Industrial action – 23-24 and 26 January: Pre-action assurance, cancer services, rescheduled activity, and workforce situation report (SitRep) data collections

Classification: Official
Publication reference: PRN00112

To:

  • Integrated care boards (ICBs):
    • chief executives
    • chief operating officers
    • chairs
    • chief people officers/human resource (HR) directors
  • Trusts:
    • chief executives
    • chief operating officers
    • chief people officers/HR directors
    • CSU managing directors

cc.

  • Regional:
    • directors
    • directors of nursing
    • heads of emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR)

Dear Colleagues,

Industrial Action – 23-24 and 26 January: Pre-action assurance, cancer services, rescheduled activity, and workforce situation report (SitRep) data collections

Workforce and rescheduled activity situation report (SitRep) data collections via Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) In light of industrial action (IA) planned by Unison, GMB and Unite on 23 January at 7 ambulance trusts, action planned by GMB on 24 January at North West Ambulance Service, and action planned by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) on 26 January at 30 trusts, NHS England will conduct two SitRep data collections on the SDCS data collection tool.

These SitReps are:

  • An IA workforce SitRep – which will collect information from those organisations where staff are taking industrial action. This SitRep will collect numbers of staff taking part in the industrial action, and total numbers of staff due to be at work.

Workforce data will be collected on 25 January from 7 affected trusts for each of the day(s) of ambulance service industrial action (23 and 24 January).

Workforce data will be collected on 27 January from the 30 affected trusts for the day of CSP industrial action (26 January).

  • An IA rescheduled activity SitRep (for all trusts across acute, community, mental health sectors irrespective whether staff at your organisation are taking industrial action). This will collect information on elective inpatient and outpatient activity that has been rescheduled as a result of ambulance service IA or CSP IA in the week commencing 23 January, across all regions and sectors. We have included questions in the SitReps to capture acute trust’s intentions around cancer services.

Organisations where there is no expected impact should provide a return noting zero rescheduled appointments/cancellations.

Please note, the overriding principle is that the re-scheduling of any urgent cancer diagnostics or cancer treatment should only be considered if all other options have been exhausted, and every effort should be made to maintain these appointments.

The rescheduled activity SitRep collection will run on three occasions – the 20, 25 and 27 January. On each occasion we will be asking for figures on rescheduled activity for the 7-day period of 22 January to 28 January inclusive.

Resubmissions will only be needed on 25 and 27 January if the data has changed from the previous submission, and the new submission will overwrite the previous submission (for example, if the first submission reported 100 rescheduled appointments, and then a further 2 were found to have been rescheduled after the original submission, the revised submission would need to show 102 rescheduled appointments).

Although the collection will be open on Friday 27 January for all trusts, this is primarily to allow the 30 Trusts affected by CSP IA on 26 January to update their position and there is no requirement for trusts unaffected by CSP IA to upload again on that date.

A schedule of what will be collected on each of the upcoming dates are included at Annex A.

How we will use the information

Data from the collections prior to each day of industrial action will be used to understand the anticipated position, inform local conversations on derogations, and help NHS England target regional support and follow-up – it will not be published. Data collected on 25 and 27 January will confirm the position following each period of industrial action and will be published.

Regional Operations Centre and the national SDCS team will follow up to ensure all relevant trusts make returns.

Templates illustrating the data required for each submission are shown in Annexes C-F.

More detailed guidance notes will be shared with registered submitters ahead of the first
collection.

Submission requirements

Submissions will be made through the SDCS, and on any day that the collection is running we will open the collection at 09:00 and the deadline for submission will be 13:00 that day. The template will be available to download from SDCS from 09:00 on the day the collection is running.

Detail on the submitters list for each organisation is included at Annex B.

Pre-action readiness assurance for Ambulance strike action (Excel)

NHSE is also repeating a pre-action readiness collection in respect of Ambulance IA using an Excel template. This will request ambulance trusts affected by the IA to report their confidence in ability to provide critical services and the level of agreement on derogations in key service areas.

