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Chief Executive Bulletin
Contents:NHS and social care interest 1. Neighbourhood Renewal Fund extension NHS interest Social care interest NHS and social care interest 1. Neighbourhood Renewal Fund extension The Spending Review 2002 has extended the original £900 million Neighbourhood Renewal Fund by £975 million. This is great news for those involved in neighbourhood renewal and provides an opportunity to gain additional support in tackling health inequalities. Eligible authorities will now receive £300 million in 2002/03, £400 million in 2003/04, £450 million in 2004/05, and £525 million in 2005/06. The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund is providing 88 eligible local authorities and their local strategic partnerships with funds to improve services and direct mainstream resources to the most deprived neighbourhoods. A decision on the distribution of the extra funding has yet to be made. A review of the first wave of local neighbourhood renewal strategies has found that health has not featured to the same extent as other issues such as crime and employment. Now is the time to engage with and support local strategic partnerships to ensure that work to address poor health and health inequalities features prominently. For further information contact Martin Gibbs on 020 7972 4922 or martin.gibbs@doh.gsi.gov.uk Top2. Accreditation of Local Strategic Partnerships 2002/03 Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in the 88 areas receiving the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) must be accredited again this year to continue receiving it. As key LSP partners PCTs are most likely to be involved in the accreditation process. Government guidance for the accreditation process for 2002/03 has been issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and hard copies are being distributed to LSP partners by Government offices. The guidance is also available on the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit web site at www.neighbourhood.gov.uk/publicationsdetail.asp?id=297 The Health Inequalities Unit has a supply of the guidance for those requiring a copy and not covered by the circulation above - email michelle.wiseman@doh.gsi.gov.uk Top3. Promoting the Health of Looked After Children The above guidance, sets out a framework for the delivery of services from health agencies and councils with social services responsibilities (CSSRs) which will promote and improve the health of looked after children and young people. It is due to be published on Friday 29 November with circular LAC(2002)16. The guidance is written in the context of a holistic model of health and is therefore relevant for a range of agencies in the statutory, voluntary and independent sectors, including education and leisure services. Hard copies of the summary document will be distributed to chief executives of PCTs, SHAs and NHS trusts. Directors of social services and teenage pregnancy co-ordinators will receive the full guidance and summary. Designated doctors and nurses who have lead responsibility for the health of looked after children can obtain a hard copy of both documents from Jim Brown by email: jim.brown@doh.gsi.gov.uk or on 020 7972 4431. Others with an interest in this area can obtain hard copies by placing an order with Department of Health Publications, PO Box 777, London SE1 6XH (Fax. 01623 724524). The full guidance and summary will also be available at www.doh.gov.uk/lookedafterchildren/promotinghealth.htm
and For further information please contact Jim Brown (as above). Top4. Implementation of the NSF for Older People - age discrimination benchmarking tool and review of what makes a good stroke service
Over the next few months, we will be seeking comments on the new tool, and also expanding it to cover primary and social care services.
Both the age discrimination benchmarking tool and the stroke review document are available at www.doh.gov.uk/nsf/olderpeople.htm Contact details: jane.allberry@doh.gsi.gov.uk
or, for the age discrimination tool, carl.evans@doh.gsi.gov.uk
and, for the stroke review, mary.hopper@doh.gsi.gov.uk
5. Tackling Health Inequalities: Summary of the 2002 Cross-Cutting Review Tackling Health Inequalities: Summary of the 2002 Cross-Cutting Review was published on 20 November. The report sets out the Government's long term strategy to reduce health inequalities and will form the basis of the cross-Government delivery plan for tackling heath inequalities, which will be published early in the New Year. The strategy puts responsibility for tackling health inequalities at the heart of every key public service, harnessing the power of billions of pounds of extra Government funding. It recognises that to achieve real, sustained improvement there needs to be action across Government and with other sectors. A copy of the guidance can be found at: www.doh.gov.uk/healthinequalities/ccsrsummaryreport.htm Fur further information contact Michelle Wiseman on 020 7972 3739 or michelle.wiseman@doh.gsi.gov.uk Top6. Health Service Ombudsman completed investigations report - April to July 2002 The latest "Completed Investigations" report covering the period April to July 2002 was published by the Health Service Ombudsman on Tuesday 26 November. The report identifies three main issues of interest - record keeping, care of people with mental illness and the NHS complaints procedure, in particular clinical advice to those managing the process. It is an invaluable source of information for the NHS both for improving services and as a training resource. Chief executives should make sure all conveners, complaints mangers and clinical directors are made aware of the reports. The report is available at www.parliament.ombudsman.org.uk/hsc/document/hicaj02/index.htm For further information contact Adrian Landon on 0113 254 5679 or adrian.landon@doh.gsi.gov.uk Top7. Medical Devices Agency notices
