Also known as Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships, these are 44 deeply flawed plans that were published after a secret process at the end of 2016. Campaigners up and down the country had to call for the plans to be made public.

The NHS is being divided up into 44 footprints, each with an STP. South Tyneside is part of the NTWND STP. Sustainability refers to  Efficiency Savings . Transformation refers to new models of care (defined by the Department of Health as Accountable Care) linked to privatisation, hence STPs are evolving into plans for  Accountable/Integrated Care Systems .

These plans are to be overseen by 41 (yes that's correct - not 44, but 41?) regional teams. Unlike the old Strategic Health Authorities that were scrapped by the  2012 Health and Social Care Act , the regional teams are not public bodies, they do not meet in public and will not publish their board papers. They have no accountability to the public in the wide areas they cover, and are accountable only upwards to  NHS England . They embody the new drive for centralised control - yet ironically these same unaccountable regional teams will have a key role in ensuring local accountability, fixing control totals (targets for limiting the deficits or requiring surpluses for  Foundation Trusts ,  Clinical Commissioning Groups  and each STP system) and vetting plans.

Also see  Big Picture - Post 2012 NHS Plans