Benefits of CQRS Local for Commissioners

Under CQRS Local, CCGs will see a reduction in time spent developing and administering the local payment via spreadsheets, by ensuring a standard and consistent approach thanks to the automated process.

CQRS Local will provide a number of benefits for commissioners:

• A standard and consistent approach to system configuration and administration
• Through a single, more secure central point of access, commissioners will be able to track and audit data submissions
• Ability to view variations in practice/uptake across local providers to inform decision-making
• Access to external system support teams
• Integrated, seamless participation management
• Increased reporting functionality
• Easier integration with other commissioning organisations, if required, in future

Benefits of CQRS Local for Primary Care providers

CQRS Local has been built with practices in mind, and offers several new benefits with its uptake.

These include:

• A single point of access for local and national claims
• Payment from CQRS Local going direct to the practice bank account, in the same way as national payments
• A reduction in the administrative overhead of submitting Excel based claims
• Easier reconciliation of payment
• The ability to track all stages of the process following submission
• Centralised reporting capability

Add video here from YouTube: https://youtu.be/IL-qOw9nwt0

Onboarding Information

Commisioners

The CSU will fully support you to deploy the system; three training sessions will be provided to commissioners to teach you how to use the system and with setting up your schemes and payments.

All training will be supported by eLearning and written material. We will provide a range of communication material and engagement events to ensure that you fully engage with your GP practices and that they are confident in their use of the system.

Please contact us to arrange an initial discussion and plan your deployment.

Access to use the system

Smartcard access is not required for the system. You will login using a username and password instead of a smartcard.

Commissioning services

There is no limit to the number of services that you can commission.

CQRS Local allows you to define the services based on your needs, so different services can have different tariffs and be offered to different providers. You can also offer participation only services.

You can configure the CQRS Local system for any provider, subject to normal procurement regulations. The system is intended for use by primary care providers.

As a commissioner, you will have the ability to configure the providers in the system. This flexibility will accommodate future changes to the Local Health Economy. For example, you can configure the system to have a single GP practice as a provider, a Federation or a Primary Care Network, or extend to new providers.

You do not need to use the same schemes as other CCGs. The introduction of CQRS Local should not have any impact on local commissioning decisions. If your schemes are independent of other CCGs, they can continue to be.

However, the system will allow you to choose to share a scheme with another CCG or merge with another CCG.

Processing payments

CQRS Local will be using the same payment mechanism as the current CQRS system. This means once a claim has been ‘approved for payment’ on the system, there will be no manual intervention or manipulation required for payments to be made to GP practices in line with contractual requirements.

Providers are able to upload evidence of their achievements alongside their claims. This evidence will be the same as submitted through the current claim process.

You do not need to use national tariffs for payments. The commissioning decisions that you make are unaffected by the introduction of CQRS Local. The nature, configuration and tariff for Local Incentive Schemes remains the decision of the commissioner and can be fully configured to meet your local needs.

We have worked with a number of organisations to develop a variety of payment types. The system can process a simple item of service payment but can also take account of population weighting and threshold payments.

If you are unsure that the system will meet the needs of your payment types, please get in touch to let us know.

We would love to get your feedback. Please email necsu.cqrslocal@nhs.net.

Onboarding Information

Primary care providers

The CSU will fully support you to deploy the system by providing practice specific training via e-Learning.

We will support your team by providing a range of communication material and engagement events with GP practices so that you are confident in use of the system.

Access to use the system

Smartcard access is not required for the system. You will login using a username and password instead of a smartcard.

Data submission

Data is submitted via an online portal, in much the same way as national CQRS (QOF) claims.

It is not currently possible to bulk upload data to the system. As part of the ongoing development of the CQRS Local system, we will be working towards a solution that supports bulk upload.

Data is not automatically extracted from your clinical system at present, but we have designed the system to make the input process as simple as possible. The collation of data from the clinical system will be done in the same way as currently and you are able to enter your attainment figures into the online system manually.

The system has been designed with users to aid the flow and easy capture of data. As part of the ongoing development of the CQRS Local system, we will be working towards a solution that supports automatic extraction.

