Vital Signs are a series of performance measures, developed by the DH (the Department of Health) to help PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) develop local operational plans to deliver against national priorities and inform PCT decisions (in conjunction with local partners) on local targets.
Vital Signs are divided into three tiers:
Tier 1 national requirements i.e. ‘must dos’
Tier 2 national priorities for local delivery
Tier 3 indicators for local action
These 3 tiers enable benchmarking and are intended to help PCTs make choices on local priorities and inform the process of engagement with the local community.
The 2010/11 NHS Operating Framework committed PCTs to publishing performance against all Vital Signs for 2010/11, by the end of September 2011.
The Department of Health (DH) have included performance data for all Vital Signs indicators where they had collected plans for 2010/11. The DH have excluded those indicators from the publication where there is no published data for those indicators. The report includes data for 2010/11 where possible; however, where these data are not available the DH have included the most recent published data.
Vital Signs report September 2011
