Your feedback

We are keen to encourage as many people as possible to share their views with us through the consultation process: we have been asked about the deadline for returning responses: further information can be found here.

Our independent analysts (Dialogue by Design) will analyse the responses we have received to consultation during January 2015 with a view to producing a report by mid-February. The aim of the report will be to summarise what has been said, focusing on the range of issues raised rather than the number of time a particular issues is raised. NHS England will then consider the report and, where appropriate, amend the standards and specifications before submitting to the relevant committees and the NHS England Board for final sign off.

A problem with our downloadable questionnaire was brought to our attention last week in which the ‘strongly disagree’ option was missing from one of the questions on the form. This has now been rectified and new documents uploaded. This did not impact our web survey (“Citizenspace”) and so far all responses have been via this electronic mechanism. Dialogue by Design have been notified and will review all responses received in case there are any submitted at a later date which use the old, unamended questionnaire.

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Our consultation events have now started and we have had a number of people contacting us asking how they can book a place at one of the events taking place around the country. All the events are listed on our web site and places can be booked on line. Some people have contacted us to tell us that they have been unable to complete the booking on line: if this happens, please retry later as we know the system does experience busy periods. If the problems persist, please contact us at england.congenitalheart@nhs.net explaining the problem and we will get back to you. It is not essential to book before attending but it does help us to have an idea of the likely numbers.

Patients, families and their representatives

As part of the consultation on standards, the review team held a meeting in Birmingham on the 9 October for colleagues from local government and Healthwatch. The agenda included an update presentation and the work undertaken to achieve the draft standards; the plans for the on-going consultation and details of the post consultation activities and commissioning process

Clinicians and their organisations

Our Clinicians’ Group, chaired by Professor Deirdre Kelly took place in London on 8 October. The agenda is available here and a copy of the presentation shown can be accessed here: we will share more details of this meeting as soon as they are available.

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The next meeting of our Provider Group, chaired by Chris Hopson is due to take place in London on 20 October. We will share the agenda and papers for this meeting as soon as they are available.

NHS England and other partners

Our Programme Board will meet on 23 October and the agenda and papers will be made available on our website later this week and published in the next blog.

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A document detailing Commissioning Intentions for 2015/16 for all prescribed specialist services is available electronically: these Commissioning Intentions serve as formal notice to providers of NHS England’s plans in respect of specialised services for 2015/16. They reflect the central challenge of improving patient outcomes whilst constraining levels of spend to match available resources. For NHS England and its providers, collaborating to adopt the most efficient service models through delivering change is a key priority.

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We are now developing our commissioning approach for CHD services and starting to work through how we can commission the services in a way that ensures that they meet the standards. NHS England as a commissioner has a number of levers it currently uses to ensure change happens and standards are met. We are very keen to continue with the transparent and inclusive approach that we have used throughout the new review. We will be working with and all stakeholders to ensure that the process and timeline that we recommend to the board will achieve compliance against the new standards and specification across the country. We want to consider existing approaches and also explore encourage new ideas.