The main news for my fellow
diabetes managers was that on the 7th of September the CCG Assessment for the
six clinical priority areas was published.
You can see how your CCG was rated here.
The CCG Improve and Assessment Framework (CCGIAF) was published on the 26th of March
2016. The data to provide the 2015/16
CCGIAF ratings, is from the National Diabetes Audit (NDA) submission we all
uploaded back in the Summer of 2015. We didn’t know that CCGIAF was on its way at that point so there is
acknowledged acceptance that this year’s data is just a baseline.
Its worth pointing out that the data
for the 2017/18 CCGIAF results was uploaded, through the National Diabetes
Audit, in July & August this year.
Therefore, we may not see what change in the CCG ratings for diabetes in
the CCGIAF results next year either.
But, if you are one of the 71% of CCGs in the
country who are rated as “Needing Improvement”, don’t lose heart.
We had to start somewhere. The point of having an “improvement”
framework is that the indicators are something we are not good at now and can
actually “improve” on. It is meant to be
something that we can get our teeth stuck into.
In fact, I am hoping that we are about to see
an improvement as a direct result of the CCGIAF. I am extremely hopeful that
the NDA participation rates nationwide will have dramatically improved. I certainly hope so. I know lots of people put a huge amount
of effort into it.
Another reason to be cheerful is contained in the covering letter of the
CCGIAF “Methodologies for initial baseline clinical ratings for dementia, diabetes, learning disabilities”
It says ; “ (Information on the improvement offers available
to CCGs in the six clinical priority areas will also be made available on the
NHS England pages in the coming weeks. A link to these offers will be published
on the CCGIAF page (https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-auth)”. I love an “offer”. I wonder what the “offer” will be?
It also goes on to say:
“ Other key elements in the diabetes treatment pathway
include timely access to multidisciplinary footcare teams and specialist
diabetes inpatient teams. Consideration will be given to the potential for
reflecting local access to these services in ratings for future years”. Diabetes Mangers are certainly going to be
busy.
And then, even more excitingly, this has then been followed
up with the 2017-2019 NHS Operational Planning and Contracting document published on the 22nd of
September. Page 17 says:
·
Diabetes: The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme will
be scaled up in 2017/18 and 2018/19 in two further phases of expansion, with
appropriate national funding to support this.
Additionally, we intend to launch a wider programme of investment in
supporting the treatment and care of people who already have diabetes, for
which CCGs will have the opportunity to bid for additional national funding of
approximately £40m per year to promote access to evidence based interventions –
improving uptake of structured education; improving access to specialist
inpatient support and to a multi-disciplinary foot team for people with
diabetic foot disease; and improving the achievement of the NICE recommended
treatment targets whilst driving down variation between CCGs.
Ooooooooooooooo. Did you spot
it? £40m. Now that’s something to
make your ears prick up.
We need to get going with improvement so that when we upload
data to the National Diabetes Audit in the Summer of 2017 we will see some
change for 2018/19. But we have been
given some clear direction on where we should be heading and a few sweeteners
are heading our way to help us move forward.
Don’t lose heart. Get cracking.
