31/01/2024
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
There is no charge for any of the events listed below
Webinars
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. Join us for this webinar on 6 February 2024 at 12.30pm with Eliot Woolf KC who will review important recent clinical negligence quantum decisions and discuss how to put helpful developments into practice.
Domestic Homicide Reviews and your duties in relation to them. 22 February 12.30pm. Join us for this session with Frank Mullane MBE who set up Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) following the murders of his sister Julia and nephew William in 2003. Frank helped ensure Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) became law, and helped develop the Home Office DHR Guidance. He is a Home Office appointed reader of DHRs and a member of the national Victims’ Panel chaired by the Justice Minister. He was on the assessment panel for the recruitment of the first ever (Designate) Domestic Abuse Commissioner and is a published author on the subject of domestic homicide.
NHS Resolution: Behind bars-perspectives on delivering health in prison. 27th February 12.30pm - 2pm. NHS Resolution's Safety and Learning team is hosting a webinar on the realities of delivering health in prison and its impact on safety. The purpose is to raise awareness of the cost and scale of harm, discuss the realities, best practice, challenges and recommendations around collaborating to support healthcare delivery in the justice system. We will hear from a diverse range of experts in the field.
- Learning from prison claims| NHS Resolution
- The realities of delivering healthcare in prison | Practice Plus Group
- The medico-legal aspect of prison health claims | Bevan Brittan
- Q&A panel discussion
Please note that registration for each webinar will close one hour before the webinar starts, so please do ensure you have booked your place in advance to guarantee attendance.
Acute and emergency care
Publications/guidance
Hospital discharge and community support guidance. Sets out how health and care systems should support the safe and timely discharge of people who no longer need to stay in hospital.
Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Guidance for staff involved in planning to discharge patients at risk of or experiencing homelessness, or who have no recourse to public funds.
Discharge from mental health inpatient settings. Sets out how health and care systems should support the discharge of people from mental health inpatient settings.
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
Championing kinship care: national kinship care strategy. This strategy will enable more children who cannot live with their parents to stay with people who are known to them and love them
Kinship carers in England. An overview of kinship care in England, including the different types of kinship care arrangement, support available for kinship carers, issues, and Government policy.
Learning from a programme working with parents and carers of children who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour. This report provides an overview of an evaluation of the NSPCC’s Safe Home programme carried out by the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University.
Children in care: statistics briefing. This briefing looks at what data and statistics are available about children in care to help professionals, and the organisations they work for, make evidence-based decisions.
Children and young people’s mental health: policy and services (England). This briefing looks at how children and young people's mental health services in England work and sets out relevant Government policy and statistics.
How local authorities and children’s homes can achieve stability and permanence for children with complex needs. This report highlighted the lack of suitable homes available for children with complex needs, and the difficulty local authorities face in finding homes for them.
Returning home from care: improving support for family reunification. This draws on a survey of, and interviews with, councils in England to understand current practice and challenges.
Special Educational Needs: support in England. This House of Commons Library briefing sets out the system of support for children and young people in England aged 0-25 with special educational needs (SEN).
Putting the care back into health care means treating children as people not statistics. Children growing up in disadvantage are increasingly more likely to experience ill health. Rukshana Kapasi, Director of Health at Barnardo’s, explains how three integrated care systems are trialling different ways of doing things to improve outcomes for children and young people.
Children in care. The Association for Fostering, Kinship and Adoption (AFKA) has published a report evaluating the Siblings Reunited (STAR) service in Scotland that helps siblings separated in care stay in touch. AFKA spoke with children, caregivers and professionals and found that: there is a demand for resources such as STAR because of the challenges with helping children and young people to maintain connections with their brothers and sisters when they are separated in care; and there is a high level of satisfaction in relation to the service STAR provides from brothers and sisters, caregivers, and social workers.
Domestic abuse. Foundations has published a news story on children experiencing domestic abuse in England and Wales. Findings from an analysis of existing NSPCC and ONS data estimate at least 827,000 children in England and Wales may have experienced domestic abuse by the end of 2023.
Written Statement: Residential special schools brought into regulatory framework in response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. A written statement by Julie Morgan, Deputy Minister for Social Services, has announced that residential special schools in Wales have been defined as a new regulated service, the special school residential services, under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 in response to the recommendation made by Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse for all residential special schools to be inspected against the quality standards used to regulate care homes in Wales. There are four maintained residential special schools in Wales which will fall within the scope of regulation. Statutory guidance will be published to support the regulations.
