§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if NHS staff satisfaction surveys will be incorporated into the National Performance Framework. [55247]
§ Mr. MilburnThe National Framework for Assessing Performance focuses on outcomes for patients. The management and welfare of National Health Service staff is a direct responsibility of their employers at a local level. The results of staff satisfaction surveys will be used locally to provide benchmarks against which to measure and report local improvements in the quality of working life.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what account he will take of existing customer satisfaction programmes in NHS trusts in drawing up the National Performance Framework. [55245]
§ Mr. MilburnThe national framework for assessing performance provides a basis for assessing National Health Service performance over six areas: health improvement, fair access, effective delivery of appropriate healthcare, efficiency, patient/carer experience and health outcomes of NHS care. Over time, the framework will be supplemented by a range of high level indicators over all the dimensions to support benchmarking and performance improvement. Results from the first national survey of NHS patients will be used to develop comparative indicators of patient/carer experience. These high level indicators can be supplemented locally, for example by indicators from health authorities or NHS trust surveys of patient/carer experience.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if additional funding incentives will be given to the best-performing health authorities based on the standards achieved in the National Performance Framework. [55251]
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§ Mr. MilburnThe White Paper "The New NHS: Modern and Dependable" stated that
… Health Authorities which demonstrate most progress against the targets and objectives agreed with the NHS Executive will be eligible for modest extra non-recurrent funding for local projects which support their Health Improvement Programme".Progress in implementing the local improvement programme will be considered across the six areas of the national performance assessment framework.
§ Laura MoffattTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if the new national performance framework to tackle inconsistencies in health services will include abortion services. [55366]
§ Mr. MilburnThe national framework for assessing performance provides a basis for assessing the performance of the National Health Service across six dimensions: Health Improvement, Fair Access, Effective Delivery of Appropriate Healthcare, Efficiency, Patient/Carer Experience and Health Outcomes of NHS Care. The framework can be used to assess NHS performance at a number of levels—for example, by health authority or NHS trust, by client group (eg services for elderly people), or by disease area (eg cancer services). In reviewing local abortion services, health authorities, primary care groups and NHS trusts should seek to assess performance across all the dimensions of the framework to assess areas for improvement.