Correspondence

FT Bulletin 23 September 2015

Published 23 September 2015

Applies to England

1. For action

1.1 Agency nurse framework agreements: mandatory use from 19 October 2015

If your foundation trust is subject to the new agency spending rules, from 19 October you must use the approved framework agreements to secure all nursing agency staff.

The new value for money trigger in the risk assessment framework means that we will be explicitly taking into account inefficient or uneconomic spending practices, so all foundation trusts are strongly encouraged to comply with the rules and use the approved frameworks.

Find out more about the agency rules including the approvals process, and if you have any questions please email agencyrules@monitor.gov.uk.

1.2 Costing professionals: tell us what you need from patient-level costing software

To ensure that you have the right tools to help transform costing, we want to identify a set of minimum requirements for patient level information and costing systems (PLICS) software to help you work with suppliers.

Thank you to those who have already shared useful insights. If you haven’t yet told us what you need from costing software, please complete our short survey by midday on 1 October 2015.

1.3 Acute trust costing professionals: submit your 2014/15 PLICS data early to get feedback

For the past 3 years, many of you have provided us with patient-level cost information which has helped us to improve the quality, consistency and use of costing information.

If you submit yours before the 1 October deadline, our system will automatically provide you with feedback on the quality of the information you provide, which will give you the opportunity to improve the accuracy of your data. More accurate data means that we are able to make more informed decisions at a national level about the payment system in the future, and you have a more solid base for local decision-making.

If you haven’t already registered your interest in being part of this year’s data collection, please email PLICS_Collection@monitor.gov.uk and we’ll send out further details to help you put together your submission.

1.4 Mental health service providers: tell us about your progress in developing new payment approaches so we can understand patient needs

Alongside NHS England, we’re asking mental health service providers to take part in a survey to help us understand what progress has been made in developing new payment approaches, and in collecting and using data.

We’re committed to the national ambition for mental health to achieve parity of esteem with physical health services by 2020 - as set out in No Health Without Mental Health and the Five Year Forward View.

The information that you supply will help to promote better understanding of patient needs, as well as informing the development of transparent payment approaches for mental health services.

You have until midday on Friday 2 October to complete the survey.

Please contact pricing@monitor.gov.uk for further information.

1.5 Board secretaries: has your chief operating officer shared their views?

We’re developing a new support programme for chief operating officers and want to find out more about their work, priorities and challenges.

We’ve heard from over 50% of foundation trust chief operating officers, and we’re now giving you one last chance to make sure your COO’s views are counted among these so please share this survey with them by 5pm on Friday 2 October.

Please email any questions to development.enquiries@monitor.gov.uk.

2. For information

2.1 Annual patient choice survey - are enough patients being offered choice?

The results of our joint survey with NHS England revealed that too few NHS patients say that they are being offered a choice about where they receive care.

The survey, which asked more than 2,700 NHS patients about the options they were offered by their GP when being referred for an outpatient appointment, revealed that more work needs to be done to promote patient choice across the NHS.

The findings also showed that those who are given a choice are much more likely to be able to go to the hospital or clinic they want.

Using these findings we will endeavour to support the sector to ensure that the number of patients exercising their right to choose providers of healthcare continues to increase.

Read the full report and findings.

In a report we published earlier this year, we also found that only 10% of people are offered a choice of adult hearing services.

Our latest NHS choice and competition blog post looks at the way commissioners can fix this so that more people get the choice of provider they are entitled to.

3. Events

3.1 Strategy in practice workshops: have you registered yet?

Various locations, 29 September 2015 to 15 October 2015

Who are they for?

• NHS foundation trust and NHS trust strategy leads
• NHS foundation trust and NHS trust staff with an interest in developing strategies

Why attend?

This is a practical workshop for anyone looking to refresh or recreate your organisation’s strategy and engage your trust, board and wider stakeholders in the process.

We’ll draw on our strategy development toolkit and real life examples to give you the knowledge, tools and resources to lead the strategic planning process and to develop a robust plan for your organisation.

The day is a chance for you to:

• develop an understanding of the 7-stage strategy process to take back and apply with colleagues in your trust
• gather tools, templates and resources which will assist you in engaging colleagues across your trust in the strategy development process
• network and share good practice among peers
• find out how to access an ongoing sector-wide strategic planning support community

The events will be held regionally starting at 10am and finishing by 4pm. A full agenda and venue details will be confirmed after registration.

Some of the dates are already full so find your nearest workshop and book your place now.

For further information please contact us: strategydevelopment@monitor.gov.uk.

4. Webinars

Alongside NHS Clinical Commissioners, we’re hosting webinars on different payment approaches to shape local healthcare and co-commissioning in primary care. These are primarily for commissioners but you may find some of the topics discussed of interest.

