MINUTES OF THE TENTH MEETING OF HEARING AND BALANCE UK
[formerly known as NCPA founded in 1990]
held at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London
on Thursday 11th October 2012
Present: Dr Adam Beckman Chair BAA
Ms Marian Brandeth NHBRU
Dr Huw Cooper BSA
Mr David Couch BATOD
Professor Adrian Davis DoH (afternoon only)
Dr Lorraine Gailey Hearing Link / UKoD
Dr Pritti Mehta AoHL (morning only)
Dr Gill Painter BAPA
Mr Alan Torbet BSHAA
Mr Gary Webster BAEA
Dr Peter West BAAP
Mrs Ellen Godden BSA (taking minutes)
1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES
The chair welcomed Ellen Godden to HAB UK who would be taking the minutes of the meeting in the absence of Catherine and the members present were asked to give a brief introduction.
Apologies for absence received from Abby Davies/Gemma Twitchen (AoHL) represented by Pritti Mehta, Mel Ferguson (NHBRU) represented by Marian Brandeth, Jolene Harrison (NHS Supply Chain), Vicky Kirwin (NDCS), Gerry O’Donoghue (BOAS-HNS)
2. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING AND ACTIONS
The minutes of the meeting held on 31st May 2012 were approved and signed.
ACTIONS outstanding:
Northern Ireland representative – Adam will contact John Bamford: ACTION: Adam
Paediatric Audiology: Adrian Dighe will represent BAPA Audiology Advisory Board Meeting
BAAP: email dates of BAAP Annual Conference to HAB UK – to be checked by secretariat
3. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES (not covered below)
SEN Education Bill (NDCS Report)
David Couch summarised the position on the new SEN Education Bill and the impact this is havingon childrens’ services. There has been some confusion on whether Academies are governed by the same admissions criteria as maintained schools. The position is clear, that all schools, whether Academy, maintained or free, are governed by the local Authorities admissions criteria. This means that academies are obliged to take all children, regardless of their SEN unless this is deemed inappropriate for their education or would lead to the detriment of the education of others.
There will be a new National Funding Formula which will have an impact on the provision for SEN children. Schools willbe allocated SEN funding based on their previous history of SEN numbers and other proxy indicators (free school meals, deprivation indexes etc.). The school will get a notional SEN number (say, notionally, 20 SEN children) and funding will be allocated on this figure even if the number changes year-on-year. The time of review of this number is not clear in the documentation at present. The funding formula will mean that schools will be expected to accommodate more SEN children without recourse to the LA for additional funding.
See NDCS report page 3 Equality Act September.
Gary Webster raised issues around soundfield systems (see page of NDCS Auxiliary Aids in Schools briefing notes).
4. HEARING LOSS & DEAFNESS ALLIANCE
At this point of the meeting Dr Pritti Mehta, visiting speaker from Action on Hearing Loss, gave a presentation about the role of the Alliance
· The Alliance is a partnership of charities and professional representative groups working together to improve the lives of people with hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus. It has been going for two years and currently has 27 members.
· Its goals are to: create an equal society, so that people with hearing loss and deafness have the same opportunities as hearing people; transform hearing services, so that people with hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus have timely access to integrated support, which is designed around their needs; and improve public health, to prevent avoidable hearing loss and tinnitus and encourage people to take early action.
· It exists because there is strength in numbers and the sector will be more powerful if it can speak with one voice. Other sectors have also been successful in developing alliances/joint strategies including the sight loss sector, which has the UK Vision Strategy.
· The Alliance meets 2-3 times a year and is chaired by Brian Lamb, an independent consultant. The Alliance is also supported by Action on Hearing Loss’s research & policy team. In contrast to the UK Vision Strategy – it operates with relatively little resource.
· Key progress includes: developing joint responses to consultations around the Health and Social Care Bill and raising the profile of audiology as an issue with the DH; developing a Declaration and a joint quality statement to inform the development of hearing services, the key principles of which have informed the Any Qualified Provider (AQP) service specification. The Alliance was also invited to deliver a joint information day with the Department of Health on AQP; and has three seats on the new Audiology Advisory Group to support development of Long Term Conditions Outcomes Strategy Companion document on hearing loss.
· Future aims: to promote the declaration and encourage more groups to sign up; to consider the impact into the Long Term Conditions Outcomes Strategy Companion document on hearing loss. The Alliance will also look more broadly at NHS reforms and keep a ‘watching brief’. To this end the Alliance is holding a joint conference with UKCoD on 17th January and would encourage HABUK members to attend.
Below is a summary of the question and answer session which followed:
Q. What is the difference between the Alliance and UKCoD?
A. Significant difference in the ways they function: The Alliance has more sectors made up ofmembers from the professional bodies; a particular body may be aligned to a specific issue. UKCoD is made up solely of charitable and voluntary sectors; they cannot take a stance on an issue that is not representative of all its members.
Q. What would happen if things changed and members started to ‘move around?’
A. The aim is to come together as a collective voice and maintain a balance. Focus will be on the common ground within the Alliance rather than concentrating on the diversity.
Q. What is the overlap between the 2 bodies?
A. A large number of UKCoD members (mostly from small organisations) are not in the Alliance.
Members raised several concerns as follows:
1)That hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus are represented but not balance and because audiology is not synonymous with hearing, ‘balance’ should be included.
2) Would hope that the Alliance has some political clout e.g.ministerial contact.
Adam thanked Dr Mehta for a very informative and interesting talk on the Alliance; she will be passing on the feedback received from the meeting.
5. AQP
Adam referred to a draft letter to Commissioners which has been circulated. Although most of the members of HAB UK were in agreement with the letter. BSHAA had issues with one sentence: Much additional activity undertaken in Audiology Departments is supported both financially and professionally by income derived from Adult Hearing Services.
Alan raised a number of issues and there was some discussion regarding commissioning, AQP and funding of specialist services.
Several options were discussed and Adam stated that he would make amendments to the draft letter to incorporate some of the views expressed. This will be done within a week and circulated to the Committee for agreement.
ACTION: Adam
6. CLINICAL COMMISSIONING
Adam asked for the experiences of the members present, and the following are some of the issues raised:
· Relating to one local area, Adult Hearing Services will come under AQP and each Trust has to apply and demonstrate evidence that they are eligible.
· Transparency issues about information and how decisions were made regarding AQP
· Concerns that we do not know what individual commissioners have decided about choice at local level.
· Limited response from smaller practitioners and individuals. Difficult to know what has been done in each locality. There are still commercial sensitivities as contracts have yet to be awarded. Hearing Link is intending to identify what has happened in each area using Freedom of Information requests.
· Some discussion that as AQP expands this may eventually filter down to children and all other aspects of elective care.
· Some discussion on the size of Clinical Commissioning Groups. In most places, these will be significantly larger than the old PCTs.
Specialist commissioning as in the recent DoH document was also discussed. Refer to NDCS report. Adam explained ‘specialist’ services are to include paediatric ENT and audiology, along with implantable devices. There will be further negotiation over precisely which services will come under specialist commissioning versus local commissioning. HAB UK could potentially influence this.
7. HAB UK CHAIR
From responses to an email which was circulated to all members of HABUK, the consensus of opinion is that the Committee will hold 3 meetings a year. The Chair will serve a period of 6 meetings and then hand over to the next organisation in alphabetical order on the list. The organisation must be a full member – observer members will not be eligible.
The following dates for meetings in 2013 were suggested by Adam: Wednesday 30th January; Wednesday 5th June; and Wednesday 15th October. Once Catherine has confirmed her availability, the dates will be confirmed. The above dates have been chosen so as not to clash with Council and other meetings already confirmed.
8. PAEDIATRIC AUDIOLOGICAL MEDICINE
Peter West would not be at AAG meeting. The GMC had said they would welcome discussion in response to the HAB UK letter. Gill Painter had forwarded an email to Adam. Peter West said he would identify a suitable person to attend the next meeting and Adam will follow this up. Gill will forward an email she had received from the GMC to Adam. Adam to organise a meeting between HAB UK members (BAAP and BAPA) and the GMC.
