Steering group meeting 19th March 2009
- Mid-Staffordshire report by the Healthcare Commission. A series of actions are now underway in response and Secretary of State announced these on 19 March
- Carolyn Heaney, Department of Health (DH), introduced a strategy on voluntering in health and social care, seeking Staff Side representation for the Volunteering Working Group and Volunteering Reference Group in relation to the development of a Strategy on Volunteering in Health and Social Care. NHS Employers are represented at this group and Staff Side was pleased to be invited to participate
- John Holden, DH, provided an update on Foundation Trusts and outlined details of the programmed roll-out of FTs by December 2010. Discussions took place in relation to the hospitals and MH trusts that will not be ready by 2010
- David Knight, DH, thanked the forum for their contributions to the consultation on System Regulation and provided an update of the core functions of the Care Quality Commission which will take over from the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission, from 1 April 2009. A discussion addressed issues about private sector providers’ roles and responsibilities and the transition period whilst teams are organised and trained at CQC. Staff Side welcomed the application of uniform standards across all health providers
- update from the Social Partnership Forum workforce planning review group. NHS Employers and Staff Side welcomed the update, and it was agreed that the review group membership should be widened, links established to the wider workforce agenda and more frequent updates be provided to Social Partnership Forum
- Janet Perry, DH, provided an update on the Quarter 3 report of 2008/09 on NHS finance and service performance. The NHS (excluding Foundation Trusts) is forecasting an overall surplus of £1.735 billion (ie just over two percent of total revenue resources). Staff Side sought clarification regarding the deployment of surpluses and types of savings made
- Sharon Roper, SPF Project Manager, demonstrated the new SPF website, which is due to go live April. The website will provide supporting tools for regional/local NHS organisations in relation to embedding partnership working across the NHS. Details of the Partnership fund application process will be published on the website. This was well received/ endorsed by Social Partnership Forum
- Staff Side and NHS Employers were pleased to have early engagement via the Quality Framework workshop held in the morning and acknowledged that although this is a huge agenda, they looked forward to working with Dominic Hardy, DH in the future.