NHS & Public Health: Collaborating for Health & Equality, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Design

Download NHS & Public Health: Collaborating for Health & Equality and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Design in PDF only on Docsity!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The  NHS’s  role  in  the   public’s  health  A  report  from  the  NHS  Future  Forum Workstream members  Vicky Bailey ‐ Chair, NHS’s role in the public’s health group Chief Operating Officer, Principia Rushcliffe Clinical Commissioning Group  Ash Soni ‐ Chair, NHS’s role in the public’s health group Community Pharmacist; Clinical Network Lead, NHS Lambeth  Dr Charles Alessi Senior GP Partner, The Churchill Practice  Dr Frank Atherton President, Association of Directors of Public Health; Director of Public Health, North Lancashire Cluster  Ratna Dutt Chief Executive, Race Equality Foundation  Paul Farmer Chief Executive, Mind  Moira Gibb Chief Executive, London Borough of Camden; Chair, Social Work Task Force  Chris Long Chief Executive, Humber Cluster  Claire Marshall Head of Professions, Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust  Dr Tim Riley Chief Executive, Wellstate Group Ltd  Tom Riordan Chief Executive, Leeds City Council  Dr Robina Shah Chair, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust  Professor Jimmy Steele Head of School and Professor of Oral Health Services Research, School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University  Gill Walton Director of Midwifery, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust                                                                                                                                                                           Contents Contents.........................................................................................................................2 Foreword........................................................................................................................3  Terms used in this report...............................................................................5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 8 A shared vision: “Make every contact count” .............................................................10  Healthcare professionals .............................................................................11  Education and training for healthcare professionals...................................12 - Shared identity.................................................................................12 - Skills and knowledge........................................................................13  NHS leadership.............................................................................................15  The health and wellbeing of NHS staff ........................................................15  Providers of NHS‐funded care .....................................................................17  NHS commissioners .....................................................................................19 - Incentives for providers of NHS‐funded care ..................................19 - The design of NHS care pathways....................................................21 - Public health expertise.....................................................................22  NHS and public health commissioners working in partnership...................24 - Commissioning for outcomes ..........................................................24  Utilising contacts outside the NHS...............................................................26  Building on what we already have...............................................................28 2                                                                                                                                                                   Terms used in this report Healthcare professionals Any healthcare professional employed by, or working as a partner in, an organisation contracted to provide NHS‐ funded care, who has contact with members of the public. Professional bodies Professional regulators, royal colleges, specialist societies and associations, and other professional representative bodies. Providers of NHS‐funded care All organisations contracted to provide NHS‐funded care, including private, voluntary and community sector organisations. NHS commissioners Clinical commissioning groups and the NHS Commissioning Board in its commissioning capacity. 5                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Summary We have heard that people expect the NHS to do more than treat them when they are ill; it must also help them to stay well. Everyone has a responsibility for their own health, but the NHS is also responsible for helping people to improve their health and wellbeing. The NHS’s role in preventing poor health and promoting healthy living is essential to reduce health inequalities and sustain the NHS for future generations. Millions of people come into contact with the NHS every day, and we believe that every contact must count as an opportunity to maintain and, where possible, improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing. Our recommendations reflect some of the changes needed at all levels to reach an NHS where every contact counts. A summary of key recommendations is below, and the full set of recommendations is set out in the rest of this report. Healthcare professionals making every contact count 1. Every healthcare professional should “make every contact count”: use every contact with an individual to maintain or improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing where possible, whatever their specialty or the purpose of the contact. To emphasise the importance of this responsibility, the Secretary of State should seek to include it in the NHS Constitution. 