Contents
Commissioning Assembly News:
End of Life Care Assembly Task and Finish Group – New group forming
The Commissioning Assembly event
Are you following us on Twitter?
Strategic issues:
Resources to support commissioners
A comprehensive data pack is on its way – commissioning for value
Call to Action CCG Co-Design Events
Operational issues:
Maximum waiting times
Who Pays – determining the responsible commissioner – August 2013
Development and Assessment Centres for CCG Accountable Officer and Chair
Capital Investment, Property, Equipment and ICT
Health and Wellbeing System Improvement Programme and Partnership
Maintain action in response to Winterbourne View
Other news:
NHS England has welcomed the Government’s response to Dame Caldicott’s review
Ways of working survey coming soon
Latest information governance bulletin
Events and campaigns:
Network for CCG Governing Body Secondary Care Doctors
Future of Healthcare International Conference
Letters to CCGs:
2013 NHS National Staff Survey
Prevent strategy In Health
About this bulletin
Download Bulletin for CCGs: Issue 42, 19 September, 2013
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Commissioning Assembly News
End of Life Care Assembly Task and Finish Group – New group forming
A new Task and Finish Group of the Commissioning Assembly is being set up to look at issues around end of life care. The recent independent review into the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), posed several recommendations for the NHS and for commissioners.
The group will look at how commissioners should respond to this; consider how the principles of good end of life care can be firmly embedded across the NHS and identify the range of activities required to make rapid progress in achieving high quality end of life care for all.
We are seeking volunteers to join this group and contribute to setting its agenda. If you would like to be involved, please contact england.commissioningassembly@nhs.net
The Commissioning Assembly event
This is your final opportunity to register for the Commissioning Assembly event on 25 September! If you are a Commissioning Assembly member and would like to attend the event and the networking dinner the night before please register your attendance.
All Assembly members will have now received their individual invitation. This is your opportunity to come together as the ‘one team’ to shape and influence your own national programme of work and share learning. For more information please see the website.
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Are you following us on Twitter?
The NHS Commissioning Assembly is now on Twitter and all Assembly members can now follow us at @CommAssembly!
Our twitter activity will be driven by you, our Assembly members, and by following us you will be able to discuss hot topics, share best practice and get the latest updates on Assembly news including the event on 25 September. You also can see what fellow Assembly twitter users are tweeting about.
Add you voice to the debate now @CommAssembly
Strategic issues
Resources to support commissioners
This is a summary of all guidance, resources and tools for commissioners that NHS England is planning to produce. It does not include internal policies and procedures at this stage and may not be a complete list. Guidance we plan to publish, relevant to CCGs, is highlighted in green. Any feedback on the usefulness of this forward look is very welcome and we intend to continue to develop this product in light of any feedback received. Please send your comments to england.commissioningresources@nhs.net
Call to Action CCG Co-Design Events
Since the launch of the Call to Action, NHS England has been working with 6 CCGs on co-design/engagement events. The 6 CCGs are Hull, Birmingham South and Central, Dorset CCG, North East Lincolnshire, Harrogate and Rural District and Enfield.
Each event has been designed to use the national messages locally and to better understand how CCGs can use these to engage with their patients and the public. Tools and materials from these events will be made available to all CCGs.
Further details on how CCGs can access and utilise this suite of tools will be available in the next CCG bulletin.
In the meantime, you will receive correspondence directly from the NHS England’s strategy team which will set out the plans for Call to Action over the Autumn.
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A comprehensive data pack is on its way – commissioning for value
To give CCGs real, practical support in gathering data, evidence and tools to help them transform the way care is delivered for their patients and populations NHS England, working with NHS RightCare and Public Health England, is providing each CCG with a comprehensive data pack to support effective ‘commissioning for value’.
The pack will clearly show CCGs ‘where to look’ as a first stage to identify real opportunities to improve outcomes and increase value for local populations.
In October every CCG will be sent their pack unique to their own patch and population. The localised information will support discussions about prioritising areas for change, utilising resources and will help local leaders make improvements in healthcare quality, outcomes and efficiency.
Support
To help CCGS to effectively analyse data, identify the best response to it and use it to drive the delivery of health improvement there will be two events in November.
Tuesday 12 November – London’s Business Design Centre – book now!
Wednesday 13 November – Manchester’s Mercure Hotel – book now!
Who should attend?
CCG clinical and management leads with responsibility for finance, performance, improvement and health outcomes
Area team leads with the same responsibilities
CSU teams supporting CCGs in this work
Operational Issues
Maximum waiting times
This document informs commissioners of their legal duties around waiting times, provides a brief overview of the maximum waiting times rights and provides resources to support implementation.
Who Pays – determining the responsible commissioner – August 2013
This document sets out the circumstances in which a clinical commissioning group (CCG) is responsible for paying for a patient’s care and specifies those circumstances in which a CCG is liable to make a payment to a provider in respect of services commissioned by another CCG. It replaces an earlier version December 2012.
Development and Assessment Centres for CCG Accountable Officer and Chair
For 13/14, new and aspirant CCG Chairs and AOs continue to have the opportunity to undertake an individual assessment and development centre provided by The Hay Group.
Nominations should be agreed with area team Directors of Operations and Delivery, based on the following criteria:
a) Those Chairs and Accountable Officers who have been appointed to their roles post-authorisation but who have not yet attended a centre.
b) Those who are currently going through the recruitment process for a Chair or AO role and have been nominated to be “assessed”.
c) Those who are identified as aspiring to be Chairs or undertake the role of and Accountable Officers in the next 12-18 months.
