Strategic partner updates November 2015 part 2

Thu,19 November 2015
News Health & Social Care

Health and Social Care update from our work as Strategic Partner (SP) to the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England

Disability Rights UK heads up a user-led consortium as one of 22 strategic partners in the voluntary sector. Our name is ‘Win-Win Alliance – disabled people leading change’ (WWA). This programme is commissioned by our system partners, the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England. As strategic partner we are well placed to raise particular challenges facing our members of disabled people’s user-led organisations. We also ensure that information and opportunities to engage with system partners reach our members through this and other updates, forums, meetings and discussions, and we regularly inform about funding opportunities (which you may pursue with or without Disability Rights UK). This month we particularly invite our members’ contributions to a new research & development project on ‘user-driven commissioning. For any comments and/or ideas about how to strengthen ‘disabled people leading change’, please get in touch with Bernd.Sass@disabilityrightsuk.org

With some support of the Strategic Partnership Programme and an ESRC grant we want to focus on ‘what makes change happen?’ The special thing about this initiative is that it has both development and research elements – so we can help make things better and then study the impact that this is having. If we co-produce projects, can we disabled people have a positive impact on professionals and on what they are doing? How does this happen?

Maybe your DPULO is already involved with the local Clinical Commissioning Group or Adult Social Care department – say on co-producing experience and outcome measures that would be written into provider contracts to determine (to an extent) the payment of these providers. Or peer support is really about to take off from a well resourced and supported basis in your local area?

If you would like to work with us on any such projects in the future or simply showcase what you have done, please get in touch with Bernd Sass at Disability Rights UK bernd.sass@disabilityrightsuk.org . Or call him directly on 07906 521536. www.Disability RightsUK.org has initiated user-driven commissioning, a tried and tested approach to translate lived experience, risk and protective factors in care pathways into metrics of experience and outcome measures (alongside further co-produced stages of commissioning and procurement) with a view to create a more directly accountable, user-owned and effective landscape of services and support.

One of our members recently replied: "You have given me lots of food for thought. I will do some initial thinking and explore some ideas with our ILS Coordinator and with my Integrated Personal Commissioning colleagues." 

 

See also our quarterly highlights! 

Giving adults voice, choice and control in social care

This document provides guidance on how registered nurses, care and support staff can enable relationship-centred care, and how they can work with others to achieve personalised care and support.

The guidance is for staff across a range of care settings, including care home staff and carers who look after people in their own homes.

To read more, go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-adults-voice-choice-and-control-in-social-care 

Five issues to be discussed at NHS Citizens' Assembly – 25 November 2015

The NHS Citizen’s Assembly, to be held at London Excel, will bring senior NHS England leaders together with citizens to deliberate health and well-being issues. NHS Citizen is a national programme to give the public a say on healthcare matters and influence the NHS. The Citizens’ Jury have chosen the five issues they feel should go forward at the assembly next month. They are: support for people with dementia post-diagnosis; comprehensive psychosocial approaches to mental health; preventing premature deaths; improving health outcomes for looked-after children and young people; and transparency in Clinical Commissioning Group decision-making. 

Big data driving earlier cancer diagnosis in England

The proportion of cancers diagnosed as an emergency at hospital has decreased. At the same time, the proportion of cancers diagnosed through urgent GP referral with a suspicion of cancer has increased.

The complete Routes to Diagnosis data, which covers more than 2 million patients diagnosed with cancer from 2006 to 2013, has been published by Public Health England (PHE) today (Tuesday 10 November 2015). This publicly available, big data project tells us how people are diagnosed, with associated survival rates, for 56 different cancer sites and is a vital tool to help improve early diagnosis.

See more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/big-data-driving-earlier-cancer-diagnosis-in-england 

Health Secretary outlines measures for greater patient power

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined plans for the most patient-focused NHS culture ever.

