30/06/2022
Bevan Brittan provides high quality, comprehensive advice to the NHS, independent healthcare sector and local authorities. This update contains brief details of recent Government publications, legislation, cases and other developments relevant to those involved in health and social care work, both in the NHS, independent sector and local authorities which have been published in the last month.
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Bevan Brittan Free Training Events
Bevan Brittan Clinical Risk/Health, Care and Regulatory Law Team Training - These are internal hour long lunch time training sessions. You can sign up to watch the training sessions remotely via our webinar facility. Please contact Claire Bentley.
Quantum update for clinical negligence practitioners. Aidan O’Brien and Samuel Irving of Farrar’s Building will give a review of important recent clinical negligence quantum cases and how to put developments into practice. 5th July 2022 at 12.30pm.
Recent Case Law on the Use of the Inherent Jurisdiction and DoL Orders for Children and Young People. Arianna Kelly of 39 Essex Chambers will give a summary of the recent cases about authorising deprivation of liberty for children and young people in the inherent jurisdiction and also look at the difficulties in orders for residence/placement where it is an unregistered children’s home. 12th July 2022 at 12.30pm.
Children and Young People’s Treatment: When Parents, Doctors and Local Authority Parents Disagree. From vaccination to life-sustaining treatment – who can consent when the patient is under 18 and what happens when there is no agreement about the best way forward? This session will be presented by Katie Gollop QC of Serjeants’ Inn Chambers. 14th July 2022 at 12.30pm.
Fatal accident claims. Ana Samuel of Complete Counsel will look at understanding fatal accident claims. She will give practical guidance and an update on where we are now and where the law may be heading. 19th July 2022 at 12.30pm.
Costs update for clinical negligence. Ben Petrecz of Keoghs will give a review of key developments and cases, with tips to help practice and manage costs. 6th September 2022 at 12.30pm.
Please note that registration for each webinar will close when the webinar starts, so please do ensure you have booked your place in advance to guarantee attendance.
Acute and emergency care
Publications/guidance
Better mental health support for people in crisis. Patients to benefit from new mental health ambulances and improvements to crisis care backed by £150 million as draft Mental Health Bill moves to next stage.
Tip of the iceberg: 12-hour stays in the emergency department This report reveals that on average 1,047 patients waited 12 hours or more from their time of arrival every day in a major emergency department in 2021 in England, equalling a total of 381,991 patients experiencing these 12-hour waits in 2021.
Bevan Brittan Events
Tricky issues involving police in hospitals. Elliot Gold of Serjeants’ Inn Chambers will consider the scope and limits of police obligations in hospitals. 27th September at 12.30pm.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around acute and emergency issues please contact Claire Bentley.
Children and young people
Publications/Guidance
Evaluating innovation in children's social care. A National Audit Office report examines the Department for Education's approach to funding innovative practices in children's social care, through the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme and related interventions. It sets out how evaluation informed policy development and funding.
A new approach to area SEND inspections. OFSTED and the Care Quality Commission seek views on proposed changes to the way they jointly inspect local area partnership special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) arrangements. The consultation seeks evidence from parents, carers, children and young people to inform changes to the way they inspect services for children and young people, and includes a draft inspection framework and handbook. Comments by 23.45 on 11 September 2022.
Children in poverty: No recourse to public funds. A Work and Pensions Committee report on children in poverty highlights the harmful impact of no recourse to public funds (NRPF), calls for parents with NRPF to be given access to the welfare system after maximum of five years and recommends that the Government should extend free childcare entitlement and pay Child Benefit to children who are British citizens. It highlights the tough circumstances faced by children from some families living and working legally in the UK who have fallen on hard times, particularly during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) because of their immigration status.
Journal Articles
Addressing sexual misconduct in HE : the importance of working in partnership. - Deborah Jeremiah
News
Gaps in student mental health services to be tackled Government announces up to £3 million of investment to close the gaps between university and NHS services.