News
‘Why trusting children matters in social care’
Bevan Brittan Updates
Department of Education Updates National Framework for Children’s Social Care - Lauren Howe
Who holds the Duty of Care? HXA v Surrey County Council and YXA v Wolverhampton County Council [2023] - Amrita Hurst
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
Performance of maternity services in England. The government has described the NHS as one of the safest places in the world to give birth. However, multiple reports and independent investigations have highlighted ongoing problems in maternity care in England. This article summarises recent findings on the performance of NHS maternity services in England, as well as recent government and NHS policies aimed at improving the quality of maternity care.
Pressure ulcers: how to safeguard adults. How to respond to individuals at risk of developing pressure ulcers, prevent harm where they occur and raise a safeguarding concern.
Framework agreement between DHSC and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body. This document outlines how the DHSC and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body will work together. It sets out: roles; responsibilities; governance; and accountability arrangements.
Patient-initiated follow-up: does it work, why it matters, and can it help the NHS recover? The NHS’s elective recovery strategy includes a target of moving 5% of outpatient attendances to patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) pathways by March 2025. But what exactly is PIFU? As the NHS prepares to scale it up nationally, this explainer details what it is, the problems it could solve, and what is known so far about how well it works.
Seven features of safety in maternity units: A framework based on multi-site ethnography and stakeholder consultation. This paper explains how a new plain-language framework, the For Us (For Unit Safety) framework, was developed through a multi-site ethnographic study and stakeholder consultation. The framework identifies the behaviours and practices that appear to be features of safe care in hospital-based maternity units.
Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2024] UKSC 1 11 Jan 2024. A person who suffered psychiatric injury from witnessing the death of a close relative, or its immediate aftermath, from a medical condition which a doctor or health authority had negligently failed to diagnose and treat was not entitled to claim damages as a secondary victim. See Bevan Brittan Update - Supreme Court judgment provides clarity in secondary victim claims made in a clinical negligence context.
Consultations
NHS leadership, performance and patient safety A Health and Social Care Committee inquiry examines leadership, performance and patient safety in the NHS. It also considers how effectively leadership supports whistleblowers and what is learnt from patient safety issues. It will consider the findings of and implementation of recent reviews of NHS leadership, such as the Messenger (2022) and Kark (2019) reviews as they relate to patient safety, as well as topics including how effectively leadership supports whistleblowers and learning from patient safety issues. Comments by 8 March 2024.
Setting the Personal Injury Discount Rate. A Ministry of Justice call for evidence seeks views to inform the second review of the personal injury discount rate (PIDR) using the reformed process introduced by the Civil Liability Act 2018. It is intended to assist the PIDR Expert Panel in the process of obtaining up-to-date data and information on a wide range of topics relevant to modelling claimants' likely return on investment. This includes claim and claimant characteristics, claimant investment experience, investment expenses, changes since the 2018 call for evidence, the impact and practicalities of adopting a dual/multiple PIDR and the way in which compensation payments are made. Comments by 23.59 on 9 April 2024.
News
Government orders NHS trust review following Nottingham killings. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has ordered a special review into Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust which treated Valdo Calocane, the man responsible for stabbing two students in Nottingham in 2023. Conducted by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the review will provide further answers for the families affected by the killings, and on wider issues in mental health care provision in Nottinghamshire. The CQC will be required to present findings by March 2024, with the Government issuing a response in due course.
Number of women in UK who die during pregnancy rises sharply.
Bevan Brittan Updates
Supreme Court judgment provides clarity in secondary victim claims made in a clinical negligence context - Joanna Lloyd
New Year, New Practice. Good Medical Practice framework comes into effect - Monica Gosling
Bevan Brittan Events
Quantum Update For Clinical Negligence Practitioners. Join us for this webinar on 6 February 2024 at 12.30pm with Eliot Woolf KC who will review important recent clinical negligence quantum decisions and discuss how to put helpful developments into practice.
Domestic Homicide Reviews and your duties in relation to them. 22 February 12.30pm. Join us for this session with Frank Mullane MBE who set up Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) following the murders of his sister Julia and nephew William in 2003. Frank helped ensure Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) became law, and helped develop the Home Office DHR Guidance. He is a Home Office appointed reader of DHRs and a member of the national Victims’ Panel chaired by the Justice Minister. He was on the assessment panel for the recruitment of the first ever (Designate) Domestic Abuse Commissioner and is a published author on the subject of domestic homicide.