4.1 Using different payment approaches to shape local healthcare

Tuesday 6 October

11:30am to 12.30pm

Why join?

To find out more about how different payment approaches can support local innovation and a shift to new care models.

We will:

• outline the long-term strategy for a payment system to support the Five Year Forward View
• explain how using different payment approaches can support a shift to new care models
• highlight resources available to support you, such as our local payment examples

Register now for this webinar.

4.2 Co-commissioning primary care: how the rules can support you in improving local services

Thursday 15 October

12:30pm to 1:30pm

Why join?

To find out more about how commissioners can commission the best services for your patients, through assessing local need and using flexible contracting approaches, while remaining within the rules on procurement, patient choice and competition.

We will:

• highlight specific findings relevant to commissioners from Monitor’s report on improving GP services
• hear from a commissioner who is undertaking co-commissioning about the challenges faced, and plans for the future
• explore how the commissioning rules can help clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) achieve their primary care improvement plans

You can email any challenges or issues you would like us to discuss to events@monitor.gov.uk until 5pm on Friday 9 October; all submissions will remain anonymous.

Register now for this webinar.

4.3 A&E delays: method, findings and next steps

Thursday 22 October

1pm to 2pm

Who it for?

Anyone interested in and/or working in the healthcare sector, and the following roles within foundation trusts,

NHS trusts and independent providers:

• clinicians
• NHS analysts
• strategy, operations and business development directors/equivalent
• think tank healthcare researchers
• academics

Why join?

To hear an outline of the method, key findings and next steps being explored by us and the wider sector to prevent A&E delays. This follows our recently published report and recommendations looking at reasons why the 4 hour A&E standard was missed during Q3 2014/15, reaching its lowest level for more than 10 years.

Register for this webinar to:

• find out how we analysed A&E performance and developed evidence based policy
• gain an understanding of our key findings
• find out what Monitor and other arm’s length bodies are doing to support much challenged emergency care systems through the Emergency Care Improvement Programme (ECIP)
• ask questions about the report during our Q&A

Register for this webinar now.

4.4 Providing agency support

Watch this webinar on demand.

Who is it for?

• NHS Interim Management and Support (NHS IMAS) improvement specialists
• senior nursing and NHS workforce professionals

Why join?

To find out about Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority’s (TDA) self-assessment toolkit and methodology, developed to help trusts assess their current use of agency staff.

We’ve been working closely together on the issue of agency spend in the NHS and one of the areas that needs to be addressed is the capability and capacity within trusts to manage the demand for agency staff.

In this webinar, we outline the toolkit and explain how it is already being used by Monitor to provide improvement support to a number of trusts. The webinar will also give you the opportunity to:

• gain knowledge about the context of where agency spend sits in relation to workforce issues
• understand how to use the self-assessment toolkit and the methodology behind it

5. External updates

5.1 Have you had your flu vaccination?

Please remember to have your flu vaccination to protect yourself, your families, and vulnerable patients and residents from the virus. Being protected against flu and minimising transmission can also reduce pressure on the health and social care system and minimise staff absenteeism.

Last year just 54.9% of frontline health and social care workers had the flu vaccination and coverage in NHS providers ranged from 8% to over 85% so there is still room for improvement.

The NHS Employers website provides good practice guidance on developing your strategy to prevent flu.

5.2 Future-Focused Finance: ‘Best possible value’ events

The Future-Focused Finance initiative is holding a number of regional learning lab events this autumn that will look at value and value-oriented approaches to decision-making.

These free, interactive all day workshops are for anyone in a finance role and will introduce materials to help approach value and better decision-making in a practical hands-on way.

The events are being hosted by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA), on a number of dates at various venues around the country.

Please email jacqueline.durban@cipfa.org to register.

5.3 NAO consultation on auditors’ value for money work

The National Audit Office (NAO) is responsible for setting the Audit Code for local public audit, including NHS foundation trusts. Auditors follow this Code when performing their work and to provide further assistance the NAO will be producing a series of Auditor Guidance Notes (AGN), containing additional detail on particular topics.

They are currently consulting on a draft AGN that covers auditors’ work on value for money / use of resources arrangements. This could affect the scope of auditors’ work for NHS foundation trusts and so you may wish to consider the NAO’s proposals; we will be submitting our own response next week.

Their consultation closes on 30 September. Find out more and submit your responses on the NAO website.

6. Get in touch

6.1 Our latest job opportunities

For more information or to apply, please visit our recruitment website joinmonitor.com.

6.2 Queries or feedback

If you have any queries about the information in this bulletin, please contact your relationship manager at Monitor.

6.3 News alerts

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6.4 Publications

All of our publications are available to download from our publications section.