NHS England: Accountability
(asked on 17th October 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the 10th Report of the Public Accounts Committee, Session 2016-17, HC397, what progress has been made on the recommendation that NHS England must improve the transparency of its decision-making with respect to specialised services by publishing a document by September 2016 setting out the role of its advisory committees and decision making bodies, the decisions they make, how these decisions will be documented, and when and to whom they will be made available.
The Government response to the Public Accounts Committee report on NHS England’s Commissioning of Specialised Services is due for publication shortly.
In May 2016 NHS England announced a new high-level Strategic Framework for specialised services. In line with the Five Year Forward View, this framework sets out an ambition for specialised services as part of better integrated care for patients. It emphasises a strong focus on place-based care, supported by clear national standards and underpinned by value-for-money. Since publication of the framework, NHS England has been working with stakeholders to test, develop and support implementation. The full paper can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/item5-26-05-16.pdf
To improve clarity of its decision-making processes, NHS England has published on its website the details of the key roles and functions of the advisory committees and decision-making bodies for specialised services.
Information on these can be found here: