NATIONAL CARE STANDARDS COMMITTEE MEETING
Conference Room 2, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, Monday 29 November 2004
Note of the Meeting
Present: Adam Rennie (Chair), Marjory Barquist (Secretary), Colin Anderson, Irene Audain, Pek Yeong Berry, Lorraine Briggs, Val Cox, Margaret Davidson, Pat Dawson, Mary McCann, Jan Miller, Roy Paterson, Janis Pelosi, Frances Smith, David Whiteoak
1. Welcome
1.1 Adam Rennie welcomed everyone to the thirteenth meeting of the NCSC.
2. Apologies
2.1 Apologies were received from Janie Allen, Jacqueline Hughes, Robert Houtman and Jacquie Roberts.
3. Note of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising
3. Note of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising
3.1 The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.
3.2 There were six action points from the last meeting.
Dental consultation focus groups: as requested by the Committee the initial research specification, the brief for the focus groups and where they would take place were sent to Committee members in September.
The 'Taking care of you' leaflet: The Committee asked at the last meeting about producing the leaflet in other languages. The Executive has identified the seven most widely spoken languages in Scotland (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Gaelic) and will translate the leaflet in these, or any other language, on request. The content of the leaflet was recently translated into Cantonese and Mandarin in response to a request from groups in Glasgow.
Intermediary guide to the standards: this issue is still under consideration
Review working group: as requested the working group papers are being copied to Committee members.
Revised meeting schedule and workplan: these were issued in September. Meetings scheduled for February, March and June 2005
Members who have resigned: letters have been issued to all members who resigned form the Committee thanking them for their contributions.
4. Updates
Dental Services Consultation
4.1 The dental consultation ended on 24 September. The responses were being analysed and a report would be produced for the working group to consider. The working group would probably meet in January 2005 to consider whether changes were needed to the draft standards in light of the responses. The final version of the standards was scheduled to come back to the Committee in February 2005
4.2 Mary McCann advised that the Executive, NHS QIS and the Care Commission would be meeting early in 2005 to consider inspection methodology and monitoring.
Awareness of the National Care Standards
4.3 Marjory Barquist advised that an omnibus survey on awareness of the standards was carried out in early November and preliminary results were expected in the first week of December with the final report due in the middle of December.
Review of the National Care Standards
4.4 The urgent revision procedure recommended by the Committee had been signed off by Ministers.
4.5 There had been 3 meetings of the review working group and the work was progressing well. The next meeting was scheduled for 8 December. The group expected to meet the deadline of presenting its proposals by end of February 2005. The Committee would consider the proposals at its meeting in March. Jan Miller, also a member of the working group, provided the view that a lot of preliminary work will be needed.
5. Staff Qualifications and the National Care Standards (Paper 1)
5.1 Paper 1 set out the rewording of the standards for adult care homes and early education and childcare services. The rewording had been agreed by the SSSC, the Care Commission and the relevant policy branches in the Executive. Adam advised that Ministers had agreed that the revisions should go ahead and that consultation would not be required.
5.2 Janie Allan had sent written comments on the revisions to the early education and childcare standards. She suggested that the first sentence could be misinterpreted and should be amended to read 'Staff in centres providing early education and childcare for children aged 0-16 years……'. This reflected that the early education and childcare workforce takes in all staff who work with children in services such as nurseries and out of school care.
5.3 Val Cox agreed that some rewording was needed and she would provide this.
5.4 There was discussion about the footnotes for the adult care home standards. Pat Dawson expressed concern about the exact wording of the footnotes and the references to nurses in them. She felt that it was important to reflect that nurses as well as gaining registration before practising are also required to maintain their registration in order to continue to practise as nurses.
5.5 It was agreed that some rewording would be done on the footnotes and this would be sent to Committee members along with the revised wording for the early education standards.
5.6 Adam asked for suggestions on how the changes to the standards could be disseminated. Val advised she thought that the dissemination for the early education and childcare standards should be separate to that for adult care homes standards. It was agreed that the existing early years' networks, umbrella organisations and relevant websites would be used to disseminate the updates to the early education standards. Care home providers would be notified of the changes to adult care home standards by a letter. In response to a comment from Janis Pelosi it was agreed the letter would also include the information that National Care Standards booklets are now available from Blackwell's not the The Stationery Office.
5.7 Colin Anderson asked if SCDS could be advised of the update to the standards.
6. Revision of the National Care Standards for Independent Hospitals and Hospice Care (Paper 2)
6.1 Paper 2 used the urgent revisions procedure to propose an update from the Care Standards & Sponsorship Branch to the National Care Standards for independent hospitals and those for hospice care. The paper set out the background to the proposal. Lorraine Briggs talked to the paper and asked the Committee to consider whether the proposed changes were needed and if so whether they were urgent and whether they needed to be consulted on.
6.2 The Committee agreed that the change was needed. There was comment and discussion on the exact wording. Frances Smith and Pat Dawson pointed out that the proposed change to the Hospice Care standard was not as wide as the equivalent standard in the National Care Standards for independent hospitals. This point was also picked up in the Care Commission's comment on the proposed wording.
6.2 Janis Pelosi provided feedback from the Care Commission on the proposed change to the standards:
- Independent hospitals - amend to read 'You know the care and treatment you receive from the hospital meets standards which are at least equivalent to all relevant NHS QIS standards'.
- Hospice services - amend to read 'You know the care and treatment you receive from the hospice meets standards which are at least equivalent to all relevant NHS QIS standards including standards for specialist palliative care'.
6.3 David Whiteoak and others commented that the use of "which are at least equivalent" had the potential to be read that there were higher standards that could/should be achieved. This provided the potential for an unlevel playing field between the private and public healthcare sectors. It was agreed that this phrase was unacceptable and should not be included.
6.4 There was discussion about whether the revised wording should say 'meets the standards' or 'reflect the standards'. It was agreed that the standard should read 'meets' and David Whiteoak advised that this wording was acceptable.
6.5 The final wording agreed was:
- Independent Hospitals - "You know the care and treatment you receive from the hospital meet all relevant NHS Quality Improvement Scotland standards."
- Hospice Care - "You know the care and treatment you receive from the hospice meet all relevant NHS Quality Improvement Scotland standards including those for specialist palliative care."
6.5 The Committee agreed that an urgent revision to the standards should be recommended to Ministers. The need for consultation on the changes was discussed. Janis advised that the Care Commission considered that consultation would be needed. However, it was agreed that the recommendation to Ministers would be for no consultation.
6.6 Following discussion on what the criteria were for deciding whether a revision was urgent it was agreed that the Care Standards and Sponsorship Branch would reconsider this aspect of the Urgent Revision Procedure and report back to the Committee.
7. AOB
7.1 Adam reminded the Committee that this was Pek's final meeting as she was standing down. He thanked her for her valuable contribution to the Committee's work and wished her well for the future.
8. Date of Next Meeting
8.1 The next meeting was scheduled for 28 February 2005 in Conference Room 2 at Victoria Quay.
8.2 Adam asked if having meetings at Victoria Quay was suitable for people or if other locations such as the Executive's office at St Andrew's House or Rosebery House at Haymarket would be more convenient. Most people were content to come to Victoria Quay for the meetings scheduled until June 2005. It was agreed to look at this question again when future meetings were scheduled.