Processing payments

If your commissioners have chosen to use the CQRS Local system, they will require you to submit your claims via the system in order to obtain payment.

Payments are made from the commissioner directly to your practice bank account, in the same way as they are for national QOF payments. Payments are processed via PCSE / iSFE.

Providers are able to upload evidence of their achievements alongside their claims. This evidence will be the same as submitted through the current claim process.

Once you have submitted a claim you can track progress on the system. This will show when the commissioners have reviewed the claim, when it has been sent for payment and when payment has been made – making it quick and easy to monitor and reconcile payments.

Support and training

As part of the deployment of CQRS Local, you will be supported by the CSU Collaborative.

The partners in the collaborative will:

• Undertake project management of your implementation and deployment
• Assist with the configuration of the system
• Assist with your local provider engagement
• Deliver training for system users prior to go-live
• Provide post launch support
• Provide a helpdesk service for commissioners and providers
• Deliver interactive, online training and support guides for future use provided through the live system to the training portal

All aspects of the system provision and support is funded by NHS England; there are no additional costs to commissioners or providers apart from your staff time.

System support

All users will be able to access a central service desk, if there are any issues with the system. This will be a single service desk to resolve issues with both CQRS Local and CQRS national.

If you have any queries, or are experiencing problems with the CQRS system, you can log a call with the service desk – please email: support@cqrs.co.uk or call 0800 4402777.

As a provider, you should follow your normal course of action if there is an issue with your payments. You will be able to track payments on the system as well as being able to see at a glance where they have been held, and the reason why.

Role based access of the system

The system allows organisations to self-manage role based access of the system. Each organisation will be able to assign an administrator who will have the ability to approve colleagues' accounts instantly to enhance the user experience of signing up to CQRS Local.

This approval of user accounts will allow organisations to verify system access themselves. The variety of different user roles available within the system can limit or enable users to their access levels on the system e.g. an administrator can approve a claim submitted by a generic user account.

Get involved in system development

The user group meet remotely every month to support the development of the system.

The user group members are helping to drive system developments and improvements, along with helping to define how the system is deployed to users.

If you would like to get involved please email us at necsu.cqrslocal@nhs.net.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How much do we have to pay to use CQRS Local?

The CQRS Local system is being developed on behalf of NHSE/I so there will be no costs for commissioners or providers using the system.

Who has developed CQRS Local?

CQRS Local has being developed by a collaboration of the five Commissioning Support Units; Arden & GEM, Midlands and Lancashire, North of England, North East London and South, Central & West. The CSUs are arms-length bodies of NHSE, providing system support services to health and care systems.

Working in collaboration enables the very best system development and support teams to partner together and provide a system which suits the needs of commissioners and providers across the country.

The CSU Collaborative are able to bring the benefits of scale whilst making the most of the trusted working relationships and knowledge they each have at a local level. The system has been commissioned by NHSE/I.

What are the key drivers behind CQRS Local?

There are a number of key drivers behind the introduction of CQRS Local – all of them have technology, efficiency and reducing bureaucracy at their heart. The General Practice Forward View highlights the need for new ways of working to reduce administrative overhead in general practice and streamline processes.

The Five Year Forward View supported the need for efficiency savings and outlined the need for services to be commissioned, provided and paid for in new ways. These two key strategies are further supported by the ‘Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View’ and ‘Refreshing NHS Plans for 2018/19’ - both strengthening the need for new place based commissioning models.

How is this different to the CQRS National System that we already use?

Both CQRS Local and CQRS national are part of the GP Payments Calculations Futures Programme (GPPCF). The CSU Collaborative has managed the national CQRS system since November 2020. CQRS Local and CQRS national systems will be accessed via the same portal, along with all training and support documentation.

National claims via CQRS will run in the same way as they do now. All national schemes (QOF) will continue to be managed via the CQRS national system and process. The system will be hosted on new technology, meaning that the current limit on the number of schemes offered can be increased.

CQRS Local differs because it's a new product which has been developed to provide support in the management of Local Incentive Schemes.

Contact Us