For further information on the above contact Elizabeth Moore on 020 7972 8183 or elizabeth.moore@doh.gsi.gov.uk. For information on the role and nomination of liaison officers e-mail bs@medical-devices.gov.uk Top8. Role of primary care trusts in relation to learning and research in the new NHS The terms of reference for a ministerial review of the role of primary care trusts in relation to learning and research in the new NHS were announced today by health minister John Hutton. Prominent among the issues that led to the announcement of the review was how, within the new NHS structure, PCTs could be supported to deliver on learning and research, while providing improved local patient care. The review, which will be conducted during the course of 2003, will be linked to the activity of the National Primary and Care Trust Development Programme (NATPaCT). Full text of the written ministerial statement For further information contact Joan Arnott on 0113 254 6434 or joan.arnott@doh.gsi.gov.uk Top9. Report on the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health An update report on the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, Patients Forums, independent complaints advocacy, overview and scrutiny committees and the imminent new duty on the NHS to involve and consult the public is available on www.doh.gov.uk/involvingpatients under the menu headings 'Status Report' and 'Policy Update'. For further information contact Meredith Vivian at meredith.vivian@doh.gsi.gov.uk TopNHS interest 10. Annual certificate of fire safety management 2002 Chief executives of NHS trusts, PCTs, SHAs and special health authorities, are reminded of the need to complete and sign the Annual Certificate of Fire Safety Management covering the period 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002. Completed certificates must be returned to the head of performance and estate analysis, NHS Estates, 1 Trevelyan Square, Boar Lane, Leeds, LS1 6AE, by the 31st January 2003. Blank copies of the certificate, together with guidance notes, can be downloaded at www.doh.gov.uk/nhsestates/firecertificate.htm. The Annual Certificate of Fire Safety Management replaces the previous Certificate of Firecode Compliance and is designed to assure the Department of Health that the fire risk to patients, visitors and employees is being effectively managed. This assurance is also necessary to enable purchasers of health care to discharge their 'duty of care'. Local authority fire services will enforce the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997(as amended), in order to ensure the safety of the employees. For further information contact head of performance and estate analysis at NHS Estates Dennis Bastow on 0113 254 7106 or Dennis.Bastow@doh.gsi.gov.uk Top11. Changes to NHS Pension Scheme Technical changes to the way the NHS Pension Scheme is funded have been included within revised public spending totals announced today by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Pre-Budget Report. The NHS Pension Scheme is one of the largest schemes in Europe with over one million active members and currently pays benefits to nearly 475,000 NHS pensioners. It offers a full and secure range of benefits to its members, with benefits on average worth about 20% of pay. After pay, the NHS Pension Scheme is the biggest investment made in NHS staff and demonstrates the value the Government places on their contribution. In future employer contributions will cover the costs of indexing scheme benefits, which are currently financed separately outside the Department's health budgets. The change will see the employers' contribution rate increase from 7% to 14%. This will bring the NHS Pension Scheme into line with other public service schemes. The additional cost to employers will be fully covered by additional funds, on top of expenditure plans for the Department of Health announced in the Budget. There will be a corresponding reduction in the costs of NHS pensions net of contributions and so no overall change to public expenditure or the resources available to healthcare. Employee contributions and the payment of scheme benefits will be unaffected by the change. Arrangements for transferring indexation costs will be phased in. Costs will be paid centrally from the Department's DEL (Departmental Expenditure Limit) from April 2003 and will be delegated to employers' budgets in April 2004. A Departmental Working Group has been remitted to develop detailed implementation plans for handling the transfer. Alongside the financial arrangements for transferring and allocating resources, it will look at the human resource aspects of the change. This will include improving recognition of the full value of the NHS Pension Scheme in recruitment, retention and return to service as well as the full costs of employment. Together with the NHS Pensions Agency, the Department of Health has been rolling out across the NHS a number of workshops aimed at giving practical support to both Human Resources Managers and Pensions Managers on the benefits of the NHS Pensions Scheme, in supporting good HR practice. For further information and details of dates, please contact Claire O'Donnell at Hemsley Fraser on 01752 854200, or at claire.o'donnell@hemsleyfraser.co.uk For further information on pensions indexation contact Lynne Slater, NHS Employment Branch lynn.slater@doh.gsi.gov.uk 12. Paediatric and congenital cardiac services review The report of the review group established to examine paediatric and congenital cardiac services was published on 21 November by the Department of Health. The report:
