Automated financial reporting and demand & capacity planning for independent providers in an IAP driven landscape

Independent providers have been an integral part of the wider NHS landscape, providing additional capacity to reduce waiting lists and expand patient choice, particularly in areas where NHS wait lists are long, such as cataract surgeries or ADHD and autism assessments.

The NHS standard contract now requires indicative activity for private providers

At the start of the 2025/2026 financial year, NHS England published changes to the NHS Standard Contract, including the introduction of indicative activity plans (IAPs) that must be agreed for any services paid for on an activity basis within an existing contract. The application of IAPs to non-contracted activity (NCA) was less clear, with technical guidance from NHS England indicating that commissioners could agree IAPs with an NCA provider “if activity reaches a level that may require activity management.”¹

Edge Health accelerated and automated the demand and capacity planning process to enable Psychiatry UK to provide rapid, compliant and high-quality reporting

With the introduction of the IAPs, Psychiatry UK, like all private providers to the NHS, now need to understand and predict demand and capacity to agree plans with ICBs. Edge Health supported Psychiatry UK to rapidly deploy several solutions that ensured prompt, high-quality, and contractually compliant service was provided to ICB queries.

“As independent providers navigate an increasingly complex NHS landscape, having the right data infrastructure in place is critical. Edge Health gave us the tools and insight to stay ahead of ICB expectations, make confident operational decisions, and continue delivering for patients predictably.”
Anna Matty
Chief Commercial and Operating Officer, Psychiatry UK

We did this in three ways:

• Automation: Edge Health designed and implemented an automated solution for monthly activity reporting that reduced a process that took several days to one that takes several hours, with minimal input from the team to produce the reports. Our solution ensured that ICBs receive the data necessary for monitoring commissioned activity and that Psychiatry UK was compliant with their contractual obligations.
• Financial modelling: To understand the impact of indicative activity plans, we worked with the Business Development & Contracts team to develop a reporting template that aligned activity and spend for each ICB against a specified IAP envelope, enabling PUK to monitor and improve operational decision making.
• Reporting: While both the activity reports and ICB-specific financial models were useful on their own, there was also a need for a tool that consolidated all this information in a single place. We developed a Power BI dashboard to provide an overview of all activity and financial data at the GP, ICB and national level that was flexible for both current and future ICB structures. The development of the dashboard allows the Business Development & Contracts team to extract key data points through self-service analytics, resulting in savings of several days per months of analyst time.

With IAPs and AMPs set to remain a fixture of the 2026-2027 financial year, we are proud to support Psychiatry UK in navigating the changing NHS landscape. By implementing a proactive forecasting model, we’ve ensured Psychiatry UK begins the new year with the insights needed to align early with ICB expectations and deliver for patients predictably.

1. https://www.burges-salmon.com/articles/102kat9/new-activity-management-processes-implemented-in-2025-6-nhs-standard-contract/ ↩︎