Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme

Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the NHS, told the NHS system that it would need to make between £15bn and £20bn in efficiency savings by the 2014/15 financial year. The scale of efficiency savings amounted to savings of approximately 6% a year.

The 'Nicholson Challenge' (so named by the Health Select Committee) was formalised as the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme.

While the NHS delivered target savings over the first 2 years of the QIPP delivery period (2011/12 and 2012/13), it became increasingly difficult for the NHS to maintain that progress over the second half of the QIPP period, as the financial pressures facing it became more critical.