Improving contribution of stakeholder opinions

Accepted.
The NHS Trust Development Authority will test Trusts’ Patient and Public Involvement strategies to ensure they are engaging with their patients and local community throughout the Foundation Trust application process, particularly on the quality of care being provided. It will also verify that Trusts are explicitly asking questions about quality of care in their public consultation and triangulating responses with any identified issues of clinical quality.
The NHS Trust Development Authority will follow up with the Trust on what it has done in response to any concerns raised during the consultation process and record this feedback, sharing the information with Monitor as necessary throughout the application process.
Monitor’s assessment process also includes reviews of patient views and the NHS staff survey, meetings with staff and patient groups, review of access and outcome metrics, local media coverage and interviews with lead commissioners, the Care Quality Commission and external and internal auditors. Monitor also writes to local MPs and Healthwatch to see if they have any concerns they wish to raise. As part of their Quality Governance review they also seek to understand the Trust board’s arrangements to actively engage with patients. Monitor will continue to consider the content of the consultation and the applicant’s response to the issues raised as part of the assessment process.

The provisions for Foundation Trust (FT) authorisation remain, with the power to authorise an NHS trust as an FT vested in NHS England (provided Secretary of State has approved the authorisation and NHS England are satisfied as to the matters set out in section 35 of the NHS Act 2006), following abolition of Monitor and transfer of functions to NHS England. However, policy position has changed and no more FTs are being authorised.

As set out in the NHS Trust Development Authority Accountability Framework for NHS Trusts, Trusts must demonstrate that they have sought feedback from the public regarding the quality of their services, and that this feedback is being used to make the necessary improvements.

This recommendation was accepted by the Government.

In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government referred to Monitor’s Assessment process including review of patient views, meetings with patient groups, local media coverage and interviews with lead commissioners.

The Government said that the NHS Trust Development Authority would test trusts’ patient and public involvement strategies to ensure they were engaging with patients and the local community throughout the foundation trust application process, particularly on the quality of care being provided, and that it would follow up with the trust on what it has done in response to any concerns raised, recording this feedback and sharing the information with Monitor as necessary. The Government said this was set out in the NHS Trust Development Authority Accountability Framework.