The Government's Health and Social Care Act reforms
and the work of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
March 2012
> Health and Social Care Bill
gains Royal Assent and becomes an Act of
Parliament
On Tuesday 27 March the Deparment of
Health
announced that
the Bill had gained Royal Assent and became the Health and Social
Care Act (2012).
College President Professor Sue
Bailey commented on the Health and Social Care Bill completing
its passage through Parliament.
> College welcome government
commitment to amendment on parity for mental and physical
health
Following lobbying
from the College and other organisation
we welcomed
the Government’s decision to
support an amendment to the Bill to give the Secretary of State for
Health an explicit duty to support both physical and mental
health.
The amendment puts the
Government’s own commitment to parity of esteem between mental and
physical health care on a statutory footing, making it clear that
the Secretary of State has a duty to improve the nation’s mental
health services and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of both
physical and mental health.
February 2012
> Briefing on amendment to
ensure joined up social and medical care after being
sectioned
Working with other mental health
organisations the College produced a
briefing for Peers in advance of a debate on
the Health and Social Care Bill.
The proposed amendment addresses
Clause 39 of the Bill, which covers section 117 of the
Mental Health Act 1983. This ensures that primary care trusts
and local authorities have a duty to work together to provide
medical and social care after someone has been sectioned.
Clause 39 of the Bill would have
removed this joint duty and there was concern that care
decisions would be taken separately, leading to a disjointed care
package and endangering an individual’s recovery.
The College welcomed the decision by
the government following the debate to agree to the amendment
unapposed and retain the joint duty.
> Briefing on amendments to
improve commissioning for long term conditions
Along with other
organisations representing people living and working with
long term, less common conditions, the College is are
concerned that the new structures outlined in the Health and Social
Care Bill risk undermining commissioning for such groups.
In a briefing
to Peers we have supported proposals to introduce two
amendments to the Bill to (a) promote collaboration between
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) on commissioning for less
common conditions, and (b) detail a specific monitoring role for
the NHS Commissioning Board on less common conditions
services.
> House of Lords briefing on
parity for mental health
The College, working jointly
with stakeholders in the mental health sector, produced a
briefing focussing on parity of esteem for
mental and physical health in advance of a debate on amendments
looking at mental health.
Following the news that the House of Lords voted by 244 to 240 in
favour of an amendment to place an explicit duty on the Secretary
of State to give equal emphasis to mental and physical health,
Professor Sue Bailey, President of the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, said: "We were delighted this amendment was passed,
as we have long campaigned for mental health to be on an equal
footing with physical health. However, the College still has major
concerns about many aspects of the Bill and believes it will remain
fundamentally flawed unless it undergoes further significant
revision."
> College surveys members
and clarifies its position on the Health and Social Care
Bill
As part of its ongoing communication
process, the College surveyed all its members for their views
on the Health and Social Care Bill in
January. The quantative
and qualitative results
of this survey were published in February and were used to
shape a new College
statement clarifying its position on the Bill.
January 2012
> NHS Future Forum publishes
second report
The
second report of the NHS Future Forum was
published, outlining recommendations on education and training,
public health, integration and information.
December 2011
> RCPsych responds to Health
Select Committee inquiry on education, training and workforce
planning
The College outlined key concerns to
members of the Health Select Committee as part of the inquiry into
education and training.
The submission
highlights issues of particular concern to the College,
including the urgent need to address the future of Deaneries, and
the danger that where Acute Trusts form Local Education and
Training Boards there is the possibility that psychiatry could be
marginalised.
More about the Health Select Committee
inquiry is available on the
Parliament UK website.
October 2011
> House of Lords Second
Reading Briefing on Health and Social Care Bill
The College, working jointly with
stakeholders in the mental health sector, produced a
briefing in advance of House of Lords Second
Reading of the Health and Social Care Bill
Key concerns included:
Integration, parity for mental health, competition, patient and
clinician involvement.
June 2011
> Department of Health
publishes results of NHS Future Forum Listening
Exercise
The
Future Forum’s recommendations to government
were published following the NHS listening exercise and the
government’s response to the Future Forum’s
recommendations was published shortly after.
May 2011
> College response to NHS
Future Forum Listening Exercise
Key concerns
in the College
response to the Listening Exercise included: commissioning, integration, medical education and competition.
June 2011
> NHS Future
Forum 'Listening Exercise' - Survey of College membership
In April 2011, the Government began
its 'Listening Exercise' on the NHS reforms in England.
The 'Listening Exercise' was being
organised by the Future Forum, a "group of clinicians, patient
representatives voluntary sector representatives and others from
the health field, including frontline staff."
In advance of its submission the
College carried out a survey of all 9,352 English College members
to ask for their views on the proposed reforms.
February 2011
> Health and Social
Care Bill:Mental Health
Strategy
In Febuary
2011, the Coalition Government published
No health without mental health: a
cross-Government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all
ages. Through its
membership of the
Future Visions Coalition, the College has been fully engaged with, and
has succeeded in influencing, the strategy throughout the various stages of
its development.
> Health and Social
Care Bill: Second Reading
Briefing
In response to the Coalition
Government's Health and Social Care Bill, the College
prepared a briefing in advance of the Commons
Second Reading.
In it, the College outlined concerns
about a number of areas including:
- how the scale and the pace of change may impact on
the care and in particular the continuity of care that can be given
to patients with mental health problems;
- that in some areas the new GP consortia will not yet have
developed the skills or expertise to support mental health
commissioning and that there needs to be engagement of specialist
clinicians from the outset;
- concerns about further roll out of ‘Any Willing Provider’ given
current evidence in some mental health services.
Read the full text of the Second
Reading Briefing
here.
Read the College's submission to the
House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Health and Social
Care Bill
here.
December 2010
> Health and Social
Care Consultations: Responding to Transparency in Outcomes &
Legislative framework and next steps
In December 2010, the Coalition
Government published
Transparency in Outcomes - a framework for the NHS:
Government response to the consultation (which is
the formal Government response to the proposals and responses
received as part of the consultation Transparency in Outcomes -
a framework for the NHS (see below)).
It also published
Liberating the NHS: Legislative framework and next
steps (also known as 'Command Paper') which
is the Government's response to the consultations Local
democratic legitimacy in health, Regulating healthcare
providers and Commissioning for patients (see
below).
The Policy Unit prepared two
documents which summarises these two new documents and highlights
what the College said in its original responses.
The Unit has
also produced a one-page diagram of the Architecture
of the Government’s Health and Social Care reforms
(White Papers/Strategies/Bills/Consultations
etc.).
July 2010
> Health and Social Care White
Paper Responding to
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS
In July 2010, the Coalition Government
published a White Paper on the future of the NHS entitled
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the
NHS. Four consultation papers were
published alongside the White Paper:
Read the College's full responses to
the four documents
here.