Archived national news - January - February 2011

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Health & Social Care Bill – first reading 19th January 2011

The Health and Social Care Bill – putting the proposals in last year’s NHS white paper into law – was introduced into parliament on the 19th January. It will take some time to complete all the parliamentary stages before it is law. The bill is enormous – 367 pages long with 13 pages of contents covering:

Click here to read Stephen Blann’s notes on each part and schedule in brackets to distinguish it from the tiles of each part / schedule and any explanatory notes in the Bill.

The Bill itself can be downloaded at the UK Parliament website http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/healthandsocialcare.html

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Changes to Bromley Council Social Care charging and introduction of Personal Budgets

Reminder that Bromley Council is consulting on proposed changes to its Personal Budget and Personal Contributions Policy for Adult Social Care. 
You can download more information on the council website including a factsheet on the proposals and a response form.  Any comments should be sent to Emma Maton emma.maton@bromley.gov.uk

Stephen Blann, Policy & Networks Officer, Community Links Bromley has prepared a summary, which you can download from the CLB website.

The consultation closes on 28 February.

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Healthy Lives, Healthy People: public health white paper

As reported below ( previous e-news) the Government published a public health white paper to accompany the NHS white paper published in the summer. As with the NHS white paper, there are some linked consultations on the details. Stephen Blann, Policy & Networks Officer, Community Links Bromley has prepared a briefing on the public health white paper you can download from the CLB website.

The consultation closes on 8th March 2011

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Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Transparency in Outcomes Proposals for a Public Health Outcomes Framework

The Department of Health published a public health white paper in the autumn and as with the NHS white paper. It is also consulting on an outcomes framework for public health. You can download a copy of the consultation from the Department of Health website as well as respond online.

As with the NHS white paper Outcomes Framework there are five ‘domains’ of broad aspirations each with a series of proposed indicators – these are the proposed domains for public health:

Domain 1: Health protection and resilience
Domain 2 Tackling the wider determinants of health
Domain 3: Health improvement
Domain 4: Prevention of ill health
Domain 5: Healthy life expectancy and preventable mortality

You can read briefing by Stephen Blann, Policy & Networks Officer, on CLB’s website.

The deadline for comments is the 31 March 2011. 

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Consultation on the funding and commissioning routes for public health

Alongside the public health white paper – Healthy Lives, Healthy People, the Government has just published a consultation on how the new public health service will be funded.

Public health services will be funded by a new public health budget, separate from the budget managed through the NHS Commissioning Board for Healthcare, to ensure that investment in public health is ring-fenced. Public Health England will fund public health activity three ways:

  1. allocating funding to local authorities;
  2. commissioning services via the NHS Commissioning Board; or
  3. commissioning or providing services itself.

You can respond by email: publichealthengland@dh.gsi.gov.uk or online. You can download the consultation from the Department of Health website. 

You can read a briefing by Stephen Blann, Policy & Networks Officer, on the CLB website.

The consultation closes on 31st March 2011.

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Ending Child Poverty

The Government has said, including in the recent public health white paper that it wishes to keep the last government’s aim of ending child poverty by 2020. However, it feels that the last government’s policy, increasing incomes of poor families through tax credits, failed. The consultation has a very strong focus on life chances and employment of parents. There will be four main topics in the Government’s strategy:

  1. Early intervention and the ‘Foundation Years': intervening early to support every child to fulfil their potential
  2. Employment and skills: removing barriers to work and supporting families to achieve financial independence
  3. Financial support: reforming the benefits system to ensure that work pays
  4. Devolving power: freeing up local authorities and partners, voluntary organisations and communities to target resources more effectively.

You can download the consultation at the Department for Education website and respond online.

The consultation closes on 15th February 2011.

The Government admits that this short closing date is not to Compact standard, but needs to have this deadline to allow publication of the strategy in March. 

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Measuring National Well-being

Office for National Statistics (ONS) - the organisation behind the census – is consulting on some suggestions of how it can measure national well-being. This is connected to the Coalition Government’s interest in outcomes rather than measuring what it sees as ‘process targets’. The ONS is carrying out this consultation to find out what could be measured and how. You can get more information from the ONS website including the consultation document  and the consultation questions and online response.

The deadline for responses is 11th April 2011.

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Commissioning Green Paper

The Government conducted a very short consultation – a month either side of Christmas – on proposals to change public sector commissioning. The aim is to increase the role of the voluntary sector and asocial enterprise in public service delivery. A number of organisations submitted formal responses. The thrust of these was that whilst government may want to open up local services for delivery by voluntary organisations, it should be for communities and organisations to decide if it is appropriate for them. There is concern about what “payment by results” really means – who is defining the results? Follow the links to download the NCVO response and the NAVCA response. You can also read the green paper itself on the Cabinet Office website

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Giving Green Paper

As part of the Big Society (and desire to see a smaller state), the Government has published a green paper (usually a consultation on proposed legislation) on Giving. It wants to create a more giving society - a society where

The green paper sets out why and how the government intends to do this. You can download the Green paper from the Cabinet Office website .