2. Health Education England, Public Health England and the NHS Commissioning Board should build a coalition with professional bodies to agree a programme of action for making every contact count. Key features should include: a. Professional bodies promoting this broader role to their members and the public, and issuing guidance about the responsibilities it entails; b. Managers identifying where healthcare professionals’ skills and knowledge for making every contact count need development and working with public health and education and training partners to support this; c. The NHS Leadership Academy demonstrating to leaders that supporting staff to make every contact count is a key part of their role. Improving the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce 3. In partnership with their staff, NHS organisations and their delivery partners should design and implement a strategy for improving staff mental and physical health and wellbeing. They should report annually on their progress against this strategy and hold their chief executive, or other senior responsible officer or partner, to account against it. Key features of this strategy should include: a. Implementing the recommendations of the Boorman review of NHS health and wellbeing and using NICE public health guidance and the Public Health 6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Responsibility Deal pledges to guide how they support their staff; b. Developing managers and leaders to support staff mental and physical health and wellbeing, and holding managers and leaders to account for doing so in their performance appraisals. Refocusing the NHS towards prevention and promotion 3. All providers of NHS‐funded care should build the prevention of poor health and promotion of healthy living into their day‐to‐day business, and be recognised for achieving excellence. 4. NHS commissioners should ensure that providers of NHS‐funded care redesign their business in this way, using contracts and incentives to encourage providers to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities, and working with public health commissioners and providers to design interventions into NHS care pathways that achieve these outcomes. To support clinical commissioning groups to do this: a. The NHS Commissioning Board, with support from Public Health England and the Department of Health, should provide them with guidance; b. The NHS Commissioning Board, Public Health England and the Local Government Association should jointly publish arrangements showing how, from April 2013, the Board will access national and local public health advice; emerging clinical commissioning groups and local authorities should put in place transparent arrangements showing how, from April 2013, clinical commissioning groups will access local public health advice. c. The national and local outcomes and priorities for NHS commissioners should encourage them to work in partnership with the public health system to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities, underpinned by NICE quality standards or other accredited evidence. In particular, the outcomes frameworks should be aligned, with further shared outcomes across the NHS and public health system. Building partnerships outside the NHS 5. NHS commissioners and providers of NHS‐funded care should use partnerships with other local services to improve the health and wellbeing of communities that the NHS locally finds difficult to reach, providing training where appropriate. Sharing learning and best practice 6. Healthcare professionals, NHS commissioners and providers of NHS‐funded care should share learning about improving the public’s health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities, and seek to learn from others. Public Health England should ensure that evidence and best practice are spread across the NHS, and we recommend that a top priority should be evidence about improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people. 7                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         A shared vision: “Make every contact count” Millions of people talk with a member of NHS staff every day, spanning a diverse range of professions: from doctors and nurses to pharmacists and midwives, from optometrists and dentists to physiotherapists and health visitors – and far beyond. Each day, GPs and practice nurses see over 800,000 people and dentists see over 250,000 NHS patients. There are 31,000 NHS sight tests, while approximately 1.6 million people visit a pharmacy. We can encounter healthcare professionals in our schools, at home and in practices, surgeries and hospitals. Outreach activities by many also means we can meet the NHS in less traditional locations: on high streets, at sports grounds and at supermarkets. There are millions of opportunities every day for the NHS to help to improve people’s health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities, but to take this opportunity it needs a different view of how to use its contacts with the public. A routine dental check‐up or eye test, for example, is a chance to offer advice to help someone stop smoking. A visit from a midwife or health visitor is an opportunity to talk about a new parent’s anxieties and consider options for accessing mental health support. Collecting medication from a pharmacy is a chance to offer someone help with cutting down on alcohol. A pre‐surgery check‐up is an opportunity to talk over concerns about smoking, diet and physical activity. We heard of some excellent examples where this is already happening, but also that it is not routine and does not happen everywhere. We therefore considered what needs to change for every contact to count:‐  At an individual level, healthcare professionals must change how they use their time. They must understand that this is a part of their job, and be supported to have the skills and knowledge they need to make every contact count. They should also be able to look to clinical leadership for strong direction about how to make every contact count.  If we expect healthcare professionals to make every contact count, we have a responsibility to support the 1.4 million members of the NHS workforce to become healthier too.  