The network is commissioned by NHS England and is hosted by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals. There is a Service Specification that sets out the requirements for the network.
A Network Oversight Group is responsible for meeting the requirements set out in the Service Specification and for the delivery of the work programme.
The Network Oversight Group is made up of Radiotherapy Service Managers, Heads of Radiotherapy Physics and lead Consultant Clinical Oncologists from each Provider Trust. It is chaired by the Director of the Northern Cancer Alliance.
Find out more about the network governance arrangements below.
Network Oversight Group
The role of the Network Oversight Group is to facilitate the ongoing development of the Network, including the development and delivery of the annual work programme
Dr John Frew is the Network Clinical Lead and provides professional and clinical leadership across the network.
Alison Featherstone, Managing Director of the Northern Cancer Alliance, is the Network Chair.
Annual Report
The Network produces an annual report to summarise progress against the work programme and achievements throughout the year.
Updates of network progress and projects are also updated regularly on the network website. The annual report for 23/24 will be available to view here soon.
Northern Cancer Alliance
Cancer Alliances are non-statutory bodies which bring together clinical and managerial leaders from different hospital Trusts; primary care (including GPs) and other health and social care organisations. In total, there are now 21 Cancer Alliances in England.
The Northern Cancer Alliance covers the North East and North Cumbria geography and is aligned to the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Integrated Care System (ICS) footprint.
The Northern Cancer Alliance views patients and carers as equal partners in the design and delivery of their care and the vision is founded on the principle of putting the patient at the heart of the redesign of cancer services in every aspect of the cancer journey.
nhs england
specialised commissioning
Specialised services support people with a range of rare and complex conditions, including cancer and radiotherapy services.
Radiotherapy services are not available in every local hospital because they have to be delivered by teams of specially trained doctors, Therapeutic Radiographers, Dosimetrists, Clinical Scientists and other healthcare professionals.
Radiotherapy Services must adhere to the relevant service specifications for the provision of radiotherapy.
There are 11 Radiotherapy Networks commissioned by Specialised Commissioning and overseen by the National Programme of Care for Cancer. They also must adhere to a service specification which sets out the national priorities for networks.
All of the relevant service specifications can be viewed below.
national programme of care
The specialised services commissioned by NHS England have been grouped into six national programmes of care (NPoC). Each has an NPoC that coordinates work across the services in that programme of care. The Northern Radiotherapy Network works with the other 10 radiotherapy networks in England as part of the National Programme of Care for Cancer.
Each NPoC brings together clinical and commissioning leadership, an empowered patient and public voice, and policy expertise to:
- Contribute to the development and delivery of strategy and policy objectives, such as the NHS Long Term Plan.
- Support regions to commission specialised services which meet population needs, provide consistently high-quality care and excellent patient experience, as part of an integrated care system and patient pathway transformation.
The role of the Cancer National Programme of Care (NPOC) is to support the commissioning of specialised and highly specialised cancer services. This involves the development of national commissioning products, such as service specifications and clinical policy, as well as the provision of expert clinical and commissioning advice to support service improvement and innovation.
The Cancer NPOC team works directly with four cancer specific Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs) and a National Specialty Advisor for PET-CT and is supported by a Steering Group.
radiotherapy networks
From April 2019. NHS England confirmed that the 52 radiotherapy providers in England will work within 11 clinically led radiotherapy networks. Ambitious targets have been set within the long term plan to continue to improve radiotherapy services and cancer pathways as a whole.
Working together, our collective ambitions are to:
- Improve the outcomes and experience of patients receiving radiotherapy in England
- Reduce inequity of access and benefit
- Identify, test, establish and implement innovation and best practice
- Speed up the translation of research into practice
- Increase awareness and understanding of the role of radiotherapy in cancer treatment and management, facilitating patient knowledge and choice
- Identify evidence gaps in current and future clinical practice, working with partners to develop and articulate study questions with the potential to be practice changing, and to facilitate the prioritisation and commissioning of new research to reduce duplication and dilution of effort
- Raise patient awareness and participation in clinical trials, at all ages
- Inform and reshape the investment and reinvestment of available funding to maximise the benefits for patients receiving radiotherapy treatment in England