Following Consultation, the Department of Health is proposing to regulate board-level directors and their direct reports through the existing Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
"Strengthening NHS leadership and management is a key element of the 10 Year Health Plan, recognising the central role of leadership in delivering high-quality care and driving system-wide improvement. Managers and leaders across the NHS work tirelessly, making difficult decisions on a daily basis - and in challenging circumstances - to ensure patients receive the safe, high-quality care they deserve. The actions and conduct of these managers and leaders, both clinical and non-clinical, are what helps to nurture a compassionate, open and positive culture in our health service. The jobs they do will be critical in delivering the transformation that the government’s health mission and 10 Year Health Plan require - and for this the NHS needs the very best leadership. Regulating managers and leaders will help to professionalise NHS leadership and will ensure that NHS managers and leaders are professionally accountable, while improving patient safety and driving up performance."
Key Points of the proposal:
- A college of executive and clinical leadership will be established to support and professionalise NHS Managers, in line with the NHS England Management and Leadership Framework
- A statutory 3 month consultation will be carried out on the draft legislation to give HCPC the power to bring managers into regulation
- The regulatory scheme will apply to:
- all board-level directors in the NHS in England
- DHSC arm's length body board-level directors
- Integrated Care Board (ICB) members
- Once embedded, scope of regulation maybe extended to other senior managers
- Dual regulation considerations need to be worked through, the goverment will finalise details in due course
- NHS Leaders will have a professional Duty of Candour as part of the standards they are required to meet
“ We are clear that there should be consistent and correct application of the existing statutory duty of candour across the NHS to increase accountability, openness and honesty. This should support the NHS to develop a just and learning culture where providers do not seek to blame individuals for what went wrong but acknowledge what happened and try to understand why it happened, how future risks can be reduced and how the needs of the patient and staff can be met in order to help them recover.”
Read the full report and breakdown of the Consultation findings