The whole system must align itself towards the prevention of poor health. Providers of NHS‐funded care must build the prevention of poor health and promotion of healthy living into their day‐to‐day business. NHS commissioners must encourage providers to do this through contracts, payment, incentives and pathway design, and the priorities set for commissioners must reflect this responsibility. Commissioners and providers must build partnerships with non‐ NHS services to reach people who do not often come into the NHS. 10                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Professionals, providers and commissioners are already doing much of this, but it is not spreading across boundaries. The NHS also needs a way to share learning and reproduce good practice. The rest of this report considers these changes in more detail. Healthcare professionals We have heard clearly that the starting point for making every contact count must be for healthcare professionals to reassess how they use their time with the public. A number of factors and priorities influence the content of an NHS appointment or consultation, but it is ultimately the responsibility of each healthcare professional to decide how they use their time. Simply put, they should aim with every contact to offer advice and support to maintain or improve a person’s mental and physical health and wellbeing, which might mean looking outside their initial symptom or concern. This was a clear message in our engagement, and the public expects it. We have heard about some excellent examples where this is already happening across many different types of professions – for instance, in dental practices. Case study: Windsor Dental Practice, Salford The Windsor Dental Practice in Salford serves quite a young population, with many students as well as a large proportion of younger people from low income backgrounds. Their dental needs are relatively high, so they have regular contact with the dental team but often little contact with the rest of the NHS. Working with local commissioners, the practice started taking on smoking cessation services some years ago. The programme’s success, combined with the patient demographic, led the practice to take on other important health roles. Sexual health screening services may not seem the obvious thing to do in a dental practice, but by building up trust through BMI and blood pressure checks, the practice has been able to provide a very successful chlamydia screening service to under 25 year olds with little contact with the NHS: the population where the need is greatest. Screening samples are collected in the practice under the supervision of dental nurses and are then forwarded to the test lab, with GP services following up. Recommendations: Every healthcare professional should “make every contact count”: use every contact with an individual to maintain or improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing where possible, in particular targeting the four main lifestyle risk factors: diet, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco – whatever their specialty or the purpose of the contact. To support this: 11                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The Secretary of State for Health should seek to include this responsibility in the NHS Constitution; and  Managers of healthcare professionals should use the appraisal process to incentivise them to do this. Education and training for healthcare professionals Shared identity We have heard concerns that rigid professional boundaries could mean healthcare professionals feel unable to identify or address a health need that falls outside their specialty. These boundaries could also deter the public from raising a health concern with a professional, fearing it might be the wrong place for it. We heard from groups such as dentists, optometrists and pharmacists that their own understanding of their roles, and how they are perceived by the public, must broaden so that contacts are used for more than eye care, dental and medication needs. We therefore believe that healthcare professionals should recognise themselves as responsible for improving people’s mental and physical health and wellbeing, whatever their specialty. This broad identity must be owned and shared by professionals and promoted by them to the public. It must encompass the broad range of professions, to take advantage of the NHS’s diverse workforce. We heard, for instance, that surgeons, health visitors, dental nurses, practice nurses, pharmacy staff and many others are enthusiastic about broader health and wellbeing responsibilities. Case study: Healthy Living Pharmacies NHS Portsmouth has taken an innovative approach to the role of pharmacies in the health and wellbeing of their communities. The PCT has developed and implemented the Healthy Living Pharmacy framework, which aims to reduce health inequalities and prevent poor health by using pharmacy staff to promote healthy living, provide wellbeing advice and services, and support people to self‐care and manage long‐ term conditions. Pharmacies awarded the Healthy Living Pharmacy quality mark are places where their local community’s health and wellbeing is at the heart of everything the team does. They promote a healthy living ethos and deliver high quality public health services, including smoking, weight loss, contraception and sexual health, and advice on alcohol. The whole pharmacy team is involved: each pharmacy has a Healthy Living Champion (with a Royal Society of Public Health qualification), who keeps up to date with community health services and spreads this knowledge throughout the team. The programme has seen significant improvements in local health outcomes – for instance, more then doubling the number of local people who quit smoking between April and September 2010 compared with that period in 2009. The programme is 12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     NHS leadership We heard from many that clear and consistent messages from clinical leaders about the role of every healthcare professional in improving the public’s