COMMENT
Director of the Foundation Trust Network, Sue Slipman, talks to NHE about the latest NHS Future Forum report on the issues of education, information, public health and integration.
T
he second report of the NHS Future Forum focused on four key areas
where the NHS can drive improvements in patient care and better value services: public health, information, integration and education and training.
Members of the forum met with over 12,000 people, attended over 300 events and received 150 formal responses. They have spoken with patients, carers, local authorities, the voluntary and community sector, NHS providers, academics, manag- ers and health and social care professionals while researching these issues.
Below: The Future Forum report suggests that dentists should be among the health professionals to ask patients questions about their lifestyle.
Their first report, after the ‘pause’ in the Health & Social Care Bill’s legislative progress, had many of its recommendations adopted by the Government – but also introduced some concepts that haven’t proved hugely popular with either reformers or opponents, such as the clinical senates, whose role has yet to be properly defined.
This second report has focused on the rise in preventable illness and persistence in health inequalities, and the ways in which the health service needs to shift its focus to prevention and supporting self-care.
Patients want more control over their data and communication about care needs to be improved. Cultural barriers to technology must also be overcome. Patient data should be shared electronically once a consent
model has been developed to facilitate this, the forum says.
Integration is a major issue and a number of important changes can support local leaders to work together to provide a co- herent model of health and social care.
Finally, increased consistency and quality are needed in the field of education and training for the workforce.
Education and training
Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, spoke to NHE just after the report was released.
She said: “I think they’re very interesting recommendations. The area where they’re likely to be most influential is on workforce and education and training. The ideas that are being put forward by the Future Forum are ideas whose time has come in a de- volved system.
“There’s clearly a much stronger role for employers at local levels to get together with stakeholders to deliver outcomes on education and training that meets the needs of a modern and changing NHS. It seems to me those are very strong rec- ommendations and we entirely support those.”
The report advises institutions to select for values and beliefs as well as for academic ability, and ensure that trainee nurses ac- tually posses a desire to work in healthcare, following criticism that some nurses lack compassion and the necessary social skills to provide quality care.
It calls on the DH to ensure that all pub- lic health specialists are regulated and that transparency and accountability are main- tained through the funding for education.
Slipman added: “It’s talking about behav- iours and values being part of the recruit- ment process, not just academic ability. A lot of the changes being made are cultural and that’s got to be reflected in medical and nursing education.”
The Foundation Trust Network believes the changes outlined in this area of the re- port must be implemented. Slipman stat- ed: “We have to see change in those areas because there’s no longer a centralised sys- tem. Clearly commissioners can’t deliver education and training for the workforce.
18 | national health executive Jan/Feb 12
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