Checklist gives PCTs the power to stand up to trusts and provides a solid numerical foundation for joint working. It enables you to work with the same data sets and to argue about the assumptions rather than how to do the calculations.

Checklist will give you a better understanding of your trusts’ capacity problems but it will also enable you to challenge their performance assumptions. Where necessary, it will show you when to insist on improvements in, for example, waiting list management or care pathways.

Again and again we find that when PCTs and Trusts use Checklist collaboratively it leads to better relationships, better agreements and far less time wasted in negotiations.