health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities will help motivate healthcare professionals to make every contact count. We therefore feel that NHS clinical leadership should take responsibility for driving forward the move to a culture where every contact counts. Clinical leaders should send clear messages to healthcare professionals about their responsibility for improving the health of the wider public, including through the care they provide and how they look after their own health and wellbeing. A shared starting point for NHS leaders will give professionals a focus to rally around – smoking, for instance, as the single biggest cause of premature death. Recommendations: NHS clinical leadership should provide national momentum and focus for healthcare professionals to make every contact count. To support this:  The coalition referred to above should agree a programme of action for making every contact count. We recommend focusing initially on making every contact count to contribute to the national ambitions in the tobacco control plan for England;2  The NHS Leadership Academy should demonstrate to leaders at all levels that, if they are to improve service quality, as set out in the NHS leadership framework, they should support their staff to make every contact count. The health and wellbeing of NHS staff A very strong message from our engagement is that, if we expect healthcare professionals to improve the health and wellbeing of the people they meet in the course of their work, the NHS must first “put its own house in order”. Many emphasised that the NHS has the opportunity to improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of a workforce of 1.4 million people, who could in turn support their families and friends to make changes for better health and wellbeing. We further heard from patients and the public that it is harder to accept messages from the NHS if it is clear they do not follow these messages for their own health. By supporting the health and wellbeing of its staff, the NHS should see that they in turn will act as advocates both for their patients and in their own communities. Given the 2 Healthy lives, healthy people: a tobacco control plan for England (March 2011); http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_ 15 124917                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          diversity of the NHS workforce across a range of cultural and social backgrounds, this could make a big impact on health inequalities. Many told us that supporting staff to improve their health and wellbeing should be a core principle of every NHS organisation – including commissioners and providers of NHS‐funded care (not only acute trusts, but also private and voluntary and community sector organisations, primary care practices, mental health services, pharmacies and others). Where appropriate, this should also extend to the organisations that they contract with to supply goods and services. In the NHS Constitution, the NHS commits to providing support and opportunities for staff to maintain their health, wellbeing and safety, including their mental health. We were encouraged to hear of NHS organisations already supporting the health and wellbeing of their staff – for instance, at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust in Merseyside: Case study: Work Well the Walton Way The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, a specialist neuroscience trust, employs roughly 950 staff. The trust developed a local strategy for improving staff health and wellbeing, “Work Well the Walton Way”. They asked staff how they wanted support with issues like obesity, smoking, physical exercise and staff engagement, and fed their views into an action plan. This led to initiatives on the ground including virtual health and wellbeing champions in every ward and department, onsite zumba, table tennis and pilates, an in‐house weight management course, a cycle scheme, a running club, and staff counselling. The trust has maintained communications and engagement with staff throughout, holding regular staff summits with the executive team so that the staff have an opportunity to feed back and ask questions. Since introducing the strategy, the trust has seen staff sickness fall from over 7% in January 2010 to less than 4% now. Staff feedback has been positive, and staff survey results have shown more positive attitudes to health and wellbeing and job satisfaction. However, we also heard that the NHS has a long way to go before this is standard across the system. In particular, we heard that some organisations do not work with their staff to ensure that initiatives are designed around their needs. We also heard that the quality of occupational health services for NHS staff is variable, and that all occupational health services for the NHS should seek accreditation. National recommendations and programmes can help organisations to know where to start with improving staff health and wellbeing. For instance, there is strong support for the recommendations in the Boorman review of NHS health and 16                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         wellbeing3, yet many organisations have not fully implemented them. NICE public health guidance and the Public Health Responsibility Deal pledges also show how organisations can improve health around diet, alcohol, physical activity and health at work, which could be used to support improved staff health; we therefore feel that more NHS organisations signing up to the Responsibility Deal could be helpful. We have heard that progress will only be made if NHS leaders are accountable for helping to improve the health and wellbeing of their staff. Rates of staff sickness absence, the number of staff successfully using wellness services (such as the number of staff who have joined a smoking cessation service and their quit rate), and the number of eligible staff immunised against flu could all provide a good indication of progress. However, we were also told that the impact NHS leaders can have is dependent