Comments are invited on all aspects of the report and particularly on the number of operations each centre should perform each year, where the evidence base is slight. The report and consultation letter can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/childcardiac/reviewnov02.htm Responses should be sent by 28 February 2003 to pccrconsultation@doh.gsi.gov.uk or The PCCS Review, Room 512, Wellington House, 133-155 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UG For more information contact Jamilla Rogers-Wright on 020 7972 4716 orjamilla.rogers-wright@doh.gsi.gov.uk 13. Supplementary Prescribing by nurses and pharmacists
Once trained, supplementary prescribers will be able to prescribe all medicines currently prescribed by doctors, with the exceptions only of unlicensed medicines (unless part of clinical trials) and of controlled drugs. Prescribing of controlled drugs will be included after the necessary legislative changes. There will be no legal limit on the conditions that maybe included in supplementary prescribing. Supplementary prescribing training for nurses is expected to be in place by the end of January 2003 with the first nurses acting as supplementary prescribers by the Spring. Supplementary prescribing training for pharmacists should be in place from spring 2003, with the first pharmacists prescribing from late summer 2003. The Department will be issuing guidelines on the implementation of supplementary prescribing in England early in 2003. Meanwhile details are available on www.doh.gov.uk/supplementaryprescribing. For more information contact Mike Garley on 0113 254 6313 or mike.garley@doh.gsi.gov.uk 14. National Strategy for Local e-Government - letter
to primary care trusts For further information contact Roger Staton at roger.staton@doh.gsi.gov.uk 15. Government to support improved regulation of
fertility treatment services One of the report's key recommendations concerned the funding of the increased level of activity undertaken by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the regulator of fertility treatment services in the UK. The response recognises that it is essential that the HFEA is a strong and effective regulator. The Government is therefore supporting the authority to introduce a range of measures that will bolster regulatory procedures. The new measures include more in-depth inspections, more training for the authority's inspectors, new protocols for inspections for greater consistency, and an updated code of practice for clinics with clear standards that they will be required to meet. In order to introduce these measures, the HFEA's annual funding will increase from just over £2m to £5.5m. This includes an increase in Government funding to £1.5m and approval for the HFEA to increase its licence fee income to £4m. As the Government considers it important that clinics have adequate notification, it is requiring the HFEA to defer the introduction of the fees increase from January 2003 to April 2003. The response can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/assistedconception/scitechcmtteegovresponse.pdf For more information contact Ted Webb on 020 7972 5863 or edward.webb@doh.gov.uk 16. NHSnet reprocurement (known as N3) Comments from the review panel were extremely positive and praised the high quality management of the project. Specific examples of good practice were:
The project will continue to progress as planned, with the next stage being to finalise the output based specification (OBC) in order to issue the OJEC advertisement. For further information please contact the project manager Phil Sissons
at 17. Improving Working Lives - guidance for allied
health professions and health care scientists Local measures are important to make the NHS an attractive option for new recruits and encourage retention among existing staff. The cornerstone of local initiatives is Improving Working Lives (IWL). IWL guidance for allied health professions and health care scientists was announced by John Hutton at the recruitment and retention conference for these staff groups in London in September and launched at the York conference in October. Guidance was written because it was recognised that implementing the Improving Working Lives standard was sometimes problematic for these people. This is due to the specialist nature of their work and the fact that they often operate in small teams, creating particular problems around flexible working and career progression. The guidance contains information on the IWL Standard, guidelines and examples of good practice, following on from earlier guidance for doctors and the pharmacy team. It can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/iwl/publications.htm or obtained from the Responseline 08701 555 455. For more information contact Tony Williams on 0113 254 5272 or anthony.williams@doh.gsi.gov.uk 18. Liberating the talents Copies of Liberating the Talents can be obtained from the Department of Health, PO Box 777, London SE1 6XH or call the NHS Response Line on 08701 555 455. Fax 01623 724524 or e-mail doh@prolog.uk.com. It is also on the chief nursing officer's website at www.doh.gov.uk/cno/liberatingtalents.htm 19. HR in the NHS Plan The document can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/hrbulletin/nhs-qrt-plan-nov.pdf 20. Guidance from the teenage pregnancy unit