The deadline for responses is 9 March 2011. This is again slightly under the 12-week Compact standard for consultation.

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Boris Johnson, announces £2.4m Funding for 18 Sports Projects

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced £2.4m funding for 18 projects across the capital to help increase participation in sport and physical activity amongst Londoners.

This brings to £5.4m the total awarded by the Mayor for improving sports facilities and participation throughout the capital, from his ring-fenced total budget of £15.5m from his Olympic Sports Legacy Programme. The aim is that these 18 projects will engage up to 200,000 Londoners of all ages over the next two years. In some cases, the projects will also use sport in novel ways to tackle issues such as youth crime and social exclusion, thereby helping to deliver some of the key objectives of the Mayor’s Time for Action strategy.

Amongst the 18 successful bids was the PRO-ACTIVE London’s  Dare 2 Dance project which uses street dance to engage and empower 14-24 year old girls/women. A series of engagement days targeting inactive girls, are followed with the opportunity of 14 weeks of coaching, culminating in a competition. At various stages there are training opportunities available for participants. Talented individuals are identified and invited  into a bespoke summer school.

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Support the Global Parkinson's Pledge

The Glasgow World Parkinson’s Congress saw the launch of a new initiative in the form of the Parkinson’s Pledge. The intention is to build a global Parkinson’s community with the target of one million people signed up before the next Congress in 2013. The pledge seeks to make Parkinson's a health, social and economic priority around the world and to work together to find a cure for Parkinson's. A large number of celebrities have signed up including Fern Britton, Matt Lucas and Jane Asher. To find out more or add your name go to www.parkinsons.org.uk/pledge

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Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Public Health white paper

The Government has just published a public health white paper. This complements the previous NHS white paper (see CLB briefing). Public health functions will now be part of the local authority rather than in an NHS body such as the PCTs – which the NHS white paper proposed to abolish.

There will be local Directors of Public Health based with local councils but they will also be part of Public Health England. The white paper discusses current health inequalities but also says that individual and community action and responsibility is important.  The same interest in outcomes not targets is here as in the NHS white paper.

Here is an extract from the white paper:

“This White Paper sets out a radical new approach that will empower local communities, enable professional freedoms and unleash new ideas based on the evidence of what works, while ensuring that the country remains resilient to and mitigates against current and future health threats. It sets out how our approach will:

  1. protect the population from health threats
  2. empower local leadership and encourage wide responsibility
  3. focus on key outcomes,
  4. reflect the Government’s core values of freedom, fairness and responsibility
  5. balance the freedoms of individuals and organisations with the need to avoid harm to others, …

“This approach will: reach across and reach out – and be:

CLB will be producing a briefing in the New Year and is also planning to organise a consultation meeting.
You can download a copy of Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Public Health white paper from the Department of Health website. The deadline for responses is 8th March 2011 and there is an online consultation response form.  

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A Vision for Adult Social Care 

The Department of Health has published its proposals on adult social care.  Personalisation (there is more on this on the CLB website) remains very important and the government also wants to see social care as part of the Big Society. The document sets out seven principles, which it then deals within a chapter in turn. The principles are:   

  1. Prevention
  2. Personalisation
  3. Partnership
  4. Plurality
  5. Protection 
  6. Productivity
  7. People

An annex gives a summary of proposals which is reproduced verbatim below:
The Vision for quality in social care – a summary of proposals.
1. Prevention
The Government will:

2. Personalisation
The Government will:

3 & 4 Plurality and partnership
The Government will:

5. Providing protection
The Government will:

6. Productivity, quality and innovation
The Government will:

7. People
The Government will:

You can download the document from the Department of Health website where there is also background information and CLB will be producing a briefing in the New Year.

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Modern Commissioning - Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery

The government wants to radically change how public bodies buy services and who they buy them from. It aspires to have 25% of all contracts with small and medium-sized enterprises (small companies) the voluntary sector and social firms. This green paper- is a consultation about how public bodies decide what to buy and how they buy it.

It asks many questions about how things could change in under the following four areas:

This last includes several questions about how the voluntary sector can be involved in Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and community budgets.
The deadline for comments is 5th January – which one estimate suggests is 17 working days from publication on 8th December – described  by Compact Voice as  “regrettably short and outside the  Compact”. It is also unfortunate there is such a short time given that one of the examples given of poor practice in commissioning was short tender periods. You can download the green paper from the Cabinet Office website.

