Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the reasons why a request from Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust for NHS England to participate in a joint serious incidents investigation has not yet received a formal response; and what assessment he has made of the implications for the conduct of such an investigation arising from the time taken to respond to that request.

There is no formal requirement for NHS England to respond to requests from organisations to undertake joint investigations. However, NHS England regional teams are able to provide advice and/or support in order to assist the incident management and investigation process, particularly in complex situations where multiple organisations (including NHS providers and commissioning organisations) are involved. In such circumstances NHS England may, for example, facilitate discussions relating to who is the most appropriate organisation to take responsibility for co-ordinating the investigation process. Or, where no one provider or commissioning organisation is best placed to assume this responsibility, NHS England may agree to lead this process.

In relation to the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, enquires have been made with the Trust and local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and neither are able to find any intelligence in relation to a request for a joint investigation.

The only incidents that would potentially be investigated by NHS England are those identified in the Serious Incident Framework i.e. independent investigations and NHS England’s role in the Serious Incident Framework is that of a commissioner for directly commissioned services to maintain oversight and surveillance of serious incident management and assures that CCGs have systems in place to manage investigations appropriately.

The revised Serious Incident Framework (published March 2015) provides details relating to the roles and responsibilities of NHS England with regards to management serious incidents. The framework is available online at:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/patientsafety/serious-incident/ (please refer to Part 2: Section 2 and 3 for supplementary guidance). As stated within the Serious Incident Framework, NHS England’s involvement would need to be considered and agreed on a case by case basis, depending on the circumstances of the incident and with a view to ensuring that learning from serious incidents is maximised to prevent recurrence of future harm.