Providing a voice for community health services
NHS Confederation members want us to develop a strong voice through the Community Health Services Forum for the leaders in all organisations providing these services. We will use the full range of mechanisms available to us to ensure policy makers, national stakeholders, and the wider NHS to recognise the important contribution community health services can make to transforming patient care and saving public money.
We will seek members’ views regularly to shape the development and implementation of emerging policy. We will also provide opportunities for members to engage with senior figures and policy-makers on the issues that you have identified as being most important to community health service providers.
Key issues we are keen to represent community health service providers on include:
- children's services, where there is potential for the fragmentation of commissioning structures
- ensuring that levers and incentives across the system allow patients to receive the right treatment in the right place
- financial systems that do not work against the development of health services in the community
- ensuring a level playing field for all types of community health service providers
- the nature of relationships between community health services and primary care as both providers and commissioners.
Our work priorities
Over the past six months we have delivered the following outputs for members
Influencing
- With members input, we have drafted a briefing on community health services which outlines how they are central to a more efficient and patient-centred NHS. This will be signed off at the next member meeting on the 19 January.
- Members of the CHSF met Pamela Chapman, Head of Strategic Asset Management, DH, to discuss issues on the DH's position on Estate and Asset management. Read a summary of the key issues raised at this meeting.
- A member of the CHSF represented views from members of this Forum at a meeting with David Flory, Deputy Chief Executive, Department of Health (DH), to influence the Operating Framework for 2012. To download a summary of the notes from the meeting visit our Finance web pages.
- Members of the CHSF submitted written evidence into the commission on improving dignity in care, a joint partnership, a joint partnership between the NHS Confederation, Age UK and the Local Government Association to improve dignity in care for older people.
- We recently provided a phone and written briefing to Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (Conservative member of the Health Select Committee) on the estates and tariff issues impacting on community services. She raised some of the issues we highlighted on tariff and estates during a Christmas adjournment debate in Parliament on Tuesday 20 December which is relevant to community health service providers.
- Monitor has launched a consultation regarding the new NHS provider licence which is relevant to community providers. If the Health and Social Care Bill becomes law, Monitor will be required to issue licences to all providers of NHS-funded services.The consultation closes on January 23 2012.We would be grateful if you could email Elaine.Cohen@nhsconfed.org any submissions that you send to Monitor so we can keep abreast of the key issues you have raised.
- We will continue to rasie the profile to ensure the community health services voice is reflected in the media and in our influencing work with government and other stakeholders
Events
- We held a child health event took place on 9 September in partnership with Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Office for Public Management.
- We held an event on integrated working, in partnership with our Service Delivery and Organisation network on 5 October. Feedback from this event has informed our current thinking regarding integration and our response to the Future Forum
- We delivered a joint event with the Ambulance Service Network on falls prevention strategies, opportunities for development on the 18 October, which looked at current primary and secondary falls prevention strategies and opportunities for development. A joint publication will be drafted in early January highlighting the key issues discussed at the meeting.
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