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
The rise of the machines: AI, digital and data in health care. This report looks at how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact health care. It builds on Healthcare Leader's roundtable 'Healthcare data: how ICBs can encourage patient trust', with data experts and integrated care board (ICB) leaders and is informed by a survey on attitudes to AI among Healthcare Leader's audience. The findings highlight the tension between the positive attitudes to AI among leading clinicians set against the concerns around data-sharing. The report also outlines the potential and pitfalls of AI in health care where leaders in the field discuss current successes and concerns.
Human involvement in AI-driven digital pathology pathways: ethical and legal considerations. This report forms part of Project DELTA, funded by Innovate UK and Cancer Research UK, which seeks to improve the diagnosis of oesophageal cancer. It reports the findings from a series of workshops held by the PHG Foundation that explored some of the ethical and legal factors that may impact the implementation of AI in digital pathology.
Roadmap towards the future regulatory framework for medical devices. This document sets out a clear path for the development of new and robust regulations for medical devices in the UK. The new regulations will put patient safety first and help to ensure that patients continue to have access without delay to the devices they need, while enhancing the UK’s position as a world-leading environment for medical technology innovators.
News
Digital prescriptions go live in NHS App. Following a successful trial in 2023 involving over a million users, NHS England has announced that it is adding the new service to the NHS App which will allow patients to see when their prescriptions have been issued and view their prescribed medication. Patients waiting for an elective hospital treatment will also now be able to see the average waiting time for their procedure at their local trust, and users without a nominated pharmacy will be able to use a barcode in the app to collect their prescription from any pharmacy instead of needing a paper version. Patients can already use the app to request repeat prescriptions digitally and the number of repeat prescriptions ordered through the app has grown by 45% over the past year, with an average of 3.1 million now requested every month.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around Digital Health please contact Daniel Morris.
Employment/HR
Publications/guidance
Right to work checks standard. There are six employment check standards that employers must undertake as part of their recruitment processes. This guidance outlines the purpose of the standards, who they apply to and how to meet compliance. It also details the type of checks and documentary evidence which are required in order to verify a candidate's legal right to work in the UK.
The burnout report. This new benchmark study, to be conducted annually, explores the experience and prevalence of high or extreme pressure and stress in people's daily lives, and the factors that contribute towards or alleviate the risk of burnout.
Care workforce pathway for adult social care. The care workforce pathway outlines the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours people need to work in adult social care.
Engaging young people with the We Want You project. The We Want You project at NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) focuses on supporting young people to reflect on the skills and personal interests that they have, which can be matched to a future career in health and care. This is part of the ICB’s principle of ensuring that organisations within the integrated care system are local employers of choice.
Separate pay spine for nursing. In May 2023 the government agreed a deal for the Agenda for Change (AfC) workforce through the NHS Staff Council. During negotiations, concerns were raised about how the AfC pay structure is affecting the career progression and professional development of nurses, and the direct impact that this is having on recruitment and retention. The Royal College of Nursing suggested that a separate pay spine for nursing staff could address these concerns. The government is now seeking views on the benefits and challenges of a separate pay spine for nursing staff. This call for evidence closes at 11.59pm on 4 April 2024.
Recruiting and promoting specialist grade doctors. This case study describes how Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, by recognising doctors who are showing excellence in specialty or locum consultant roles, increased the number of specialist grade doctors.
Advanced nursing practice for gynaecology and women’s health. Gynaecology and women’s health care has many sub-specialties, including hysteroscopy, general gynaecology, early pregnancy, emergency gynaecology, colposcopy, urogynaecology, menopause, endometriosis and gynaecology oncology. This publication has set out pathways for advanced nursing practice and advanced clinical practice roles that will enhance clinical care and the patient experience, and enable progression career development for nurses.
News
Government seeks views on new pay scale for NHS nurses. A call for evidence will collate feedback from across the health sector on the merits of a separate pay structure.
Government sets out plans to develop the domestic care workforce. The government outlined plans to improve the career prospects of the domestic care workforce through training, qualifications and a clearer, care career path.
