TABLE OF CONTENTS


Introduction

The Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) is part of the NHS England Network Contract DES. It aims to support Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in providing high-quality care and addressing key national priorities. The fund rewards practices that improve patient outcomes and reduce health inequalities. 

 

For 2025/26, the IIF will continue to focus on two main areas: tackling health inequalities and early cancer diagnosis. These indicators encourage practices to conduct annual health checks for patients with learning disabilities and support timely cancer referrals using FIT testing for lower GI symptoms.

 

The Network Contract DES Dashboard in Ardens Manager helps practices track progress against the IIF indicators, identify areas for improvement, and make the most of available funding. This support article will show you how to use the dashboard to stay on top of IIF requirements and support better care for your patients.


Accessing the Dashboard

Log in to Ardens Manager.  

 

Select the Contracts icon, followed by Network Contract DES ‘25-26.



 Click on the IIF tab. You can also view the IIF indicators and reports through the "Overview" tab.

The dashboard is grouped into 4 categories:
  • Data Quality
  • Learning Disability
  • Personalised Care Adjustment
  • Referrals


The Data Quality section will highlight patients who have not met the indicator due to errors or missing elements in the achievement criteria, such as missing ethnicity data during a Learning Disability Health Check.


Click the View button to see the list of patients. You can also export the list or copy the patient's NHS Number for further action.


Remember! You can assign colleagues to these reports to take further action. 



The Learning Disability section enables you to track your performance on Learning Disability Health checks. These checks include a health check, an action plan, and ethnicity data for patients over 14 years old. For the patient to be seen as achieved, all elements of the review must be completed.

 

Progress towards each threshold and full achievement can be monitored via this section. If patients decline the health check or action plan, a personalised care adjustment can be applied to remove them from the denominator.



Patients with a Personalised Care Adjustment can also be tracked in this section. 



The Referrals section helps you track the performance of FIT tests for Lower GI cancer referrals. The referral must include a qFIT within 21 days. If a patient declines a qFIT, you can apply a personalised care adjustment to exclude them from the denominator. 



The Payment tab lets you track your financial progress for the IIF. Here, you'll find a breakdown of the total amount achieved so far, the outstanding amount, the number of patients needed to reach the maximum threshold, and the indicator value. 



How to View Report Breakdown

To see more details of a report, click the View button next to the report name.



Once you select a report, you can view the corresponding patient list by clicking on the Patients tab. You can refine this list to show all patients, only those who have achieved the indicator, or those who are still outstanding. For more information on using the patient list in Ardens Manager, see our detailed support article Viewing Patient Level Data.

 

Additional insights are available, including patient demographics, staff-level data, and trend analysis. You can also benchmark your data against other practices within your PCN, provided the appropriate data sharing agreement is in place. For step-by-step guidance on using these tools to better understand your data and patient population, explore our detailed support articles.


Additional Learning

To learn more about our clinical system resources that support data entry for the IIF, check out our support articles for SystmOne and EMIS Web. These guides provide helpful instructions on accessing and using the data entry templates, as well as the searches available in your reporting module.

 

For further learning on how to use the IIF dashboard, we recommend enrolling onto the Network Contract DES Ardens Academy guide.



If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact the Ardens Manager Support Team on: support-manager@ardens.org.uk