Re: Invitation to consult on 3rd edition of the Specialised Services National Definitions Set (SSNDS) - Definition No. 5, The Assessment and Provision of Equipment for People with Complex Physical Disability (All ages)

Communicate
(The Northern Communication Aid Centre)
Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Trust
Walkergate Park
Centre for NeuroRehabilitation and NeuroPsychiatry
Benfield Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 4QD

Tel: 0191 287 5240

Fax: 0191 287 5250

email: communicate@...

web: http://communicate.editme.com

Dear Sir/Madam,

The SSNDS describes specialised services in sufficient detail to enable accurate identification of individual specialised service activity. This accuracy helps hospitals to provide soundly based costings and commissioners to effectively plan, procure and monitor specialised services activity. The second edition of the SSNDS comprised 35 Definitions and was produced in 2002, but is now out of date. See:  http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Policyandguidance/Healthandsocialcaretopics/Specialisedservicesdefinition/index.htm

The third edition of the SSNDS will be published over 2009/10. Through this email we are seeking views from your organisation on the draft text of one (or more) Definitions which will eventually form part of the third edition. These draft Definitions have been produced by clinicians appointed by the Royal Colleges and endorsed by their appropriate Societies.

The third edition SSNDS aims to improve the precision and coverage of these definitions, incorporating the most up to date diagnosis and intervention codes to make the SSNDS as comprehensive as possible. Improving the SSNDS is an iterative process and very much depends on the adequacy of national diagnosis and intervention classification systems. It should be noted that the SSNDS is a mechanism to identify service activity in a consistent way across all providers and is not a set of service guidelines or service models.

The National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) has overall responsibility for the production of the third edition. The NSCG, whose membership includes the 10 Specialised Commissioning Groups (SCGs), oversees and co-ordinates the work of the SCGs with regard to specialised services commissioning. SCGs are collective bodies of PCTs who commission specialised services on behalf of their PCTs. The NSCG is also responsible for the commissioning of forty highly specialised services (eg. heart and lung transplants) on a national basis through its standing committee the National Commissioning Group

We would welcome your views on the accuracy of the text and codes of the draft Definition(s) attached to this email. In some definition sections we have included prompts (‘question’ or ‘comment’) where we invite stakeholders to provide us with specific feedback. We are very happy to receive comments in any format you wish. In past consultations some stakeholders have found it useful to submit comments relating to the numbered sections of each definition. Others have amended the definition directly and highlight their proposed changes. Please submit comments on the draft to definitions@... by Tuesday 19^th May 2009.  

Information provided in response to this consultation may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information legislation (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004). If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that under the FOIA there is a Code of Practice with which public authorities should comply and which includes obligations of confidence. It would therefore be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the National Specialised Commissioning Team. The National Specialised Commissioning Team will process your personal data in accordance with the DPA and in most circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.

We apologise for taking up your time if the consultation topic is not relevant to your organisation. If this is the case we would be very grateful if you could notify us at definitions@... and we will remove you from our SSNDS stakeholder spreadsheet.

After the end of the consultation period your comments will be collated and reviewed by us to produce a final draft definition. This draft will then be submitted to the National Specialised Commissioning Group for approval before being published on their website at www.nscg.nhs.uk .

We look forward to your feedback.

With best wishes,

The National Specialised Commissioning Team