The questions it asks are as follows: 
New Opportunities:  In which public service areas could Government create new opportunities for civil society organisations to deliver?
Objective: To drive efficiency, effectiveness and innovation in public services by opening more public service areas to civil society organisations.

More Accessible: How could Government make existing public service markets more accessible to civil society organisations?
Objective: To address practical, regulatory, legislative and cultural barriers to market entry in existing markets, with a particular focus on barriers that affect civil society organisations.

Value : How could commissioners use assessments of full social, environmental and economic value to inform their commissioning decisions?
Objective: To enable commissioners to make strategic commissioning decisions based on a full understanding of the social, environmental and economic impact.

Citizen and Community Involvement: How could civil society organisations support greater citizen and community involvement in all stages of commissioning?
Objective: To enable civil society organisations to support and facilitate the increased involvement of citizens and communities in commissioning.

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Charity Trustees and Campaigning

NCVO is running a survey on the rules concerning campaigning activities by charities to find out what role charity trustees play in campaigns. If you’re a trustee, please fill in the online survey – it shouldn't take longer than ten minutes to complete. You can also download the 'Trustee guide to campaigning and influencing' from NCVO's website.

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 “Universal Credit, welfare that works” - welfare white paper published

The government has published a white paper (a document setting out proposed legislation) on welfare reform called “Universal Credit, welfare that works”. You can download the white paper here – the full document or in different sections. The white paper follows on from the consultation over the summer- “21st Century Welfare”  and the government has also published the responses it received. 

It sets out in more detail the proposal to change from the current benefit system to a single universal credit and how this will affect claimants and potential future claimants. To quote from the white paper -

“Universal Credit is an integrated working-age credit that will provide a basic allowance with additional elements for children, disability, housing and caring. It will support people both in and out of work, replacing Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

“The Government is committed to ensuring that no-one loses as a direct result of these reforms. We have ensured that no-one will experience a reduction in the benefit they receive as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit.”

The key reform will be how the amount of credit will be tapered out as people get a job or earn more. The government wants to ensure that work will always pay more than benefit. It is planned to introduce a welfare reform Bill in January 2011.

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Personalisation health check

Personalisation in social care - and now in health – is giving people who receive services more say over those services.

All local authorities have a target that a third of their social care users have a personal budget by April 2011. Voluntary and community sector organisations involved in social care need to be able to provide services for those with their own budgets, as well council contracts.

NAVCA has developed a simple diagnostic tool, with accompanying guidance and an action plan, which can be used to undertake a personalisation health check with local voluntary organisations. It focuses on personalisation in social care, but could be adapted for health services or other services where personalised approaches are being developed. It is designed for infrastructure organisations, such as CLB, to assist their members.

For more information using this planning tool, contact Frances McAuley, CLB’s Interim Capacity Building Manager on 020 8315 1914.

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Equality Act 2010: What do I need to know?

The majority of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on the 1st October 2010. The Equality Act brings together nine separate pieces of legislation into one single Act simplifying the law and strengthening it in important ways to help tackle discrimination and inequality.

Equality Act 2010: “What do I need to know?” is a series of summary guides and "Quick Start" guides to the key changes in the law, produced by the Government Equalities Office in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce, Citizens Advice, ACAS and the Equality and Diversity Forum, to support implementation of the Act. There are guides designed for business, the public sector, the voluntary sector and the public. They each set out clearly what the new laws will mean for them, helping people understand their new responsibilities and rights when providing goods, facilities or services.

You can download the guides below -
Guides for The public

Guides for Employers

Guides for Voluntary and Community organisations

Guides for Businesses who provide goods and services

Guides for Public sector

As well as these official guides, you may also find it useful to check Sandy Adirondack's Legal Update website www.sandy-a.co.uk.

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 Skills development for children's' workforce

The Children’s Workforce Development Council has launched a skills framework that intends to “support and inform the whole of the young people’s workforce”. The workforce is now invited to join its online forum to discuss practical ways of using the Skills Development Framework (SDF). CWDC news item www.cwdcouncil.org.uk or go to SDF information.

(Source: Volresource)

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Pinpointing the "red tape" burdens which could be lifted

A number of sector responses to the Big Society De-regulation Taskforce have appeared, giving views on the top red tape burdens for voluntary organisations.
The top five identified by NAVCA, the body for local sector support organisations are:

Volunteering England highlights (both pdfs 55KB) Volunteering England highlights

Civil Society  Media reports that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland is warning that the Taskforce's focus on England and Wales could create more complexity given "the problem of legislation and regulation which overlaps other jurisdictions within the UK", ICAS also points to the different filing requirements of the Charity Commission, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Companies House and HMRC.

(Source: Volresource)

 

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