From next year, for the first time, new ‘Ofsted style’ ratings will show patients how their local area’s health service is performing in crucial areas, including:

  • cancer
  • dementia
  • diabetes
  • mental health
  • learning disabilities
  • maternity care

The new ratings, broken down by Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), will not only be based on local data but will also be verified by experts in each field, including:

  • the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, Harpal Kumar, who will verify cancer ratings
  • the government’s Mental Health Taskforce Chairman Paul Farmer, who will lead on mental health ratings

Initial ratings, based on the current CCG assessments, will be published in June 2016. As part of the government’s transparency agenda, this will both spread best practice and help bring about improvement where services are underperforming. This will create a complete picture of care quality in the NHS.

To read more, go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/health-secretary-outlines-measures-for-greater-patient-power 

Patient power: threat or opportunity?

Read the Health Secretary's speech on the opportunities offered by the shift to a patient-powered, technologically advanced health service.

Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/patient-power-threat-or-opportunity 

See Also our blog from Disability Rights UK on voice an power for disabled people in the NHS https://gettingthingschanged.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/co-production-and-user-driven-commissioning-bernd-sass-disability-rights-uk/  

Guidance on requirements for registering with a GP

NHS England has worked with patient groups and advocacy organisations to produce guidance on registering with a GP. It clarifies that patients do not legally need to provide documentary evidence of identity, immigration status or proof of address, to register with a GP. Practices should not refuse registration on such grounds and there is no contractual duty to seek such evidence. This approach is supported by the BMA General Practitioners Committee.

The Department of Health will shortly be consulting on extending charging of overseas visitors. However, the consultation does not propose introducing charges for anyone attending an NHS appointment with a nurse or GP in primary medical care.

To read more, go to: https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/11/pat-reg-sop-pmc-gp.pdf 

Quick Guides to get ready for winter

NHS England and partners have published six Quick Guides to bring clarity on how best to work with the care sector. Got a hospital discharge problem? Want to find out how Leicester has achieved a 60 per cent reduction in care home admission costs? Want to finally break down the myths around sharing patient information and assessments? Want to use other people’s ideas and resources? Read the new Quick Guides – quick to read and quick to implement.

To read more, go to: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/keogh-review/Pages/quick-guides.aspx 

Regional Workforce Race Equality Standard workshops

A series of Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) regional workshops, to be held in November at various locations across England, will focus on the introduction of the WRES and initial findings. These workshops aim to help support NHS organisations in implementing and using the WRES within their organisation, share learning regarding implementation and use, and focus on preparation for spring 2016. For more information contact Dr Habib Naqvi at habib.naqvi@nhs.net or 07876 851792.

To read more, go to: http://www.events.england.nhs.uk/#clients=&month=&mode=filter 

People with a learning disability to get ‘homes not  hospitals’ – implementation plan published

NHS England has published Building the right support, a radical three-year implementation plan to develop more community services for people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges, including those with  a mental health condition, and to close some inpatient facilities.

Developed jointly with the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), it will reduce the reliance on inpatient beds by up to 50 per cent, freeing up funds to build new community services that will be led by 49 local Transforming Care Partnerships across England.

The publication  has been published alongside a new Service Model for commissioners that defines what good services should like, and new guidance for care and treatment reviews to prevent unnecessary admissions to specialist hospitals and lengthy hospital stays.

More details and all the guidance documents are available on NHS England’s website, the key documents are also published in easy read. 

People with a learning disability to get ‘homes not hospitals’: New national plan published

NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services have published ‘Building the right support’, a national three-year plan to develop community services and close inpatient facilities for people with a learning disability and/or autism. The plan predicts a reduction of inpatient beds by up to 50 per cent, and new Transforming Care Partnerships to implement transformation plans, underpinned by a new financial framework. Also published are a new Service Delivery Model and final Care and Treatment Review guidance, to reduce unnecessary admissions and lengthy stays in hospital.

To read more, go to: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2015/10/30/homes-not-hospitals/