Bevan Brittan Events
Recent Case Law on the Use of the Inherent Jurisdiction and DoL Orders for Children and Young People. 12th Jul at 12.30pm. Arianna Kelly of 39 Essex Chambers will give a summary of the recent cases about authorising deprivation of liberty for children and young people in the inherent jurisdiction and also look at the difficulties in orders for residence/placement where it is an unregistered children’s home.
Children and Young People’s Treatment: When Parents, Doctors and Local Authority Parents Disagree. From vaccination to life-sustaining treatment – who can consent when the patient is under 18 and what happens when there is no agreement about the best way forward? This session will be presented by Katie Gollop QC of Serjeants’ Inn Chambers. 14th July at 12.30pm.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around children please contact Deborah Jeremiah or Ruth Shedlow
Clinical Risk / Patient Safety
Publications/Guidance
Outsourcing health-care services to the private sector and treatable mortality rates in England, 2013–20: an observational study of NHS privatisation. The privatisation of the NHS in England, through the outsourcing of services to for-profit companies, consistently increased in 2013–20. Private sector outsourcing corresponded with significantly increased rates of treatable mortality, potentially as a result of a decline in the quality of health-care services.
Using standards to help provide safe and effective care for members of the public. A joint Royal Pharmaceutical Society and General Pharmaceutical Council statement outlines the differences between regulatory and professional standards and how they work together to provide a framework for professional practice and patient-centred, safe and effective care. It states that while professional standards and guidance are not mandatory, they are developed and owned by the profession, and set out what constitutes "good" in terms of practice, systems of care, and working practices.
National guidance on quality risk response and escalation in integrated care systems This guidance is to support system leaders as they develop their approach to quality management. It sets out how quality concerns and risks should be managed within integrated care systems in collaboration with NHS England and wider partners.
Re:Birth summary report This project worked with representatives from across maternity care, including staff, advocacy groups and service users. It advises that midwives and obstetricians put the needs and wishes of women at the heart of all conversations about their care. It recommends that maternity staff should follow the five As: acknowledge, ask, affirm, avoid and annotate.
News
NHS privatisation drive linked to rise in avoidable deaths, study suggests
Bevan Brittan Updates
Bevan Brittan successfully defends a medical malpractice claim in the High Court.
Keefe benevolence: what’s the relevance?
Bevan Brittan Events
Quantum update for clinical negligence practitioners. Aidan O’Brien and Samuel Irving of Farrar’s Building will give a review of important recent clinical negligence quantum cases and how to put developments into practice. 5th July 2022 at 12.30pm.
Fatal accident claims. Ana Samuel of Complete Counsel will look at understanding fatal accident claims. She will give practical guidance and an update on where we are now and where the law may be heading. 19th July at 12.30pm.
Costs update for clinical negligence. Ben Petrecz of Keoghs will give a review of key developments and cases, with tips to help practice and manage costs. 6th September at 12.30pm.
How we can help
We are working with clients on formulating policies and making it easier to balance treatment with finite resources. We are helping with social care policies and day to day activities such as contact and isolation, human rights issues and life/death decisions. We are working on notifications of harm and death, RIDDOR, CQC compliance, judicial review, infection control law and grappling with the new regulations and guidance. For more information click here. If you wish to discuss any clinical risk or patient safety issues please contact Joanne Easterbrook or Tim Hodgetts.
Digital Health
Publications/guidance
A plan for digital health and social care. The Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) plan for digital health and social care sets out a vision for a digitally enabled health and social care system and how the DHSC can achieve it. The plan collates existing digital strategies, plans and guidance into one single action plan. It is aimed at health and social care leaders across the system, and industry partners to help them plan for the future. It includes: the rapid expansion of use of technology - including remote monitoring and virtual wards and an updated NHS app offering more personalised care from home, such as increasing patients' access to their records and enabling notifications directly from GPs.