The dates for the autumn centre are:
Pre-centre day to be held by 18th October
Full centre day to be held week commencing 4th November
Future centres will be held in winter and spring 2014. For more information about the centres and to put forward nominations contact Gillian.Rooke@nhs.net or Stacey.Lally@leadershipacademy.nhs.uk
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Capital Investment, Property, Equipment and ICT
On 14th August 2013 NHS England published the ‘Business Case Approvals Process for Capital Investment, Property, Equipment and ICT’. This guidance makes reference to a number of supporting resources.
Three of these have now been published on the NHS England website, and they are:
Project Initiation Document (PID) template, for use at the pre business case stage of project development (see pages 16-17 of the Business Case Approvals Process guidance) – this is available via the following hyperlink:
Less than £1 million proforma for Capital Approval (see pages 11 and 19 of the Business Case Approvals Process guidance) – this is available via the following hyperlink:
£1 million – £3 million Business Case proforma (see pages 11 and 19 of the Business Case Approvals Process guidance) – this is available via the following hyperlink:
Please direct any questions relating to these resources to the Senior Finance Manager/s for the relevant Region in the NHS England Project Appraisal Unit. These personnel and their contact details are listed in paragraph 2.1.3, Table 1 of the ‘Business Case Approvals Process for Capital Investment, Property, Equipment and ICT’
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Health and Wellbeing System Improvement Programme and Partnership
Working with the Local Government Association, Heathwatch England, the NHS Confederation and Public Health England, NHS England has co-produced a new tool for Health and Wellbeing Boards. The Health and Wellbeing System Improvement Development Tool offers a maturity model which HWBs can use to benchmark themselves, complementing and aligning with the peer challenge methodology. The tool describes characteristics of a ‘young HWB’; an ‘established HWB’; a ‘mature HWB’; and an ‘exemplar HWB’ against six dimensions for an effective partnership.
HWBs are encouraged to use the statements in the tool as a prompt to consider and challenge their own practice and to develop an improvement plan. The tool is one part of the wider offer on health and wellbeing system improvement.
Maintain action in response to Winterbourne View
The Driving Up Quality Code has been developed by the provider sector as a response to Winterbourne View. It is recognised that the problems were not just about one organisation that abused people but that other organisations supporting people with challenging behaviour were not meeting minimum standards and that too many people are sent away from their communities for too long.
Providers and commissioners are being invited to sign up to the code, launched by Norman Lamb on 11 September, to drive up quality and be open and transparent about what they are doing to meet it.
Commissioners may wish to consider discussing the adoption of the code by their local providers; signing up to the code to actively use it in their commissioning to improve quality in learning disability services.
Other news
NHS England has welcomed the Government’s response to Dame Caldicott’s review
Information governance affects us all in the NHS and will be an important element to consider when commissioning services. NHS England is reviewing its response and plan to involve and support CCGs in with this aspect.
The Government’s response published on 12 September, accepts all recommendations outlined in Dame Fiona’s report of 26 April 2013, including the need to ensure that every citizen feels confident that their health information is securely safeguarded and shared appropriately.
Ways of working survey coming soon
Following the publication of NHS England’s ways of working project in July work has been on-going to support NHS Clinical Commissioners to develop the survey to understand the extent to which these ways of working are being realised. The independent survey is being managed by NHS Clinical Commissioners and during August Ipsos MORI have been appointed as the survey provider.
During September work will continue to finalise the survey questions ready for launch on Monday 7th October. The online survey will run for 4 weeks and closes on Sunday 3rd November and responses will be sought from the lead clinician, manager and finance manager in each of the 211 CCGs.
The outcomes will be shared with all CCGs and with NHS England in Autumn 2013
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Latest information governance bulletin
Please find attached the new Information Governance Bulletin, which provides information on work underway to address issues with information governance affecting all commissioners and their providers. This is also placed on our new web page:
Much work is underway centrally to address the key issues, in particular risk stratification and invoice validation, so please look out for future editions where the work in progress detailed here is completed, and check the website between bulletins for new announcements. You can also email queries to: England.information-governance@nhs.net
Events and campaigns
Network for CCG Governing Body Secondary Care Doctors
Listening to the development needs of CCGs, a national network for secondary care doctors on CCG governing bodies is being established.
A meeting will take place on the 21 November at The Hallam Centre, London to provide the opportunity to meet colleagues and explore how CCGs can get the best from secondary care doctors in this role.
For more information contact Rachel Snow-Miller, CCG Development Networks Lead, rachelsnow-miller@nhs.net
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Future of Healthcare International Conference
Taking place from 3-4 October 2013 in London, this jointly run event between NHS England and UCL partners will set the pace of change for long term conditions, multimorbidity and integrated care.
The Future of Health conference will act as a national platform for policy debate and sharing of successful practice. It will be the first step in creating an on-going dialogue and community for professionals to make joint progress for the benefit of the population. It will equip health and care professionals with the tools they need to make changes to the commissioning and provision of services, such as working collaboratively to provide the highest quality care and better outcomes for patients.
Find out more and book your place
Letters
NHS England has issued the following letters to CCGs since the last bulletin:
2013 NHS National Staff Survey
NHS England took on the responsibility for the National NHS Staff Survey from April 2013 and we can confirm that the 2013 NHS National Staff Survey will be taking place.
For the first time, this year, organisations are being given the opportunity to run the survey online. You can read the letter sent to CCGs here.
Prevent strategy In Health
Correspondence to all commissioners of NHS services (Area Teams and Clinical Commissioning Groups) to raise awareness of Prevent and to ask them to distribute letters to all their providers due to the requirements specified within the NHS Standard Contract for 2013/14.
The Prevent Strategy is a cross-Government policy that forms one of the four strands of CONTEST – the Government’s counter terrorism strategy. With over 1 million contacts with patients every 36 hours, the NHS and providers delivering NHS services (including charitable and private sector organisations) are key to the support and delivery of this strategy.
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