NMC launches a review of nursing and midwifery practice learning. The Nursing and Midwifery Council is to commission independent research into nursing and midwifery students' practice learning requirements with the aim of recognising and acknowledging innovation, and to ensure that its requirements continue to equip students with the knowledge and skills to deliver the best possible care for people across a diverse range of care settings. It will also explore how practice learning varies in other countries and the factors behind this.
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, Oonagh Sharma, James Gutteridge or Andrew Uttley.
Finance
Publications/guidance
NHS charges. House of Commons Library briefing on NHS charges.
Using financial incentives to tackle health inequalities. Finance staff have a key role in ensuring that financial incentives are designed effectively and form part of a wider financial strategy to reduce health inequalities. Financial incentives should be considered as one tool of many, not to be used in isolation but as part of a wider change programme. They work best when they are simple, predictable, use a clear evidence base, and are designed to avoid the pitfalls. This briefing summarises the financial incentives that are already built in at a national level, and looks at opportunities for individual systems to use financial incentives at a local level. The briefing is published alongside a case study on Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group.
NHS Supply Chain and efficiencies in procurement: NHS England, NHS Supply Chain. A National Audit Office (NAO) report examines NHS Supply Chain and efficiencies in procurement and has concluded that the NHS is not making the most of its spending power to save money in purchasing medical equipment and consumables. It has continued to spend more than £3 billion outside NHS Supply Chain, Supply Chain Coordination Ltd, its purpose-built procurement route, as customer satisfaction with NHS Supply Chain has declined. The report makes recommendations to assist NHS Supply Chain and NHS England with working towards greater efficiencies in procurement.
Health Inequalities
Publications/Guidance
Health hubs: a community-centred prevention initiative to address health inequalities. This briefing explores what health hubs are, how they can improve access to services for groups facing health inequalities, and the role of trust leaders in their development.
Health inequalities, lives cut short. This report confirms that a million people in 90% of areas in England lived shorter lives than they should between 2011 and the start of the pandemic. Using several published Office for National Statistics data sources, the IHE made these calculations from the number of excess deaths (the increase in the number of deaths beyond what would be expected) in the decade from 2011 in England.
Beyond the average: making fairer decisions for public health. Researchers have developed a series of 'smart decision tools' to help governments reduce social inequality in health and wellbeing. This report outlines the potential for the use of these tools across the NHS and other public services, helping to reduce health inequality by modifying decisions about screening and vaccination and investments in facilities as well as new medicines.
How we can help
We have a multidisciplinary team advising NHS commissioners and providers on all aspects of tackling health inequalities, ranging from:
- advising on the new legal framework and compliance with the relevant statutory duties, particularly in the context of service reconfiguration;
- addressing workforce inequalities;
- taking action on patient safety to reduce health inequalities;
- the role of the Care Quality Commission in tackling health inequalities; and
- lessons to be learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around health inequalities please contact Julia Jones.
Housing
Publications and guidance
Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Guidance for staff involved in planning to discharge patients at risk of or experiencing homelessness, or who have no recourse to public funds.
Spotlight on attitudes, respect and rights – relationship of equals. The report assesses what it means to be vulnerable in social housing in 2024, what “vulnerable” means and how social landlords can better respond to the needs of those residents.
Prevention in health and social care: healthy places: First Report of Session 2023-24. Action is needed by the Government to protect tenants who live in poor quality homes that can have a serious impact on their health, according to a Health and Social Care Committee report. The Committee has concluded that the less well-off and those living in less well-off neighbourhoods are much more likely to develop life-limiting health conditions and to die prematurely from the effects of those conditions. The most serious housing hazards include fire and electrical risks, excess cold, excess heat, damp and mould, and air pollution. The Committee has called on the Government to proceed without delay in the steps needed to update the Decent Homes Standard for social housing tenants and set out a timetable for its extension to cover the private rented sector.
Moving to healthy homes. This briefing examines the problems caused by 'non-decent' housing, overcrowding and access to housing. It sets out the health case for change, outlines the principles to create healthy homes (including through the Decent Homes Standard), and calls for a long-term strategy to ensure healthy homes for all.
For more information contact Julia Jones.
Independent Health
Publications/Guidance
Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance: annual report 2023. Annual report on agreement between the government and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) on the use of genetic test results in underwriting insurance policies.
Code on Genetic Testing and Insurance. The agreement between the government and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) on the use of genetic test results in underwriting insurance policies.
