Dementia Support Line
Second OFSTED-style rating of CCG dementia care reveals mixed picture
Today (Friday 21 July 2017) NHS England have published the end of year results from the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF).
The results provide CCGs with an OFSTED style rating for the care of different conditions, including dementia, which are ranked outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate. Other conditions include mental health, cancer, diabetes, and learning disabilities.
For dementia, the CCG IAF assesses dementia diagnosis rates and care plan reviews in primary care. Diagnosis is key for people with dementia to access information, advice, care and support and is essential so they can make immediate and long term plans for their treatment and care. Care plan reviews are essential to check that people have received the right support following diagnosis and need to be regularly reviewed.
The assessment of each clinical area is devised and overseen by an independent panel. Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Society, chairs the dementia panel.
Since the baseline assessment last summer, there have been improvements by some CCGs – 68 CCGs (33%) have improved, 20 CCGs (10%) improving two ratings. However, 29 CCGs (14%) have gotten worse, with 3 (1%) CCGs dropping two ratings.
|
|
Number of CCGs in 2016/17 |
Number of CCGs in 2015/16 |
|
Dementia |
|
|
|
Outstanding |
64 |
47 |
|
Good |
53 |
42 |
|
Requires Improvement |
68 |
85 |
|
Inadequate |
24 |
35 |
Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Society, said:
'While we welcome the improvements made by some CCGs, these figures only paint half the picture.
'This spotlight on dementia has helped around a third of CCGs to improve their support to people with dementia, changing the lives of thousands who might have gone without proper care before. However, it is worrying to see that almost half of all CCGs are delivering inadequate care and support, or that which requires improvement, and that 14% have actually become worse in the last year.
'These CCGs need to be held to account, and we will be actively approaching them to offer help to improve through our GP training programme and advice on redesigning care and referrals pathways. Sharing learnings and best practice of those making the biggest improvements with those performing less well is absolutely key here.
'We know that people with dementia struggle to get good quality care and support at every stage. To truly improve care we need the framework to asses people’s experience in hospitals, GP surgeries and in the community. People with dementia deserve more from our NHS.'
