of the forecast Statement of Service Performance (Bay of Plenty DHB); and
  • a discussion about measuring the quality of services.

This paper focuses on only certain aspects of SOIs. The auditor will consider whether the SOI and the annual report, as a whole, give a reasonable picture of actual service delivery at key points through the health system.

We note that DHBs and the Ministry of Health continue to refine the form and content of planning requirements. For example, the Ministry’s planning guidelines for 2011/12 require new descriptors for four output classes - Prevention, Early Detection and Management, Intensive Assessment and Treatment, and Rehabilitation and Support.