Eight provider organisations will be eligible to join the “shared purpose” programme and receive funding of £420,000 each over two and a half years.

They will develop and test ideas to show how corporate support services such as estates, finance, information services, procurement, human resources, and information technology can work with clinical teams to enhance care quality.

Jo Bibby, the Health Foundation’s director of improvement programmes, said the role of corporate support services in improving quality of care was vital and had been overlooked for too long. The shared purpose programme is open to providers in primary, secondary or tertiary care including mental health, and NHS partnerships involving the private and voluntary sectors.

The programme is open for proposals from 31 October and organisations have until 4 January 2012 to submit their proposals for the first stage of assessment.

For more information go to www.health.org.uk/sharedpurpose