ACTION: Peter, Gill and Adam
9. ANY OTHER BUSINESS: ACCREDITATION QUALITY IN THE NHS
Adrian Davis gave an outline about NICE accreditation from the DoH perspective and highlighted some issues which needed clarification, as follows:
· NICE is the one body that provides the NHS with Standards.
· What IQIPS uses as standards are not recognised by NICE as NHS Standards but as desirable aims or targets.
· NICE areintroducing anaccreditation for the production of guidelines (for example, the BSA recommended procedures might come under this in the future).
· IQIPS accredits services through self-assessment and peer review, and is operated by RCP/UKAS.
· Anticipated to have NICE standards in aspects for audiology by at least 2017/8.
· IQIPS accreditation of NHS services can be started in October 2012.
· The RCP has interpreted as their remit within IQIPS to carry out a regular census of self-assessment in line with the QET it replaced and this is being done; they have written to all the people who have registered and not those who have not paid their fee/money. But services which have not registered and paid can not access the self-assessment tool, so the census will not be comparable with previous ones.
Alan also asked about NICE accreditation for BSA as stated by the BSA PPC – it was explained that this was regarding accreditation for producing guidelines, and therefore not conflicting with other areas.
Adam thanked Adrian for attending the meeting and clarifying issues regarding NICE accreditation.
10. BRIEFING REPORTS
Adam asked members round the table to pick out highlights from their briefing notes to save time.
BSA: The recent Annual Conference in Nottingham had been very successful. There were some changes on Council with Kevin Munro as Chair and Huw Cooper vice Chair plus 2 new Council members. In his forthcoming Chairman’s message, Kevin would be announcing his aims and strategy for BSA restating its role and the directions it will take.
HEARING LINK/UKCoD (report to follow)
UKCoD: severe constrictions on funding. Hearing Link: has increased its staff by one third. In partnership with the Picker Institute and all the relevant professional bodies they are developing an instrument that will monitor patient experience and satisfaction with audiology services. They hope to have the instrument ready for the beginning of next year and at the disposal of providers across all sectors and for patients to use on their own initiative.
BSHAA
Nothing further to add.
NHBRU (report to follow)
Dave Moore is leaving his post at NBRUH in March to take up another position in the USA.
Video study going really well. Tinnitus research jointly with UCL
BAAP
Peter thanked the group for circulating information regarding the Hallpike Prize which was awarded to an ENT specialist for his study on Glue-ear. There were problems in recruitment to the registrar grade. People are discouraged from applying due to the high cost of the diploma. Audiologists funded up to MSc level by DoH. Peter would draw this to the attention of Linda Luxon who is Treasurer of the RCP for the best way to take this forward. ACTION: Peter West
BATOD report attached
Links to auxiliary aids and their new web site.
BAPA:
Concerns over dwindling membership and how these posts will be replaced. Annual Conference at SOAS on Friday 25th January 2013.
BAEA (no report)
Role of Competency document ready in March. Joint BAEA/BATOD annual conference will be held on 9th March 2013.
DoH
Transition taking place at a rapid pace.
Many roles in DoH moving to the commissioning board, including the Chief Scientific Officer.
BAA (report to follow)
Academy of Healthcare Sciences is now accredited to provide registration for clinical scientists, which is excellent news for those going through the scientist training programme. BAA Annual Conference on 12th/13th November.
11. UPDATES
There has been no response from Angela Bonomy, the Scottish Government representative. Clive Sparkes has resigned from HAB UK and a new representative from the Welsh Assembly is being sought. Northern Ireland still does not have a representative on HAB UK.
12. DATES OF MEETINGS IN 2013
See Item 7 HAB UK: Provisional date for first meeting in 2013 is Wednesday 30th January – to be confirmed.
Gary stated that the lighting in the Old Board Room was inadequate and there was a problem with noise outside when the windows were open; he asked if it would be possible to hold the meetings in a different room/venue. Ellen explained that it is difficult to find meeting venues in London which are free but his comments will be noted for the future.
ACTION: Secretary
habukminsdraftedeg/12oct/sentgab/15octfinalrevisioneg/19/11/12/circ27/11/12
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