The impact of artificial intelligence on the doctor-patient relationship. A report commissioned by the Council of Europe's Steering Committee for Human rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health examines artificial intelligence (AI) systems regarding the doctor-patient relationship in relation to the principles referred to in the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine 1997, otherwise known as the "Oviedo Convention". More specifically, the report investigates the potential human rights impact of AI according to six themes: inequality in access to high quality healthcare; transparency to health professionals and patients; risk of social bias in AI systems; dilution of the patient's account of well-being; risk of automation bias, de-skilling, and displaced liability; and impact on the right to privacy.
UK Digital Strategy. A Department of Health and Social Care publication sets out ambitious reforms for the health and care sector. It focuses on six principles, including improving trust in the health and care systems' use of data, and working with partners to develop innovations that improve health and care, to create a secure and privacy preserving system which delivers for both patients and professionals.
Digital revolution to bust Covid backlogs and deliver more tailored care for patients People across the country will benefit from faster, more personalised healthcare, following a digital revolution to make the health and social care system fit for the 21st century.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around Digital Health please contact Daniel Morris.
Employment/HR
Publications/guidance
Delivering racial equality in medicine This report reveals the possibility of a major exodus of doctors of ethnic minority backgrounds, due to persistent and intolerable levels of racism faced at a personal and institutional level. Nearly one third of doctors surveyed have considered leaving the NHS or have already left within the past two years due to race discrimination, with 42 per cent of Black and 41 per cent of Asian doctors in particular having considered leaving or having left.
Shattered hopes: black and minority ethnic leaders’ experiences of breaking the glass ceiling in the NHS This survey, carried out by the NHS Confederation’s BME Leadership Network, found that many senior leaders from BME backgrounds had experienced verbal abuse and behaviour targeting their racial, national or cultural heritage at least once in the past three years. In addition, only one in ten respondents were confident that the NHS is delivering its commitment to combat institutional racism.
Nursing under unsustainable pressures: staffing for safe and effective care in the UK In March 2022, the RCN invited nursing and midwifery staff from across the UK to give their experiences of the last time they were at work. There were 20,325 responses to the survey. Eight in ten (83 per cent) said there weren’t enough nursing staff to meet all patient needs safely and effectively on their last shift. Just a quarter (25 per cent) of shifts had the planned number of registered nurses. Less than one in five (18 per cent) said they had enough time to provide the level of care they’d like.
REAL Centre projections: general practice workforce in England. This analysis warns that without urgent, significant policy action, the NHS in England is facing a shortage of GPs and general practice nurses over the coming decade. The projections show that the shortage of qualified, permanent GPs is set to get substantially worse over this decade. There is currently a shortage of around 4,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs, which is projected to rise to around 10,700 FTE GPs in 2030/31, relative to the number needed to meet the rising need for care. This means that without a change to current workforce trends and policies, more than one in four of the 37,800 general practitioner posts needed to deliver pre-pandemic standards of care would be vacant.
Social work and the impact of the Covid pandemic: reflections from the workforce This report is based on a survey of nearly 3,000 social workers across the UK. It aims to shed light on the working conditions of social workers, and limitations on the help they are able to give vulnerable families. Staff shortages, unmanageable caseloads and long hours are identified by social workers as major concerns affecting their ability to do their jobs. More than three quarters of social workers said they had experienced increased stress levels and 77 per cent of respondents were worried about their mental health due to the pressure they’re under. Seven in ten also said morale has decreased and almost half said they’re now less likely to stay in their jobs.
Radiotherapy workforce census summary report 2021. This census report finds that patients are receiving a just about ‘adequate’ service for their radiotherapy treatment but there is little room for training new staff or implementing the latest treatment technologies to improve care. There is also a struggle to recruit clinical technologists and there are often difficulties in finding maternity and sick cover, leaving services strained. Overall, there is a vacancy rate in the radiotherapy workforce of 8 per cent, with the greatest number of vacancies at entry level.
Experiences from health and social care: the treatment of lower-paid ethnic minority workers This is a report of the findings of an inquiry to assess the treatment and experiences of lower-paid ethnic minority workers in health and social care, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. It found: incomplete data on lower-paid ethnic minority workers, particularly in adult social care; different treatment and experiences at work; commissioning and outsourcing leading to poor pay and insecure work; low awareness of employment rights; and fear of raising concerns and a lack of mechanisms to do so.
