Government accepts new recommendations from NHS Future Forum

Government accepts new recommendations from NHS Future Forum:

The Government has accepted the latest recommendations from the independent NHS Future Forum, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced today.

The NHS Future Forum was asked to carry out conversations with health and care professionals, patients and service users and to provide independent advice on education and training, information, integrated care, and the NHS’s role in the public’s health.

The Government has now accepted the recommendations following the Future Forum’s report, and specifically on:

• Education and training: Employers and professionals will have a greater say in developing the health workforce in the future, such as through local plans. And for the first time the Government will introduce an outcomes framework for education and training.



• Integrated care: The Government fully accepts the need to orientate the whole health system around patients. So for the first time, patient experience of integrated care will be measured as part of the Outcomes Framework.



• The NHS’s role in the public’s health: Following the Forum’s recommendation on ‘every contact counts’, the Government will consult on a new responsibility for healthcare professionals to promote healthy living through their daily contact with patients.
  


• Information: The Government will consider the Forum’s recommendation for discharge summaries being made available to GPs and patients at the point of discharge, as part of the Information Strategy published later this year.

See full government response

Also published today is Liberating the NHS: Developing the Healthcare Workforce, which details the response to the Forum’s recommendations on education and training.

Andrew Lansley said: ‘As we modernise the health and care system to meet the challenges of the future, it is essential the thoughts of clinicians and, importantly, patients, are listened to. So the NHS Future Forum has again provided invaluable feedback on what the NHS needs to do to improve results and put the NHS truly on the side of patients. I’m pleased to accept all its recommendations.’

Chair of the NHS Future Forum Professor Steve Field said: ‘We are making robust and ambitious recommendations to the NHS and to Government. We have heard an enormous amount of support for the shift to patient centred care but also frustration that this has not yet been achieved. This must now become a reality for patients across England and health and social care professionals must lead the way.’

The NHS Future Forum listened to more than 11,000 people face to face at more than 300 events as well as engaging with people online, and also received more than 150 formal responses. Department of Health