Have your say! (Again)

This is another consultation that the Government has put out about 'nursing and midwfery'. Don't fret, mothers, just put in your workbasket, get some needles and some brightly coloured wool and knit your response. We have until 10th Augst (and beyond) - so hit the link and say what you think! Love to you all!

Ruth

Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery
Core Script - June

The Prime Minister launched the Commission on March 10, 2009. It will report by March 2010. It covers England, and considers midwifery and all branches of nursing, in all settings, services and sectors. Partly in recognition of her previous experience in nursing practice, management and leadership, Ann Keen MP was asked to chair the Commission in her current role as Health Minister. The Commission is made up of 20 leaders in nursing and midwifery practice, management, education and research.

Lord Darzi in High Quality Care for All rightly identified nurses and midwives as key to providing quality care. The Commission has been set up to ensure that frontline nurses and midwives have the support, skills, and competencies that they will need to design and deliver 21st century quality services for those that are in need of health and social care and to promote health and well-being.

The Commission has been asked by the Prime Minister to:

· identify the competencies, skills and support that frontline nurses and midwives need to take a central role in the design and delivery of 21st century services for those that are sick and to promote health and well-being. In particular, to identify any barriers that impede the pivotal role that wards sisters/charge nurses/community team leaders provide.
· identify the potential and benefits for nurses and midwives, particularly in primary and community care, of leading and managing their own services.
· engage with the professions, patients and the public in an interactive and robust dialogue which will identify challenges and opportunities for nurses and midwives.

Commissioners will also receive advice from expert advisors in relation to specific aspects of their work including independent sector, workforce planning, regulation and international perspectives on human resources issues.

The Commission met for the first time on the 28th April and considered how the NHS Constitution linked to the role of nurses and midwives, identified their priorities for the coming months and agreed that the first phase of their work would be to kickstart a process of listening to the views of the NHS, patients, public and wider stakeholders.

The Commission met for the second time on 2nd June and discussed patients’ views of nursing and degree-level nursing registration.

Commissioners agreed to form five workstreams to take their discussions forward. Workstreams, which will be led by Commissioners will focus on: quality and innovation, the vision and image of nursing and midwifery, the socioeconomic case for nursing and midwifery, helping and hindering forces, and workforce and leadership issues. (The attached table shows which Commissioner will be leading and working on each workstream.)

The first phase of the Commission’s work is to engage with the public, patients, professions and organisations to hear their views on the what the challenges and opportunities will be for nurses and midwives in the 21st Century.

The Commission will work with an external agency (Opinion Leader Research) to shape the engagement process, which will include national events, events hosted by the NHS/organisations, to engage patients, the public and voices from seldom heard groups.
As a first strand of this engagement the Commission has launched a call for the views of patients, the public, staff and organisations.

Questions centre on:
1. What are the knowledge, skills and attributes that nurses / midwives require to take a central role in the design and delivery of 21st century services?
2. What would you like to see nurses and midwives doing more of and/or doing differently in the future - whether in people’s own homes, in the community or in hospital?
3. What might be preventing nurses and midwives from doing this now?
4. How can these barriers be overcome?
Members of the multidisciplinary team or those who have particular expertise are also being asked their views on:
5. What is the potential for, and benefits of, nurses and midwives leading and managing their own services and the framework and support that would be needed to for this in the context of the multi-disciplinary team?
People are encouraged to submit their views via the website at: http://www.cnm.independent.gov.uk/ although views can also be submitted via email to contact@cnm.independent.gov.uk or by post to the Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery, Room 159, Department of Health, 79 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2 NS. Views are sought by the 10th August.

This date will not be the end of dialogue, however. All responses will be studied and will inform the Commission’s key messages. We will check these messages back through the website, public events and the media to see whether we have got them right, which in turn will shape our final recommendations to the Prime Minister.



Composition of Workstream Groups

Title
Lead Comm
Other Comm
1 Quality and Innovation

Janice Sigsworth
Peter Carter, Claire Rayner, Tamar Thompson

2 Vision & image

Eileen Sills
Dawn Chapman, Anne-Marie Rafferty, Laura Serrant-Green

3 Socio-economic case

Ray Walker
Judith Griffin, Heather Lawrence, Kathy Warwick
4 Helping and hindering forces

Gail Adams
Liz Fradd, Donna Kinnair, Jo Pritchard
5 Workforce and Leadership
Audrey Emerton
Chris Beasley, Sue Bernhauser, Kuldip Bharj



Lines to take written by the sender not by me:

We’ve just had High Quality Care for All, why do we need another review?
Lord Darzi rightly identified nurses and midwives as being key to providing quality care, and the Commission has a timely opportunity to take a longer-term view on how we can ensure that the nurses and midwives of the future will be trained, and supported by the whole healthcare system to continue to provide quality care in the future.

How can I get involved?
We want to hear your experiences of nursing and midwifery. We want to hear your views on what makes a good nurse/midwife. We want to hear your thoughts about how the role or nurses and midwives should change in the future. Please go to www.cnm.independent.gov.uk today to get involved.

What will it achieve/what difference will it make to nurses?
The Commission will ensure that frontline nurses and midwives in the future continue to have the support, skills, and competencies that they will need to design and deliver 21st century services for those that are sick and to promote health and well-being.
What difference will it make to patients?
As set out in the new NHS Constitution, patients have a right to be treated with a professional standard of care, by appropriately qualified and experienced staff, in a properly approved or registered organisation that meets required levels of safety and quality. The Commission will look to the future to ensure that in the future the NHS fulfils this right to patients by ensuring nurses continue to have the support, skills, and competencies that they will need to design and deliver 21st century services for those that are sick and to promote health and well-being.

For more about this see the July choices mailing at http://www.aquabirthsathome.co.uk/. You can also sign up for the monthly Choices e-newletter