Employment survey 2021: workforce diversity and employment experiences This is the second report from the RCN annual employment survey. It focuses on four major themes: working hours and patterns; experience of workplace abuse; bullying and harassment, and career progression.
Leadership for a collaborative and inclusive future This report is the result of an independent review, led by General Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard, into leadership across health and social care in England. The review focused on the best ways to strengthen leadership and management across health and with its key interfaces with adult social care in England. It makes recommendations on interventions on collaborative leadership and organisational values, positive equality, diversity and inclusion action, management standards and more.
The Department of Health and Social Care mandate to Health Education England: April 2022 to March 2023 This document sets out the government's strategic objectives for Health Education England to provide health care workforce planning, education and training.
Who can issue fit notes: guidance for healthcare professionals and their employers Guidance to provide advice to doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and their employers about certifying fit notes.
Bevan Brittan Updates
New guidance for NHS Employers on Covid-19 and the workforce.
How we can help
We can offer support and advice on managing many workforce issues including flexing your workforce to respond to the pandemic, managing bank staff, redeployment, vulnerable groups, sick pay, leave options, supporting staff well-being, presenteeism, remote and home working, through FAQs, helpline or policy guidance and practical day to day advice.
If you wish to discuss any employment issues generally please contact Jodie Sinclair, Alastair Currie or James Gutteridge.
Finance
Publications/Guidance
Department of Health and Social Care 2020–21 annual report and accounts This report finds that the Department for Health and Social Care lost 75 per cent of the £12 billion it spent on personal protective equipment (PPE) in the first year of the pandemic to inflated prices and kit that did not meet requirements – including £4 billion of PPE that will not be used in the NHS and needs to be disposed of. The report also voices concerns about the risk of further payouts as NHS commissioning is restructured under upcoming reforms.
For more information contact Claire Bentley.
Health Inequalities
Publications/Guidance
The unequal impact of Covid-19: investigating the effect on people with certain protected characteristics This report maps existing research into Covid-19 inequalities onto some of these protected characteristics, showing how the pandemic has interacted with them. It also showcases four case studies of how different health and care systems have put in place interventions to respond to these inequalities when designing their Covid-19 response. It focuses on a number of key areas including the impact of Covid-19 on: BAME communities; people with disabilities; and older and younger people.
Tackling health inequalities through inclusive recruitment Approximately 60–80 per cent of health and wellbeing is attributable to the social determinants of health. Employment is one of the key determinants. There is an inherent and reciprocal link between health and work. Being in good work with fair pay and conditions improves people’s overall physical and mental health and supports quality of life; good health enables people to work, creating a virtuous cycle. This briefing gives information and prompts for NHS workforce leads to consider local approaches.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around health inequalities please contact Claire Bentley.
Information Sharing/Data
Publications/Guidance
Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data This final version of the strategy sets out ambitious plans to harness the potential of data in health and care in England, while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and ethics.
Bevan Brittan Updates
For more information contact James Cassidy or Jane Bennett.
Inquests
Cases
R. (on the application of Gorani) v HM Assistant Coroner for Inner West London [2022] EWHC1593 (QB). There had been no appearance of bias by a coroner at an inquest, in favour of medical witnesses or an interested party and/or against the deceased family. The coroner was obliged to approach the inquiry with an open mind and she was entitled to form preliminary views on the basis of the evidence before her and to test that against the witnesses' evidence. The coroner had not erred in law by deciding that a Regulation 28 (Preventing Future Deaths) report was not required, without first hearing submissions from the interested parties; there was nothing in the wording of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 Sch.5 which imposed a requirement on a coroner to hear submissions from interested persons before deciding whether the Regulation 28 duty to report arose.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around inquests, please contact Toby De Mellow, Samantha Minchin or Claire Leonard.
