Individual Funding Requests

Can I get the treatment I need?

Each Integrated Care Board (ICB) is allocated a fixed amount of money for the healthcare needs of its local population. The ICB follows a prioritisation process to decide which treatments and services will be funded as it is not possible to fund every available treatment.

The aim of the prioritisation process is to ensure services offer the most benefit to the largest number of patients, whilst also ensuring the process is fair to the whole population and that public money is spent wisely.

As a result, there are a number of treatments and services that Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB does not routinely fund. However, your GP or Consultant may make a request for a treatment or service that we do not routinely fund if they feel there are exceptional clinical circumstances related to your case.

This process is known as the Individual Funding Request (IFR) process.

Our IFR Patient Leaflet sets out how to make an IFR application, a summary of the process and what you can expect at each stage. Please speak with your clinician as they would normally make a request on your behalf, view our IFR policy.

Standard Operating Procedure for the management of clinical opinions.

The Excluded and Restricted Procedures policy sets out the treatments and services that the ICB does not routinely commission or where access is restricted.

Some specialised services are directly commissioned by NHS England. These policies were put in place from 1 April 2013 onwards and set the overall parameters within which care will be evaluated, planned and delivered.

Direct commissioning responsibilities information can be found at the NHS Commissioning website and the generic policies can be found at the NHS England website.

Contact the IFR team

The Individual Funding Request (IFR) team email will be updated from 1st August 2024, please send all emails to IFRTeam@staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk

By post:

Individual Funding Request Department

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System

New Beacon Building

Stafford Education and Enterprise Park

Weston Road

Stafford

ST18 0BF

Telephone:

0300 123 1461