Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Deferred
Publish clear guidance on key worker roles to ensure care coordination for service users.
Recommendation
In some areas, the emphasis on care coordination may have been lost through the rollout of the CMHF. We recommend that NHS England publish clear guidance on the role of key workers to ensure all service users have access to a named individual responsible for coordinating their care. (Recommendation, Paragraph 110)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepts the recommendation and states that NHS England is working with pilot sites, and insights from these pilots will be collated to inform future guidance on neighbourhood-based models of care.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The government accepts this recommendation. The government has recognised concerns from patients and services about the role of the key worker or care coordinators. NHS England will publish new guidance, the personalised care framework, setting out the core aspects of care for people who require help from integrated primary care, secondary care mental health services and VCSFE organisations. The draft guidance has already been shared with systems to facilitate early adoption. This new guidance will outline the core principles of care that all people using NHS commissioned community mental health, crisis and inpatient services should: • have a care and support plan that is current and reflective of the needs of the person at that point • have a person within the service responsible for their care and support plan and for developing a trusted therapeutic relationship • be able to have their care and support plan reviewed when things change, as well as be able to quickly re-access help when they need to (such as when their mental health deteriorates following a period of stability) The new guidance sets out the critical function of a ‘named worker’ as having responsibility for: • building a trusted relationship with the person • supporting delivery of the care and support plan including co-ordinating the professionals, services and agencies needed to realise it Named workers are part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) which has overall responsibility for the care and treatment of people within the service. Effective MDT working and associated systems, processes and values are critical to enabling the named worker to carry out their role.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