Tag: Parliamentary Question

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of whether NHS England’s audit of conflict of interest is sufficiently comprehensive to govern circumstances in which Clinical Commissioning Groups enter into contracts with companies in which one or more of their board members has a financial interest.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has commissioned an independent audit of conflicts of interest management in 10 primary care co-commissioning arrangements. The audit fieldwork commenced in September 2015, with the final report due to be shared in January 2016. It is therefore too early to make an assessment of their findings.

The audit has been asked to examine and evaluate:

– arrangements to manage conflicts of interest;

– audit compliance with the statutory guidance on managing conflicts of interest and identify any areas of the guidance which need to be strengthened;

– identify and share good practices in managing conflicts of interest;

– identify future improvement opportunities; and

– share learning with commissioners in support of their development.

Each audit includes 360 degree interviews with representatives from:

– the clinical commissioning group (including the Chair of the primary care commissioning committee, Audit Chair, Accountable Officer, Finance Director, Clinical Chair/GP member of the primary care commissioning committee);

– NHS England (including the Director of Commissioning Operations, Head of Primary care and a Primary care commissioning manager for the locality);

– local Healthwatch;

– local Medical Committees (LMCs);

– Local Authorities; and

– Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs).

The audit also comprises a detailed review of key governance documentation including:

– registers of interest, declarations of interest and registers of procurement decisions;

– co-commissioning governance arrangements;

– commissioning contracts that were entered into since 1 April 2015;

– guidance for CCG employees on managing COIs;

– guidance on dealing with breaches and details of any breaches; and

– minutes of primary care commissioning committee meetings since 1 April 2015 etc.

Each audit site will receive an individual report, detailing the findings for their specific arrangement. In addition, NHS England will receive a consolidated report, highlighting key themes, examples of good practice and recommendations to assist in the management of conflicts of interest.

Key learning from the audit will be shared with commissioners in January 2016 in support of their development and the findings will help inform the refresh of the statutory guidance on managing conflicts of interest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the School Direct programme is ensuring a sufficient supply of teachers for schools in England.

Lord Nash

Teaching continues to represent an attractive choice for top graduates and career changers – last year we recruited over 1,000 more secondary teachers than the previous year, and we exceeded our target for new primary teachers.

Our best schools have a crucial role to play in training the next generation of outstanding teachers. That is why we introduced the School Direct training programme, which gives schools the opportunity to recruit and select their own trainee teachers, and to play a central part in both the design and delivery of teacher training. School Direct is only one of a range of routes through which new teachers can choose to train.

We initially piloted the School Direct programme with a cohort of 351 trainees in the academic year 2012/13; thanks to its popularity with schools the scheme rapidly expanded to deliver 6,676 training places the following year. This has continued to rise each year, and provisional data show that 10,252 trainees have commenced School Direct programmes in the current academic year. This represents 39 per cent of all postgraduate teacher training places in the current year, and makes a significant contribution to the 51 per cent of all postgraduate training places that are now school-led.

We recognise that recruitment to teacher training is becoming increasingly challenging as the economy improves and the graduate labour market strengthens. That is why we are giving schools greater direct involvement in selecting and training the high-quality teachers they need.