Committee publishes report on Health and Social Care Bill
Government legislation risks "diluting the Government's constitutional responsibilities with regard to the NHS", says the Lords Constitution Committee in its report on the Health and Social Care Bill.
- Report: Health and Social Care Bill
- Report: Health and Social Care Bill (PDF)
- Health and Social Care Bill
- Constitution Committee
The Health and Social Care Bill divides the Secretary of State's statutory duties for the NHS in England between the Secretary of State, a new NHS Commissioning Board and new clinical commissioning groups.
The Government stated that they do not intend to weaken the Secretary of State's accountability for the health service. But in its report, the committee says that it may be necessary to amend the Bill to put the matter "beyond legal doubt".
The committee also question whether the proposed changes to NHS political and legal accountability are necessary to achieve reform.
The Bill will be debated in the House of Lords on Tuesday 11 October.
PDF version
New social value laws: how commissioners can turn collaborators
Once upon a time, the word “value” related only to finance, and aiming for value in the public sector involved a narrow focus on getting the most for your money. While doing more for less is the government’s mantra, the concept of social value has grown in importance and culminated last month in the passing of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.
The act took effect on 8th March and has the potential to transform the way in which public bodies buy services. They must, for the first time, consider how what they might procure could improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of an area. Where appropriate, they must write that social value objective into the procurement process.
But for every forward-thinking commissioner who explores the indirect impact of procurement beyond simply the direct meeting of need, there is one who fails to embrace that wider vision. Tradition dictates that services are more often than not purchased without any consideration of achieving a broader range of successful outcomes.
Let’s take construction project works as a very basic example. Imagine if you award your building contract to a contractor that is required by you to recruit and train neets (those not in education, employment or training) and use additional small or medium-sized enterperises in its supply chain. You not only fulfill the physical terms of your construction contract, but you reap the benefit of helping young people into work and boosting the local economy by making sure that the contractor can access local residents and small, local businesses.
So what does the new act require? It means public authorities must have regard to economic, social and environmental well-being in connection with contracts in which a contracting authority engages a person to provide services. As Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd said last year, before the law was passed, “By focusing on services, the legislation rightly focuses on the types of contract with the greatest direct impact on individuals and communities, and consequently where wider value is likely to be most relevant.”
A public authority looking to contract must consider how what they are buying might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area covered by the contract or agreement in question. It must also look into whether or not it needs to undertake consultation into issues of social value arising from the services that might be purchased.
refer http://www.vodg.org.uk/cgblog/42/105/New-social-value-laws-how-commissio...