Bevan Brittan Updates
New Year, New Practice. Good Medical Practice framework comes into effect - Monica Gosling
For more information contact Tim Hodgetts or Julie Charlton
Information sharing/data
Bevan Brittan Updates
Care data matters: a roadmap for better adult social care data. This guidance outlines priorities for how social care data is collected, shared and used, and how the quality and availability of adult social care data is improved, at both national and local levels.
Operational Information Sharing Guidance. A Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) publication provides guidance for marketing authorisation (MA) applicants on providing consent to share operational information during the MA application process. The guidance explains the purpose of operational information sharing with health system partners, the nature of the information shared, and the consent, withdrawal of consent, and information management processes. The instructions for MA applicants illustrate how consent will be requested during the MA application submission process for relevant MA applications via the Human Medicines Portal, and how MA applicants can give consent for operational information to be shared with the MHRA's health system partners.
For more information contact Jane Bennett.
Inquests and Inquiries
Publications/Guidance
Non-statutory public inquiries. Some public inquiries are underpinned by legislation. Those that are not, "non-statutory" inquiries, have more flexibility, but fewer legal powers.
Elizabeth Roberts: Prevention of future deaths report. A prevention of future deaths report has been sent to the Department of Health and Social Care following the death of Elizabeth Roberts who died from sepsis with congestive cardiac failure due to underlying ischemic and valvular heart disease with the superimposed physiological burden of sacral ulceration on a background of severe frailty. The coroner has expressed the concern that despite a number of measures being undertaken by Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care and NHS Foundation Trust, there are residual staffing shortages in the district nursing service which the trust is unable to resolve without a change of approach nationally. The recipient of the report must respond by 29 February 2024.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around inquests, please contact Amanda Wright- Kluger, Toby De Mellow or Claire Leonard.
Mental Health
Publications/Guidance
Mental Health Act detention numbers fall for second year but significant racial inequalities persist
Numbers detained in hospital down by 7.7% year on year but black people 3.5 times as likely to be sectioned as white people, show annual statistics, as charities urge MHA reform.
Improving the physical health of people living with severe mental illness. NHS England has published new guidance for Integrated Care Systems on improving the physical health of people living with severe mental illness (SMI). People living with SMI have a life expectancy that is 15-20 years shorter than the general population, largely due to preventable or treatable physical illnesses. This guidance outlines how services should work together to deliver annual physical health checks in a way that meets people’s needs.
Improving the mental health of babies, children and young people. A framework of modifiable factors to guide promotion of good mental health in babies, children and young people.
Discharge from mental health inpatient settings. Sets out how health and care systems should support the discharge of people from mental health inpatient settings.
Commissioner guidance for adult mental health rehabilitation inpatient services. This guidance supports the planning and commissioning of local mental health rehabilitation inpatient services as part of a whole pathway, to meet the identified need of local populations.
Improving the physical health of people with severe mental illness. Research published by the Centre for Mental Health has found people with severe mental illness face a life expectancy 15 to 20 years shorter than the general population, largely because of preventable or treatable physical health problems.
Cases
A Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ms KL & Anor [2023] EWCOP 59. Judgment concerning KL's best interests and her medical treatment for her acute myeloid leukaemia.
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council v KB & Ors [2023] EWCOP 58. Judgment concerning Re X/COPDOL11 procedure and the need to establish mental impairment.
The NHS Foundation Trust v K & Ors [2023] EWCOP 57. Application by Trust for declarations about medical treatment.
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust v BNK [2023] EWCOP 56. Application concerning dental treatment where BNK may object aggressively.
News
Government orders NHS trust review following Nottingham killings. Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins has ordered a special review into Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust which treated Valdo Calocane.
A call to avoid psychiatric labelling in a historic election year
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 or Hannah Taylor.
Primary Care
Publications/Guidance
NHS vaccination strategy. This NHS strategy brings together all vaccination programmes. It is for people and organisations involved in the commissioning, planning and delivery of NHS vaccination services in England. It aims to help shape the future delivery of NHS vaccination and immunisation services.
Doing more for less? A mixed-methods analysis of the experience of primary care networks in socio-economically deprived areas. Primary care networks (PCNs) are a major vehicle for government investment in general practice, worth £2.4 billion in 2023/24. However, this research shows that poorer areas in England are missing out on funding and additional primary care staff because the greater health needs of their populations are not adequately taken into account by current funding arrangements.