Mental Health
Publications/guidance
Draft Mental Health Bill 2022 This draft Bill delivers on two government manifesto commitments: to reform the Mental Health Act; and to improve the way that people with a learning disability and autistic people are treated in law. This draft legislation is intended to give effect to the policy approaches outlined in Sir Simon Wessely’s 2018 independent review, Modernising the Mental Health Act. These were subsequently taken forward in the government’s White Paper Reforming the Mental Health Act in 2021.
Reforming the Mental Health Act. This paper discusses proposals in the Government's White Paper on Reforming the Mental Health Act 1983 and includes a summary of consultation responses.
Mental Health Act reform – race and ethnic inequalities The government announced plans in the Queen’s Speech to bring forward legislation to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. The proposals include approaches to reduce the disproportionate number of individuals from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities subject to compulsory detention and treatment. This briefing outlines research on race and ethnic inequalities in relation to the Act, and summarises proposals for reform and stakeholder views.
Mental health policy in England. This briefing provides an overview of mental health policy in England.
Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019: Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) Legislation and guidance on the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) and the latest information on progress towards their implementation.
Changes to the MCA Code of Practice and implementation of the LPS. This consultation seeks views on proposed changes to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice and implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards.
Eliminating inappropriate out of area placements in mental health The government’s deadline to eliminate inappropriate out of area placements for adult acute patients by the end of March 2021 has been missed.
Summary of evidence on public mental health interventions This report summarises the evidence about public mental health interventions, identifying intervention areas with the strongest evidence base as well as priority areas for future research. The report includes evidence on public mental health interventions across the following areas: pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence; interventions to reduce mental health inequalities for people in marginalised groups; and interventions to prevent mental disorder and the loss of healthy years and premature death.
News
Gaps in student mental health services to be tackled Government announces up to £3 million of investment to close the gaps between university and NHS services.
Bevan Brittan Events
Recent Case Law on the Use of the Inherent Jurisdiction and DoL Orders for Children and Young People. 12th Jul at 12.30pm. Arianna Kelly of 39 Essex Chambers will give a summary of the recent cases about authorising deprivation of liberty for children and young people in the inherent jurisdiction and also look at the difficulties in orders for residence/placement where it is an unregistered children’s home.
Recent developments to the MHA 1983 and MCA 2005. Rhys Hadden of Serjeants’ Inn will consider legislative developments and significant cases decided over the last 12 months in relation to the MCA 2005, with a particular focus on any overlap within the context of the MHA 1983. 20th September at 12.30pm.
How we can help
We are experts in advising commissioners, providers and care co-ordinators on the relevant legal frameworks. We deal with complex issues such as deprivation of liberty, state involvement, use of CCTV monitoring, seclusion, physical restraint and covert medication. We can help providers with queries about admission and detention, consent to treatment, forensic service users, transfers, leave, discharge planning and hearings. We can advise commissioners on all matters concerning commissioning responsibility, liability and disputes. For more information click here
If you wish to discuss any mental health issues facing your organisation please contact Simon Lindsay, Hannah Taylor, or Stuart Marchant.
Primary Care
Publications/guidance
Getting the best out of remote consulting in general practice: practical challenges and policy opportunities. The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a very sudden and widespread shift to remote consulting in general practice. While many patients and clinicians have welcomed the convenience, quality and safety of remote consulting, tensions still exist in choosing between remote and face-to-face care when capacity is constrained. This report explores the opportunities, challenges and risks associated with this technological shift, and the practical and policy implications of recent learning.
REAL Centre projections: general practice workforce in England. This analysis warns that without urgent, significant policy action, the NHS in England is facing a shortage of GPs and general practice nurses over the coming decade. The projections show that the shortage of qualified, permanent GPs is set to get substantially worse over this decade. There is currently a shortage of around 4,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs, which is projected to rise to around 10,700 FTE GPs in 2030/31, relative to the number needed to meet the rising need for care. This means that without a change to current workforce trends and policies, more than one in four of the 37,800 general practitioner posts needed to deliver pre-pandemic standards of care would be vacant.
