01 Strategic partner updates January 2015

Mon,19 January 2015
News

Health and Social Care update from our work as Strategic Partner to the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England

Disability Rights UK heads up a user-led consortium as one of 22 strategic partners in the voluntary sector. Our name is ‘Win-Win Alliance – disabled people leading change’. This programme is commissioned by our system partners, the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England. As strategic partner we are well placed to raise particular challenges facing our members of disabled people’s user-led organisations. We also ensure that information and opportunities to engage with system partners reach our members through this and other updates, forums, meetings and discussions, and we regularly inform about funding opportunities (which you may pursue with or without Disability Rights UK). For any comments and/or ideas about how to strengthen ‘disabled people leading change’, please get in touch with Bernd.Sass@disabilityrightsuk.org 

Making Personalisation and Integration a Reality

24  February 2015 from 10.30 to 15.30 in Central London

Making health and social care support truly personal continues to be an aspiration and a challenge.  A number of initiatives (NHS Health and Social Care Act, Better Care fund, personal budgets, integration pioneers and personal health budgets) as well as action on the part of agencies and professionals have attempted to give additional impetus to the user-led movement for change, however, the evidence suggests that at best the experience of service users is variable. 

This seminar will seek to understand what has aided progress in developing personalisation and integration and examine ways that barriers have been addressed to deliver greater choice and control.  The exploration of evidence and experiences will help identify practice that can be replicated to achieve change across geographical areas and across communities, at the same time as identifying lessons for national and local policy makers.  Wherever possible, attention will be paid to the cost of process of change as well as the benefits (savings, improvements in quality of life, wellbeing outcomes, independent living, amongst others). There will be workshops to showcase activity from the voluntary sector.

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information, NHS England
  • John Rouse, Director General, Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships, Public Health England
  • Martin Routledge, Director of the Coalition for Collaborative Care – Action for Long Term Conditions.

To book go to: http://tiny.cc/personalisation 

Disability Rights UK will deliver a workshop as part of the event to focus on ‘learning from the disability movement to unleash the power of lived experience and peer-to-peer communities’. We will present and discuss examples from our own projects and those of members and networks, such as:

  • a peer-delivered (add-on?) homecare service,
  • a procurement exercise in mental health during which children and young people and their carers exercised a 20% stake
  • supporting new and evolving ULOs
  • a disabled people’s user-led organisation which - interestingly - was kick-started by a consortium of provider charities in their own interest

This is to showcase how some local areas have moved beyond traditional PPI and voice work and supported patients and disabled people to wrap care and support around them and also drive commissioning. Peer support being just one element to strengthen user-led perspectives in health and social care.

We want to win hearts and minds of providers in the Voluntary and Community Sector (of which ULOs are an essential subset), commissioners and policymakers. If you would like to work with us on any such projects or simply showcase what you have done, please get in touch with Bernd Sass. 

Further specific news

New resource launched to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

NHS England has published a new resource with tools for commissioning effective mental health services for children and young people. The Targeted and Specialist (Tier 2/3) specification for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services builds on previous sample specifications and supports commissioners of targeted and specialist services which treat patients with a range of emotional and behavioural difficulties. 

To read more, go to: http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/#camhs 

Recommendation against national dementia screening

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has this week upheld its recommendation against screening everyone aged 65 and over for dementia.

Following an extensive review of the evidence, the Committee concluded that the current test for dementia, which is a form of questionnaire, does not accurately identify those people who have dementia and those who do not.

To recommend screening, the Committee would need to be confident that by acting early, treatments would slow or even prevent this serious disease. At the moment these treatments do not exist.

See the full story here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/recommendation-against-national-dementia-screening 

The Forward View into action: Planning for 2015/16

NHS leaders from NHS England, Monitor, NHS Trust Development Authority, Care Quality Commission, Public Health England and Health Education England have set out steps for delivering the NHS Five Year Forward View in The Forward View into action: planning for 2015/16. The plan is backed by NHS England’s allocation of £1.98 billion of additional funding, which will see £1.5 billion go to frontline health services including primary care, local clinical commissioning groups and specialised services. 

To read more, go to: http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/forward-view/.

Mental health choice guidance published

NHS England has published updated guidance to help commissioners, GPs and providers support mental health patients in choosing who provides their care and treatment. This follows extensive consultation on the interim guidance published last year.

To read more, go to: http://www.england.nhs.uk/2014/12/19/mh-choice-guidance/ 

New resource launched to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

NHS England has published a new resource with tools for commissioning effective mental health services for children and young people. The Targeted and Specialist (Tier 2/3) specification for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services builds on previous sample specifications and supports commissioners of targeted and specialist services which treat patients with a range of emotional and behavioural difficulties. 

To read more, go to: http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/#camhs