HC Deb 05 November 2003 vol 412 cc685-6W
Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of Standard Three of the National Standards Framework for Diabetes; and if he will make a statement; [R] [135375]

(2) how his Department assists primary care trusts to meet Standard Three of the National Standard Framework for Diabetes; and if he will make a statement. [R] [135376]

Ms Rosie Winterton

"The New NHS and A First Class Service" introduced a range of measures to raise quality and decrease variations in service including national service frameworks (NSFs).

The NHS Plan re-emphasised the role of NSFs as drivers in delivering the modernisation agenda. NSFs are one element of the overall programme of modernisation. They are designed to help us to improve health and social well-being by:

  • providing services to more people, more quickly and to a higher standard;
  • improving the patient experience;
  • reducing variations in care across the country;
  • increasing compliance with evidence-based practice.

NSFs have challenging aims (the vision) for a particular service or care group. Ways to achieve those aims are described in a number of standards, focused as far as possible on the needs of patients and good outcomes, underpinned by: the rationale and a clear statement of the evidence base; good practice: key interventions and service models which have worked in practice (linked, wherever possible, to Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) work and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines and appraisals); performance indicators to measure local and national progress.

Standard 3 of the diabetes national service framework is about patient empowerment. All people with diabetes will receive a service that encourages partnership in decision-making and supports them in managing their diabetes.

This is reflected in the "Planning and Priorities Framework for the NHS 2003–06", which includes targets for the diabetes NSF. One such target states the need for primary care trusts to update practice-based registers for people with diabetes by March 2006. This will help to ensure that they receive systematic treatment regimens and advice to help support them in managing their own condition.

The above gives clinicians and other professionals, managers and service users the information and guidance they need to drive forward improvements locally. NSFs will be implemented and monitored in the same way as departmental policy generally, allowing maximum scope for local flexibility. The implementation/monitoring regime will differ from NSF to NSF. Essential elements include:

  1. implementation guides covering, as appropriate, national actions to support local delivery through a number of underpinning programmes, such as workforce development and research and development;
  2. national and local champions who will drive forward delivery of the standards with clinical colleagues and others;
  3. national and local performance indicators to help strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and local councils to benchmark progress;
  4. the Commission for Health Improvement using national standards to inspect and evaluate services;
  5. empowered patients and users using standards to feedback on local services;
  6. patients forums and other similar consultative groups identifying where services could be improved;
  7. the Modernisation Agency, NICE, SCIE and the Improvement and Development Agency to promulgate, spread and support best practice.

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