Consultations
Open consultation: role of incentive schemes in general practice: consultation. In England, general practices are incentivised through two main schemes: the Quality and Outcomes Framework and the Investment and Impact Fund. These schemes aim to enhance health care delivery and patient outcomes by incentivising continuous improvement in clinical care and public health delivery. This consultation seeks views on the role of incentives in general practice. The closing date for comments is 7 March 2024.
If you wish to discuss any issues in primary care then please contact Joanne Easterbrook or Ben Lambert.
Prison Health
Publications/Guidance
Avoidable natural deaths in prison custody: putting things right. The report finds that people in prison have a significantly reduced life expectancy, with a median age of 67.5 compared to 86.7 in the community. Further, the report highlights the need for healthcare in prison to be underpinned by robust and well communicated processes to ensure needs are properly identified and managed. News report.
Segregation of men with mental health needs: A thematic monitoring report. A report by Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) focuses on the repeat failings regarding the poor outcomes for men with mental health needs, who are being held in care and separation units (CSUs) across closed adult prisons in England. The report raises concerns that the proposed reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 through the draft Mental Health Bill, which included a statutory requirement for prisoners to be transferred to secure hospitals within 28-days, is not being progressed. It also finds: almost all IMBs monitoring in prisons holding adult men have repeatedly raised concerns over CSUs not being a suitable or appropriate place for prisoners with mental health needs; and prisoners with mental health needs were often held for prolonged and long-term periods in CSUs.
Inequality, injustice… inaction? Prisoners' use of hospital services compared to the general population. Prisoners have a right to the same standards of health care available to people in the community, and although we might suspect that people in prisons don't always receive the care they need, this is a difficult issue to get at through research. So how can we meaningfully compare hospital use between those in prison and those who are not? In this chart of the week Miranda Davies and Eilís Keeble used a novel matched control methodology to show that prisoners use services less than people with similar health characteristics who are not incarcerated.
Events
NHS Resolution: Behind bars-perspectives on delivering health in prison. 27th February 12.30pm - 2pm. NHS Resolution's Safety and Learning team is hosting a webinar on the realities of delivering health in prison and its impact on safety. The purpose is to raise awareness of the cost and scale of harm, discuss the realities, best practice, challenges and recommendations around collaborating to support healthcare delivery in the justice system. We will hear from a diverse range of experts in the field.
- Learning from prison claims| NHS Resolution
- The realities of delivering healthcare in prison | Practice Plus Group
- The medico-legal aspect of prison health claims | Bevan Brittan
- Q&A panel discussion
If you wish to discuss any issues in prison health then please contact Joanne Easterbrook or Julie Charlton
Regulation
Publications/Guidance
Advice to local authorities on scrutinising health services. Guidance to support local authorities and their partners to deliver effective health scrutiny.
Bevan Brittan Updates
CQC’s New Single Assessment Framework - Reports: Clearer, Shorter - Carlton Sadler
CQC’s New Single Assessment Framework - Although ‘Updated’, Will Assessments Properly Reflect the Up to Date Position? - Carlton Sadler
CQC’s New Single Assessment Framework – a New Year’s Resolution to Regulatory Problems? - Carlton Sadler
If you wish to discuss any issues in regulation then please contact Stuart Marchant
Social Care
Publications/Guidance
Infection prevention and control in adult social care: COVID-19 supplement. Sets out how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in adult social care settings in England.
Care data matters: a roadmap for better adult social care data. This guidance outlines priorities for how social care data is collected, shared and used, and how the quality and availability of adult social care data is improved, at both national and local levels.
Consultations
Consultation on our guidance on visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices. A Care Quality Commission consultation seeks views on proposed guidance to help providers and other stakeholders understand and meet the new fundamental standard on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals, and hospices and their roles and responsibilities under it. The guidance is due to come into force on 6 April 2024. Comments by 20 February 2024.
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
The state of the state 2024: by the people who use it and the people who run it This report, produced in partnership with Deloitte, explores key issues facing the UK government and public services. The report is based on an exclusive Ipsos public poll, and more than 100 interviews with public sector leaders. It identifies NHS waiting lists as a key public priority for improvement (72% respondents) along with the cost of living (77%), but also found pessimism that it will probably get worse (59%) over the next few years.
Challenge and change: what does 2024 hold for the health and care system? In this blog, Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, looks ahead to what will be a year of challenge and change for health and care.
If you would like to sign up for any of our Bevan Brittan publications click here.
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