NHS Confederation responds to NHS Providers report ‘Improving Regulation for the Future’
Responding to the findings of an NHS Providers survey as part of its report ‘Improving Regulation for the Future’, Sarah Walter, director of NHS Confederation’s ICS Network, said:
“It is encouraging that the trust leaders surveyed are overwhelmingly positive about ICBs’ role in fostering a sense of shared responsibility and collective endeavour among system partners, bringing them together to solve problems and share practice on patient care and outcomes. They are also positive about ICBs’ constructive work with ICPs, their role in improvement and peer support, and their focus on system performance.
“Our members will however recognise the issues identified in the report around regulation and performance management from the centre becoming burdensome.
“While members understand the need for oversight, leaders from across the health and care system frequently report that duplicated requests for information and data distract them from transformation. We will continue to work closely with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS Providers to ensure duplication is minimised, and oversight is streamlined and incentivises the right behaviours.
“ICS leaders are positive about the approach the CQC is taking with respect to assessment of ICSs, with both the CQC and NHS England working hard to ensure their approach to oversight is conscious of operational pressures. However, this balance is not always right, and made more frustrating for NHS trusts and foundation trusts leaders – who are at the forefront of these pressures – when they are subject to poor behaviours from CQC staff during inspections.
“We and our members acknowledge the changes taking place within NHS England taking a more streamlined approach, although our members report that progress towards this has been slow at times.
“NHS England’s operating framework, as well as the recent Hewitt review and Health and Social Care Select Committee inquiry, have provided some clarity on accountabilities and specifically the role of ICBs in system oversight and supporting improvement. Our ICB members are clear that they do not want to be performance managers and instead support the move towards mutual accountability, improvement and transformation.
“However, these results make it clear that this is not yet the experience of all trust leaders. As the Hewitt review emphasised, all parts of the system are undergoing a huge cultural and leadership shift from competition to collaboration and there will be variation in the approaches of ICB leaders as well as individuals within CQC and NHSE national and regional teams.
“The reforms enacted by the Health and Care Act will take some time to embed as they will involve a sustained commitment to culture change and organisational development from all parties including the centre, providers and systems."
About us
We are the membership organisation that brings together, supports and speaks for the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The members we represent employ 1.5 million staff, care for more than 1 million patients a day and control £150 billion of public expenditure. We promote collaboration and partnership working as the key to improving population health, delivering high-quality care and reducing health inequalities.