21. National staff opinion survey 2002/03 guidance for NHS trusts and primary are trusts This guidance has been produced to assist NHS organisations to carry out the national staff survey for 2002-03. It can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/hrinthenhs/staffsurvey.htm 22. Important information for medical and healthcare professionals about new BCG vaccine Statens Serum Institute (SSI) The above letter explains that the marketing authorisation for BCG Vaccine SSI was granted by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) under the Mutual Recognition Procedure on 9 September 2002 and will shortly be available for use in the UK. While BCG Vaccine SSI is essentially similar to the Evans BCG Vaccine Intradermal there are two major changes that medical, nursing and pharmacy staff must be aware of before using the SSI vaccine. These details are outlined in the full letter, reference PL CO (2002)1 23. Conferences
Social care interest 24. Delivering quality children's services - report of the second SSI inspection programme of local council children's services CI(2002)19 - print code 29972 1p 7k Nov 02 (ESP) The Quality Protects programme was introduced in 1999 to transform services for children. It was recognised that this process would take many years. Between August 2000 and July 2001 SSI undertook inspections of 32 councils' children's services to see how they were progressing in relation to the Quality Protects objectives. Findings showed that councils generally needed to give continued attention to providing good basic services and to ensuring they had strategies in place to achieve new approaches to delivering services. The report is available at www.doh.gov.uk/ssi/deliveringqualitycs.htm For more information contact Peter Cooper on 0117 941 6504 or peter.cooper@doh.gsi.gov.uk 25. The Choice Protects Review This review will find ways to improve choice and diversity for children who have to come into care - both through commissioning effectively and through the development of foster care services. It is looking is looking at how local authorities recruit foster carers so that the right places can be found quickly for children in need. It is also looking at rewards for foster carers and the provision of training and support, as well as the role and status of foster carers and the role of family and friends in caring for the child. The review is addressing councils which commission and deliver effective placements and the contribution of independent fostering agencies. Overall it will build on the improvements in the management and delivery of children's social services that have been put in place over the last three years of the Quality Protects programme. Work that has already been undertaken by the review can be identified in the Choice Protects Update Bulletin which can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/choiceprotects. For further information contact Stephanie Amogbokpa on 020 7972 4054 or stephanie.amogbokpa@doh.gsi.gov.uk 26. Care leavers, year ending 31 March 2002, England Printed copies of this publication will be distributed to directors
of social services and to children's statistical contacts in social services
departments today. The statistical tables and commentary will also be
published on the internet at www.doh.gov.uk/public/stats1.htm
under the heading 'Children (social services)'. For further information contact Steve Maslen, DH Statistics Division 3A, 451C Skipton House, 80 London Rd London SE1 6LH. Tel 020 7972 5799, fax 020 7972 5662. 27. National standards for the provision of children's advocacy services Advocacy protects looked after children and young people from abuse and poor practice. These standards are being issued in order to make sure that looked after children and young people receive as much support as possible when they want to speak out. The standards are issued under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, which means that they must be followed by local authority social services, except in exceptional circumstances. They are for councils providing, or paying others to provide, independent advocacy for looked after children and those in need - including care leavers and disabled children. The standards will provide a framework to plan, develop and review advocacy practice at all levels. Existing services should aim to meet the standards and new services should be developed in line with them. The standards can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/childrensadvocacy. Hard copies are available from the Department of Health, PO Box 777, London SE1 6XH. Hard copies will be despatched to local authorities, directors of social services and advocacy organisations in the week of 2 December. For further information contact Barbara Herts on tel 020 7972 4237, fax 020 7972 4627 or barbara.herts@doh.gsi.gov.uk
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