on the input and commitment of their staff, and we would encourage the workforce to acknowledge their own responsibility and take advantage of opportunities to improve their health. We therefore feel that all employers of NHS staff should act to improve their staff’s health and wellbeing, led by accountable leadership in partnership with staff. Recommendations: NHS organisations and their delivery partners should take action to improve their staff’s health and wellbeing. To support this:  We would encourage them to design and implement, in partnership with their staff, a strategy for improving staff mental and physical health and wellbeing. Their board, or other governing body, should hold their chief executive, or other senior responsible officer or partner, to account against this strategy and report annually on their progress;  They should implement the recommendations of the Boorman review of NHS health and wellbeing and use NICE public health guidance and the Public Health Responsibility Deal pledges to guide how they support their staff;  They should train managers and leaders to support the mental and physical health and wellbeing of their staff and use the appraisal process to incentivise them to do so. Providers of NHS‐funded care As well as looking after their staff, we have heard that providers of NHS‐funded care can encourage healthcare professionals to make every contact count by incorporating the prevention of poor health and promotion of healthy living into 3 NHS Health and Well‐being (November 2009); http://www.nhshealthandwellbeing.org/FinalReport.html 17                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     measuring risks and ensuring that they are addressed as a first step;  rewarding professionals on outcomes, such as cleaner mouths, less disease and better oral health, with spin‐off benefits for general health;  incentivising clinical teams to drill and fill teeth only when disease cannot be managed in other ways;  encouraging dentists to become involved in helping patients make other lifestyle choices not usually associated with dentistry, such as smoking cessation and reducing alcohol intake. Harnessing the skills of the dental team as health professionals is starting to deliver positive health and lifestyle messages in practices where this approach is employed, making contacts count for many who would not often interface with the NHS in any other way. We have also heard about some financial rewards that commissioners already use effectively as incentives for providers to prevent poor health and promote healthy living – for instance, the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework. Case study: Medway Stop Smoking Service Medway Stop Smoking Service (MSSS) began working with Medway Maritime Hospital in 2006, aiming to support patients and hospital staff to make informed decisions about smoking and support them to quit. MSSS trained hospital staff so they could raise the subject of smoking with every patient as a standard part of their care, but saw that there was still a large gap between the number of potential referrals to MSSS and the actual referral rates. MSSS therefore approached the local commissioner to set a CQUIN indictor for smoking cessation referrals, to give the hospital a greater incentive to carry out smoking cessation work. The indicator was introduced for 2010/11, and helped MSSS to train more staff and publicise the specific staff and patient support services. MSSS saw referrals from the hospital rise by over a quarter between 2009/10 and 2010/11, partly due to the CQUIN indicator. Building on this success, a more ambitious indicator has been set for 2011/12. However, we have also heard concerns that the NHS is not sufficiently exploiting some rewards. Many have said that some incentives are not designed in a way that encourages providers to do things differently. We referred above to the complex network of factors affecting our health. We have heard that, where it is difficult to isolate a provider’s impact on a health outcome from other factors, incentives linked to outcomes may not encourage providers to take action. 20                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                We have also heard that some rewards do not encourage providers to reach people who do not often come into the NHS – for instance, because they do not address the needs of unregistered patients or because they allow providers to earn maximum rewards for providing the relevant care to only a proportion of their patients. Some suggested that there should be better incentives to reach out to unregistered patients, and that there should be higher thresholds in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) so that there are stronger incentives for GP practices to ensure that all patients receive the best care. Further, we have been told that some incentives do not sufficiently target improved population health and wellbeing. The QOF, for example, rewards GP practices for their achievements against indicators, such as keeping a register of obese patients. It does not go further and reward practices for supporting patients to eat more healthily, exercise more or access weight loss support. We therefore feel that work is needed nationally to determine how to design payment incentives to more effectively encourage providers of NHS‐funded care to improve population health outcomes linked to mental health and health risks like smoking, alcohol, diet and exercise, and reduce health inequalities. Further, NHS commissioners should reconsider how they use contracts, tariff flexibilities and other incentives locally to reflect that prevention and promotion are integral to high quality services and encourage this from all providers. This should go beyond the existing CQUIN and QOF frameworks to equally incentivise providers in other settings, such as dentists, optometrists, pharmacists and those delivering community care. The design of NHS care pathways We have heard that when someone is receiving NHS care, they may be particularly receptive to