NHS England has launched guidance for trust boards on assessing provider capability, intended to inform a self-assessment, with an emphasis on digital maturity and plans, and data capabilities.
It sets out six areas to be assessed on an annual basis, along with associated indicative evidence, covering: strategy, leadership, and planning; quality of care; people and culture; access and delivery of services; productivity and value for money; and financial performance and oversight.
On strategy, leadership, and planning, trusts are asked to assess whether their strategy reflects “clear priorities” both for itself and system partners. Here, this includes that plans for transformation are aligned to the wider system strategy and if digital plans are consistent with local and national partners.
The self-assessment also covers quality of care, covering measures in place by trusts to monitor and continually improve the quality of healthcare in light of information on safety incidents, complaints, or other data; and the existence of systems to monitor patient experience. This looks at board-level engagement on improving quality of care, board use of qualitative and quantitative information including comparative benchmarks, and how the organisation involves service users in quality assessment and improvement.
Elsewhere, the assessment looks for evidence of board engagement and the regular reviewing of skills in criteria around people and culture; evidence that plans are in place to improve performance and any inequalities in access and delivery of services; and evidence that plans are in place to deliver productivity improvements in line with relevant guidance. In terms of financial performance and oversight, the trust’s financial governance framework and financial risk management is also to be considered, along with its engagement with system partners on the use of NHS resources and the delivery of overall system financial outputs.
Boards are asked to highlight any areas where criteria have not been met, along with the reasons for this, and the actions to be taken, before submitting the completed self-assessment template to their regional oversight team with supporting evidence within two months.
Further updates from NHS England
NHSE is seeking market input to help create a draft specification for a programme centred around the future of patient feedback, including the development of a roadmap for measurement, insight and improvement in this area. The programme aims to outline options for the design of a “sustainable and holistic insight system” in line with the 10 Year Health Plan’s three main shifts. It hopes to put a system in place to utilise patient experience data in various forms, making sure that the NHS is “measuring what matters through easily navigable and inclusive feedback routes”.
NHSE recently announced the launch of its own WhatsApp channel, providing a way to communicate and share important health information directly with members of the public. Followers are given “official health information, updates and news” from the NHS in the form of WhatsApp messages, with the service covering a range of areas including, health alerts, seasonal advice, NHS updates and announcements, myth-busting and fact-checking content, as well as public health campaigns such as flu vaccines and COVID-19 information.
NHSE’s board recently offered updates on key performance metrics, discussing the NHS App, the future operating model for NHSE’s digital priorities and how to maximise EPRs following implementation. On opportunities for maximising productivity following EPR implementation, the board discussed the potential to create a blueprint to allow learnings from both successful and unsuccessful implementations.
