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
April 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 it's submission the College carried out a survey
of all 9,352 English College members to ask for their
views on the proposed reforms.
Initial findings from the survey are available here.
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.