Our expectation is that the return is completed by Operational and/or EPRR leads in ambulance trusts affected by the IA.

This collection has already been issued on Wednesday 18 January for return on 19 January, and will be re-issued at 18:00 on 19 January, with a deadline for return of 12:00 on 20 January; to allow time for early assessment and further local negotiation, or where appropriate, escalation.

Pre-action readiness assurance for CSP strike action (Excel)

NHS England will conduct a pre-action assurance collection in respect of industrial action carried out by the CSP using an Excel data collection tool.

This will request trusts (30) affected by the IA to report their confidence in ability to provide critical services.

The pre-action assurance return should be completed by EPRR leads or senior responsible officers (SROs) for IA at trusts affected by CSP IA.

This collection will be issued at 12:00 on 24 January, with a deadline for return of 12:00 on 25 January. The information provided will allow NHS England colleagues time to assess returns, and support further local negotiation, or where appropriate, escalate any issues.

Submission requirements for readiness assurance

Both pre-action readiness assurance documents will be cascaded via NHS England’s National Operations Centre (NOC) and each Regional Operations Centre (ROC) to NHS trusts and ICBs affected by the IA.

Trusts are asked to complete the templates and to submit returns to their Regional Operations Centre.

If you have any questions, please contact your regional team.

Many thanks for your continued cooperation and support in providing this information and ensuring a high return rate.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Groves, Director of NHS Resilience, NHS England.

Annex A – Schedule of data collections and assurance returns

  • Wednesday 18/01:
    • Pre action assurance for ambulance trusts (#1) issued/Excel via NOC and ROCs
  • Thursday 19/01:
    • Pre action assurance for ambulance trusts (#1) return/Excel via NOC and ROCs
    • Pre action assurance for ambulance trusts (#2) issued/Excel via NOC and ROCs
  • Friday 20/01:
    • IA rescheduled sitrep for all trusts (for the 7-day period of 22-28 Jan) collection/SDCS collection
    • Pre action assurance for ambulance trusts (#2) return/Excel via NOC and ROCs
  • Saturday 21/01: No SDCS collections or assurance returns
  • Sunday 22/01: No SDCS collections or assurance returns
  • Monday 23/01: No SDCS collections or assurance returns
  • Tuesday 24/01:
    • Pre action assurance for 30 trusts with CSP action (only) issued/Excel via NOC and ROCs
  • Wednesday 25/01
    • Pre action assurance for 30 CSP trusts with CSP action (only) return/Excel via NOC and ROCs
    • IA workforce sitrep for 7 ambulance trusts (to cover action on 23 and 24)/SDCS collection
    • IA rescheduled for all trusts (for the 7-day period of 22-28 Jan) – will be open as resubmission to overwrite/SDCS collection
  • Thursday 26/01: No SDCS collections or assurance returns
  • Friday 27/01:
    • IA workforce sitrep (for 30 trusts impacted by CSP action on 26)/SDCS collection
    • IA rescheduled required for 30 CSP trusts (will be open to all trusts) – will be open as resubmission to overwrite/update figures if changed)/SDCS collection

Annex B – Data collection submitters

We will create submitters list for each organisation as per below.

Organisation type – source of submitter list:

  • NHS acute trusts – we will use the same submitters as for previous IA collections.
  • NHS ambulance trusts – we will use the same submitters as for previous IA collections.
  • NHS community and mental health trusts – we will use the same submitters as for previous IA collections where the org has previously submitted, otherwise we will use submitters from the COVID daily SitRep.

If you want to make changes to the submitter list for your organisation, then please contact emergency.collections@nhs.net.

Please also contact this email address if you have any issues in accessing the return for your organisation.

Annex C – Workforce SitRep

Annex D – Rescheduled activity SitRep (acute trusts)

Annex E – Rescheduled activity SitRep (mental health and learning disability trusts)

Mental health and learning disability activity SitRep.

Annex F – Rescheduled activity SitRep (community services)

Community activity SitRep.