Next steps for integrating primary care: Fuller stocktake report This is the final report of the stocktake undertaken by Dr Claire Fuller on integrated primary care, looking at what is working well, why it’s working well and how the implementation of integrated primary care (incorporating the current four pillars of general practice, community pharmacy, dentistry and optometry) across systems can be accelerated.
Bevan Brittan Videos
Bevan Brittan has collaborated with NHS Resolution to produce a series of videos outlining key areas in general practice that frequently give rise to claims. Members of our clinical negligence team draw on their wealth of experience in dealing with claims to highlight the common areas of risk, provide guidance on how to mitigate or avoid these issues, and what steps to take if a complaint or a claim is received. The first five videos in this series are available to watch now. See below:-
Consent - Daniel Morris
Medical record keeping - Ben Lambert
Administrative errors - Susan Trigg
What to do if you receive a complaint or claim - Joanne Easterbrook
Common pitfalls - Helen Carrington
Other useful resources from NHS Resolution for primary care are set out below:-
1. General Practice Indemnity schemes
2. Understanding the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice
3. Handling claims under the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice
4. Covid-19 guidance for general practice
How we can help
We can offer support and advice on managing contractual and operational issues affecting the delivery of primary care services, including emerging legislative changes, updated guidance and policy arrangements, workforce issues and any transactional – related matters relating to vertical integrations, STPs, PCNs, etc. For more information click here.
If you wish to discuss any issues in primary care then please contact Joanne Easterbrook, Susan Trigg, Vincent Buscemi or Ben Lambert.
Public Health
Publications/Guidance
Summary of evidence on public mental health interventions This report summarises the evidence about public mental health interventions, identifying intervention areas with the strongest evidence base as well as priority areas for future research. The report includes evidence on public mental health interventions across the following areas: pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence; interventions to reduce mental health inequalities for people in marginalised groups; and interventions to prevent mental disorder and the loss of healthy years and premature death.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around public health please contact Claire Bentley.
Regulation
Publications/Guidance
Government response to consultation on the future regulation of medical devices in the United Kingdom. In response to its consultation on the future regulation of medical devices, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) notes it received strong support for proposals that will enable the MHRA to improve patient safety and safeguard public health. The MHRA will therefore proceed with preparing regulations reclassifying products such as certain implantable devices, extending the scope of regulations to capture certain non-medical products with similar risk profiles to medical devices and to strengthen and increase post-market surveillance requirements ensure better incident monitoring reporting and surveillance. It also notes the Government will be introducing alternative routes to market to enhance the supply of devices while retaining appropriate levels of scrutiny to ensure patient safety remains a priority.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around regulation please contact Stuart Marchant.
Social Care
Publications/Guidance
Written evidence from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to the Joint Committee on Human Rights' inquiry on Protecting Human Rights in Care Settings. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's written evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights' inquiry on protecting human rights in care settings, which details its cases in relation to human rights, and outlines how the complaints system and access to justice can be improved.
Evaluating innovation in children's social care. A National Audit Office report examines the Department for Education's approach to funding innovative practices in children's social care, through the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme and related interventions. It sets out how evaluation informed policy development and funding.
Social work and the impact of the Covid pandemic: reflections from the workforce This report is based on a survey of nearly 3,000 social workers across the UK. It aims to shed light on the working conditions of social workers, and limitations on the help they are able to give vulnerable families. Staff shortages, unmanageable caseloads and long hours are identified by social workers as major concerns affecting their ability to do their jobs. More than three quarters of social workers said they had experienced increased stress levels and 77 per cent of respondents were worried about their mental health due to the pressure they’re under. Seven in ten also said morale has decreased and almost half said they’re now less likely to stay in their jobs.
Financial and performance ask for trusts This report finds that rising demand for NHS services combined with workforce pressures and an underfunded social care system means there is a still a long road ahead for trusts in tackling care backlogs.
Charging reform: government response to the consultation on 'supporting local preparation' guidance From 4 March to 1 April 2022, the government carried out a public consultation seeking views on draft statutory guidance setting out how a cap on care costs would operate in practice. This is the formal government response to the ‘supporting local preparation’ part of the consultation. The government will respond to the second part of the consultation, ‘implementing the cap on care costs’, shortly.
