News

The November 2017 Budget announced additional NHS funding of £1.6 billion for 2018/19, which will increase funding for emergency and urgent care and elective surgery. In addition, for other core frontline services such as mental health and primary care, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is making a further £540 million available through the Mandate over the coming financial year.

Ian Dalton’s letter provides further information and sets out our expectations around what the NHS should be expected to deliver for this money.

To support you to refresh your plans, we’ve also published updated technical guidance for NHS finance planning, workforce planning and operational and activity planning.

We have now published the Approved Costing Guidance for this year’s voluntary patient level costing (PLICS) collection for acute, mental health and ambulance providers, which more than 100 trusts have already signed up to take part in. The guidance takes you through all aspects of the process, from knowing what to cost, to understanding how to submit data.

We have published an update to the FT ARM for 2017/18. Please ensure your communications and finance teams are aware of these requirements for your 2017/18 annual report.

An awards programme for NHS staff will be launched in Parliament today by Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair of the Commons Health Select Committee, as part of the celebrations of the upcoming 70th birthday of the NHS.

The awards celebrate service-level excellence, and give health and care organisations the opportunity for regional and national recognition, as well as forging closer links between trusts and their local MPs.

You can ask your local MP to nominate individuals or teams in your organisation for one or more of the ten NHS70 award categories.

Parliamentary recess starts on 8 February so the deadlines for parliamentary questions will be tighter than usual. If you are asked for support with parliamentary enquiries over the next week, please be aware that the turnaround time will be less than 24 hours to enable us to meet the Department of Health and Social Care’s strict deadlines.

Deadlines are as follows:

Please make sure relevant colleagues are aware of this.

The dates for the next seven day hospital services self-assessment survey have been moved due to the Easter holiday period to:

• data collection from 11 April to 9 May
• deadline for data submission is Wednesday 20 June, 11.59pm

As part of our ongoing support offer to pathology networks, we have published new guidance documents in the pathology networks toolkit, including:

• Essential services laboratory design: blood sciences
• Operational governance
• Consolidation framework plan

The daily A&E SITREP legacy portal is being decommissioned, and you will need to transition to the new SITREP portal by 28 February 2018.

If you also intend to automate your daily SITREP return, but have not yet done so, please contact david.mullett@beautifulinformation.org or kiron.briggs@nhs.net.

If you have decided not to automate the daily SITREP return, the data will still need to be submitted at site level for each individual site.

Tuesday 13 February 2018, 12.30 – 1.30pm

This webinar is the first of a regular series of Model Hospital introductory webinars. It is open to everybody, and is particularly useful for new and potential users of the Model Hospital, as well as more experienced colleagues who are looking to hear about the latest updates and developments.

Wednesday 21 February 2018, 12.30 – 1.30pm

This webinar introduces costing colleagues to the newly published approved costing guidance for the 2017/18 collection. We look at the standards and collection guidance and highlight key features and changes since last year.

This creative programme run by the Good Governance Institute (GGI) will engage with board members around themes and issues driving change in the NHS.

Network and share learning at one of the 12 development events across England, and through online discussions over the next year.

The first two events are being held in London on 28 March, and Birmingham on 29 March.

This letter explains how, alongside NHS England, we will support trusts who have not yet appointed a clinical safety officer.

Clinical risk management of health IT systems is an essential duty of NHS trusts in ensuring that systems do not compromise patient safety. Under the Health & Social Care Act 2012 the trust board has a legal duty to nominate a clinical safety officer.

The children and young people’s mental health green paper was launched in December 2017, and DHSC is now seeking the views of mental health professionals.

Proposals include:

• the development of a new community-based workforce to improve availability of support in non-clinical settings
• incentives for every school and college to have a designated lead for mental health
• the introduction of a new four week waiting time for children’s mental health services in pilot areas

The Department of Health and Social Care has published its response to the Naylor Review of NHS land and property.

The actions outlined contain important information on future access to capital, which will be of interest to chief executives, and finance and estates directors working to deliver STP plans.

NHS Improvement is a member of the new NHS Property Board established to drive transformation of the NHS estate and we will work closely with NHS England to deliver the government’s plans.

Health Education England recently published the draft health and care workforce strategy for England to 2027: ‘Facing the Facts, Shaping the Future’.

• Provider bulletin: 31 January 2018