public health messages aimed at improving their health and wellbeing. We have learned that there is a good deal of evidence about the positive impact of incorporating appropriate public health interventions into NHS care pathways, in terms of improved health and wellbeing and reduced demand on NHS services. Case study: Paddington Alcohol Test, St Mary’s Hospital5 When assessing people attending the Emergency Department (ED) at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, after attending to their immediate needs, medical and nursing staff apply the one‐minute Paddington Alcohol Test (PAT) to those presenting with one of ten conditions often associated with alcohol misuse, such as a fall or collapse. If the PAT identifies the presenting condition was alcohol‐related, feedback is given, including an information leaflet and the offer of an appointment with an Alcohol Health Worker (AHW) within 24 hours (or straight away if the patient is sober and an AHW is available). Between 2004/5 and 2008/9, St Mary’s saw an increase of over 75% in referrals to an AHW; for every two accepted referrals to an AHW there was one fewer 5 http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/agp016?ijkey=HImeNEO7f6izT0F&keytype=ref 21                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     reattandance to the ED over the following year. 65% of those counselled by an AHW reduced their alcohol intake within the following six months. We have also heard that some pathways do not start early enough or stop too soon, failing to cover the support that might help to prevent an illness developing or to enable someone living with a diagnosis to continue in optimum health and wellbeing, for instance by helping them to understand and minimise the risks of developing other illnesses as a result of their diagnosis. We therefore believe that NHS commissioners, the public health system and providers of NHS‐funded care should work together to design NHS care pathways that make the most of appropriate opportunities in the course of an individual’s care for healthcare professionals to provide advice and support to help that individual maintain and, where possible, improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing. Public health expertise From April 2013, local authorities will be responsible for commissioning most public health programmes, supported nationally by Public Health England. The NHS Commissioning Board will also be responsible for commissioning some public health services, such as screening, on behalf of Public Health England and will need national and local public health advice to support this. But, as we said in our interim letter,6 we have heard very strongly that public health expertise must be embedded in NHS commissioning as well. If we expect NHS pathways to improve public health and reduce health inequalities, clinical commissioning groups will need high quality local public health advice, whilst the NHS Commissioning Board will need both national and local public health advice to support its commissioning decisions and broader system‐leadership role. A helpful analogy we heard was that public health expertise should be the “yeast” in the commissioning process, and not the “icing” added as an afterthought. We have heard a range of different suggestions and opinions about ensuring that population health advice is integral to NHS commissioning. Many have reflected that locating public health experts within local authorities offers an excellent opportunity to imbue their advice with insight into the range of other services delivered by local government. They suggested that the new arrangements must provide a clear route for clinical commissioning groups to access this expertise, underpinned by obligations on local authorities. Some have told us that public health experts should have a fixed position within the NHS Commissioning Board and clinical commissioning groups, as well as in Public Health England and local authorities. We therefore welcome the Department of Health’s commitment that public health experts in local authorities will provide NHS commissioners with public health advice, but we have heard that specificity is needed about what this will look like. We are 6 http://healthandcare.dh.gov.uk/ff‐letter/ 22   Shared outcome: Reducing avoidable cancer mortality Public health measures: Reducing cancer mortality through prevention Agreement to contribute to each other’s measures NHS Commissioning Board Public Health service NHS measures: Reducing cancer mortality and improving survival through care and treatment                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              In this example, the NHS and public health outcomes frameworks set the same outcome for both the NHS Commissioning Board and the public health service: reducing avoidable cancer deaths. It sets separate measures that will contribute to this outcome, according to the services traditionally provided by the NHS and public health systems. But it also recognises the cross over, and requires the NHS Commissioning Board and the public health service to agree how they will work in partnership to contribute to each other’s measures where relevant – for instance, how the NHS Commissioning Board will use NHS pathways and/or commissioning to help to prevent cancer developing. Health and wellbeing boards In addition to the commissioning outcomes set by the Secretary of State and NHS Commissioning Board, health and wellbeing boards will set out local priorities in their Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, and create a joint health and wellbeing strategy to describe how these needs will be met locally. We have heard that this will be a key opportunity to remove artificial boundaries between what local authorities can achieve through public health programmes and what the NHS can achieve by including the prevention of poor health and promotion of healthy living in NHS care. We therefore feel that this should be taken into account when health and wellbeing boards design their joint health and wellbeing