Adult social care charging reform: implementation support grant guidance This guidance applies to the charging reform implementation support funding. It sets out allocations of the implementation support grant for 2022 to 2023 and guidance intended to assist local authorities.
Leadership for a collaborative and inclusive future This report is the result of an independent review, led by General Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard, into leadership across health and social care in England. The review focused on the best ways to strengthen leadership and management across health and with its key interfaces with adult social care in England. It makes recommendations on interventions on collaborative leadership and organisational values, positive equality, diversity and inclusion action, management standards and more.
How we can help
For ways in which we can help with Social Care issues click here.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around social care please contact Siwan Griffiths.
General
Publications/Guidance
Shared decision making from the perspective of clinicians and healthcare professionals This report finds health care professionals are positive about shared decision-making – a way of working with patients to decide treatment options. But the report also finds professionals’ ability to practice shared decision-making regularly is limited by the current crisis in the NHS. The report makes a number of recommendations and The Patients Association will now look to partner with NHS England, the Personalised Care Institute and other organisations to support professionals' call for more support to practice shared decision-making.
Shared decision making standard This standard on shared decision-making aims to provide a framework for clinicians to record the decision-making process between themselves and their patients. The standard also allows the shared decision information to be shared between professionals and their different record systems.
The government’s response to the Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee joint report: coronavirus: lessons learned to date. This document sets out the government’s response to the recommendations made by the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee joint report Coronavirus: lessons learned to date, which was published in October 2021. The joint inquiry investigated six main themes: the country’s preparedness for a pandemic; the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as border controls, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic; the use of test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact of the pandemic on social care; the impact of the pandemic on specific communities; and the procurement and rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.
No honour in abuse: harnessing the health service to end domestic abuse This report looks at domestic abuse from a health perspective and states that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care must play a greater role in tackling what has traditionally been seen as a criminal justice issue. Health professionals need to be given the training and confidence to call out domestic abuse, which has such an enormous mental and physical impact on survivors, perpetrators, and their children. The health service needs to improve its collaboration with third sector support services, which can often be better at meeting the need of victims.
Public attitudes towards institutions involved in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic According to this international study of six countries three in four (74 per cent) people in the UK think the government is motivated by building or protecting its own reputation when it comes to Covid-19, while six in ten (61 per cent) believe it is motivated by making lots of money in relation to the pandemic. However, majorities in other nations share the same perceptions. These perceptions also extend, although to a lesser extent, to scientists involved in tackling coronavirus.
State of the nation: a comprehensive, retrospective view of NHS data This report looks at key data trends over the course of the pandemic, establishing how new trends in health care activity, patient numbers, disease burden, NHS operational practice, prescribing and regional variation have emerged. The report groups the data into six key areas: hospital episode statistics; demographic segmentation; therapy area analysis; referral to treatment; prescribing insights; and regional insights.
NHS violence prevention and reduction standard This guidance document is designed to be used in conjunction with the NHS violence prevention and reduction standard.
Coronavirus: lessons learned to date report: government response The government’s response to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee joint report 'Coronavirus: lessons learned to date'.
Government response to Petitions Committee letter on transgender conversion therapy. Following the Government's plans to introduce a ban on conversion therapy practices intended to change a person's sexual orientation Minister for Equalities Mike Freer has responded to the Petitions Committee's request for more information to inform a debate on a petition relating to transgender conversion therapy. Mr Freer confirmed that the Government will conduct "separate work" to consider the issue of transgender conversion therapy because measures must compliment the existing clinical regulatory framework , and that clinicians feel able to deliver legitimate therapies in supporting those experiencing gender dysphoria.
Bevan Brittan Events
Tricky issues involving police in hospitals. Elliot Gold of Serjeants’ Inn Chambers will consider the scope and limits of police obligations in hospitals. 27th September at 12.30pm.
If you would like to sign up for any of our Bevan Brittan publications click here.
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