Correspondence

FT Bulletin 9 September 2015

Published 9 September 2015

Applies to England

1. For action

1.1 Supporting you to manage your nursing agency spend

New rules now apply to agency spend on registered nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff.

The overall aim of the rules is to increase your bargaining power when you negotiate with agencies and to encourage a move among nurses back to permanent and bank working. They should help you to manage your workforce in a more sustainable way, reduce reliance on agency staffing, raise quality and improve the working environment for staff.

Find out more about our new nursing agency rules

We’ve received a number of queries about the rules and so have provided some clarification, including the definition of nursing and the scope of the rules.

If you have any questions, please email agencyrules@monitor.gov.uk.

1.2 You still have time to help shape the 2016/17 national tariff proposals

We’d like your views on our proposals for the 2016/17 tariff:

• currency design and relative prices (until midday 14 September)
• national variations and locally determined prices (until midday 21 September)

We’ll also be sharing our proposals for the efficiency factor, cost base and service development after the spending review.

Your feedback will be important in helping to shape the final proposals, which will be subject to statutory consultation.

1.3 Board secretaries: please help your chief operating officers to have their voice heard

We’re developing a new support programme for chief operating officers. Please help us make sure it works for your chief operating officer by sharing this survey so we can understand more about their work, priorities and challenges. The survey is only open until 18 September.

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

2. For information

2.1 Providing evidence on improving patient flow

This autumn we’re publishing 3 reports which should help local NHS decision-makers evaluate options for improving patient flow.

A&E delays: why did patients wait longer last winter?

Our recent analysis has found that the main cause of longer national A&E waiting times last winter was delays in admitting patients to other hospital departments from the emergency department.

This highlights that reducing A&E waiting times is a shared responsibility of a whole local health and care system, not just the emergency department. The solution lies in smoothing the flow of patients through inpatient wards, to the point of discharge and beyond.

Our infographic provides a summary of our findings as well as the leading theories we tested on the causes of A&E delays.

Emergency Care Improvement Programme

The Emergency Care Improvement Programme (ECIP) is a new, clinically led programme between us, the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) and NHS England, supported by the Department of Health. ECIP will offer practical help and support to the 27 urgent and emergency care systems across England that are under the most pressure.

Moving healthcare closer to home

The second of our reports focuses on the potential of moving healthcare closer to patients’ homes to reduce the need for admissions and enable faster discharge from acute hospitals.

This work shows that such schemes, when well-designed and implemented, could best be used to create capacity for expected increases in demand for acute care over the longer term.

Some of these innovative approaches could offer equivalent or better care for patients through diverting considerable numbers of patients away from acute hospitals. This may also provide better satisfaction for patients who wish to be treated closer to home and has the potential to cost less than creating new acute hospital facilities.

Hear from other NHS staff who have implemented schemes in our case studies and discussion of common challenges for practical information and insights that could help you to deliver change.

NHS talks: why move care closer to home?

2.2 Safer Faster Better: A guide for local health and social care communities

We’re just one of the organisations endorsing this new guidance from NHS England which has been designed to help frontline providers and commissioners deliver safer, faster and better urgent and emergency care to patients of all ages, collaborating with urgent and emergency care networks to show best practice.

2.3 Strategy development: tell us what you really think

What more could we be doing to support you to develop your strategy?

We want to hear your unfiltered insights and experiences so have started an online discussion where you can post your suggestions, discuss with others, and vote on what you think would work best – all completely anonymously. Share as many ideas as you like from any computer, tablet or smartphone until 5pm, Friday 18 September.

If you haven’t already received an invitation and would like to take part, please email strategydevelopment@monitor.gov.uk and we’ll send you log-in details.

You can also join one of our upcoming workshops where you can network and share your own experiences with others from the sector.

2.4 Patient-level information and costing systems (PLICS): additional support

We’ve reviewed the areas which have potential to generate inconsistent costs across organisations. To help you avoid these, with a particular focus on indirect costs and data matching, we’ve produced ‘Patient-level cost collection: follow-up review and recommendations for 2014/15’.

If you’re participating in the PLICS data collection, ‘PLICS collection 2014/15: supplementary guidance’ offers practical advice and solutions to common issues. If your question is not covered, please email PLICS_Collection@monitor.gov.uk.

3. Events

3.1 Strategy in practice workshops

Various locations, 29 September 2015 – 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.

Find your nearest workshop and book your place.

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

4. External updates

4.1 Shape of Caring Review Twitter chat: 10 September, 6.30-7.30pm

Health Education England (HEE) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are staging a series of Twitter chats in September as part of the engagement process for the Shape of Caring Review.

The review aims to ensure that nurses and care assistants receive consistent, high quality education and training throughout their careers, to support giving excellent care over the next 15 years.

The first discussion will be ‘Developing a flexible training model’ where Lisa Bayliss-Pratt @hee_lisaBP, HEE’s Nursing Director joins Karina Kolyva @KaterinaKolyva, NMC’s Director of Continued Practice.

Join the conversation using the hashtag #shapeofcaring.

5. Get in touch

5.1 Our latest job opportunities

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

5.2 Queries or feedback

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

5.3 News alerts

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5.4 Publications

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