strategy. We have also heard that health and wellbeing boards will have an important role in bringing together those who should be accountable for leading the change of culture needed across the NHS. The commissioners and experts sitting on health and wellbeing boards are equipped with the tools that can drive and help providers of NHS‐funded care to change how they conduct their business. We therefore encourage them to take advantage of their health and wellbeing board as a forum 25                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               for developing joint priorities, sharing learning, discussing progress, and identifying and resolving issues about supporting the NHS to make every contact count. Recommendations: National and local outcomes and priorities should encourage NHS commissioners to work in partnership with the public health system to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. In particular:  The NHS Commissioning Board should use its commissioning levers to ensure that clinical commissioning groups work in partnership with local authorities to prevent poor health and promote healthy living – in particular, by targeting improvements in the four main lifestyle risk factors;  The Secretary of State and NHS Commissioning Board should jointly commission NICE to produce cross‐cutting quality standards focused on targeting improvements in the four main lifestyle risk factors;  The Secretary of State should hold the NHS Commissioning Board and the public health service to account against consistent national priorities, where appropriate. In particular, we encourage the further use of shared outcomes, underpinned by an agreement about the contribution of the NHS and the public health service to each other’s outcome measures;  Joint health and wellbeing strategies should reflect how NHS commissioning can contribute to meeting public health priorities through the prevention of poor health and promotion of healthy living, and the NHS Commissioning Board should use the quality reward to reward clinical commissioning groups for achieving improvements against the priorities in the strategy. Utilising contacts outside the NHS When making every contact count for health improvement and the reduction of health inequalities, many told us that the NHS must also look to the interactions that take place with the public every day outside its walls. We have heard that many communities do not frequently come into the NHS. Instead, they may be more likely to encounter people working in the voluntary and community sector, social care or other local services. For instance, we heard how approximately eight million people live in social housing in England, including many with complex health and care needs, and come into frequent contact with housing association staff. We therefore feel that, if it is to reduce health inequalities, the NHS should create partnerships with these services, and use their interactions to identify health and wellbeing needs and deliver healthy living messages to people who do not regularly come into the NHS, or those who rely more on messages received from peers and community leaders. 26                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           We are encouraged by the Government’s Inclusion Health programme, which focuses on improving the health outcomes of vulnerable groups in our society, including the homeless, Gypsies and Travellers, and sex workers. As part of our engagement, we visited services providing care for homeless men and women, and heard from many people from socially excluded groups. We heard about multiple innovative examples of successful partnerships between local communities, voluntary and community sector organisations, local government and the NHS, which could provide the NHS with a helpful model – for example, the White City Community Champions and Empowering Patients Empowering Communities projects. Case study: White City Community Champions8 NHS Hammersmith and Fulham, in partnership with Well London, has developed a community health champion programme, training 40 local volunteers from the White City estate in public health. The champions have reached over 2000 local residents, through services like exercise classes, stop smoking services, healthy eating workshops, and sexual health and diabetes programmes. They have had an enormous impact on local health and wellbeing. Of these 2000, 82% now make healthier eating choices, 85% take more exercise, and 79% both feel more positive about their life and have a better understanding of their mental wellbeing. The programme has also improved the lives of the volunteers themselves, giving many their first qualification, and skills and experience to help them find employment. Analysis by researchers from the London School of Economics has found that almost half of the community health champions gained employment or moved into jobs that improved their and their families’ income and quality of life. Case study: Empowering Parents Empowering Communities, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Inner city areas experience twice the national rate of severe childhood mental health problems, but effective early intervention – particularly by parents – can lead to dramatic improvements and prevent problems in later life. Empowering Parents and Empowering Communities was a community‐based research programme, which aimed to improve childhood mental health in Southwark, London, by training 24 local parents to teach parenting skills to peers in vulnerable and minority communities. Over 40 parenting groups were run, which were free for parents of children aged two to eleven, and over 350 local parents attended. The results showed significant improvements in children’s behaviour, which can be linked to mental health problems, comparing favourably with outcomes achieved by professional therapists. 8 http://youtu.be/B10wRThyYLM 27                                                                                                     30                                                       31