the nhs resolution business plan

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NHS Resolution annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022

Annual report and accounts from NHS Resolution covering 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Applies to England

Nhs resolution annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022 (web accessible).

Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-3647-6, HC 436

PDF , 16.8 MB , 81 pages

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NHS Resolution annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022 (print version)

PDF , 4.89 MB , 160 pages

The annual report and accounts for 2021 to 2022 includes:

• a performance report
• an accountability report
• financial statements

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• NHS Resolution
• Patient and staff safety
• Helen Vernon

Author: Jasmine Jackson

Job Title: Journalist

Company: National Health Executive

Published: June 25th 2021

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NHS Resolution business strategy: Improving staff and patient safety

NHS Resolution published their 2021/22 business plan on Wednesday, detailing their key objectives for the final year of their refreshed five year strategy,  Delivering fair resolution and learning from harm .

The plan outlines six key priorities for the next year, in relation to the work already underway across the health and justice sector. It includes targets to resolve disputes and support patient and staff safety through improvements in how healthcare claims are managed.

This hopes to embed a just and learning culture so that, when incidents occur, they are dealt with openly, and investigated and learned from. Ensuring disputes are resolved as early as possible through neutral and less adversarial means, is also a priority.

Other focusses will involve moving claims and concerns to a neutral and less adversarial space, as well as reducing associated costs. New indemnity schemes for general practice and Covid-19 will also be further developed, including reviewing the scheme, pricing and looking at the role of incentives in regards to wider system changes. Steps will also be made to change the technology and data analytics capabilities and infrastructure. The plan will also incorporate a renewed focus on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Helen Vernon, Chief Executive of NHS Resolution, said: “Our new Business Plan will present us with a number of fresh challenges over the coming year.

“The emergence of Covid-19 has led to many healthcare organisations having to rethink their approach, particularly in relation to patient safety and harm reduction.

“Through our plan, we’ll continue to meet the needs of members and stakeholders in response to the pandemic, as well as supporting our own staff through a significant period of change.”

It is hoped that through focusing on the point of incident of harm or concern, resolution will be achieved much earlier, which could help avoid cases escalating into more formal and, often, more expensive processes.

NHS Resolution will start to plan towards the next five years and beyond, developing their new strategy for 2022 onwards. They are keen to build on the successes in their upcoming strategy, that includes a focus on the environment.

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ACSO responds to the NHS Resolution Corporate Strategy and Business Plan 2022/23

Posted on Wed, 06/07/2022

NHS Resolution (NHSR), the body which represents the NHS in claims made against it, has set out its Corporate Strategy 2022-25 and Business Plan 2022-23 . 

NHSR's idea seems to be less about changing its direction but instead deepening existing approaches. The organisation's main priorities over the coming years are to: 

• Deliver fair resolution; 
• Share data and insights as a catalyst for improvement; 
• Collaborate to improve maternity outcomes; and 
• Invest in people and systems.

This is a sensible list of priorities, with aims of reducing harm to patients, distress for patients and staff alike when concerns arise and the costs required to deliver fair resolution. It also intends to ensure indemnity arrangements drive positive change across the healthcare system. 

While three of the priorities are vague, improving maternity outcomes is much more specific. Why is this?

Obstetric claims make up 50 per cent of the value of all clinical negligence claims , mainly due to the severe and lasting impact on quality of life that birth injuries have on those affected. 

It's also likely to be a reaction to recent, widely publicised maternity scandals (e.g. that of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust) and associated investigations which led to the Ockenden Report .

NHSR therefore aims to support the government's longstanding maternity safety ambition to halve the rates of stillbirth, neonatal and maternal death and brain injuries that occur during or shortly after birth by 2025. If successful, this would be a tremendous outcome. 

Another NHSR ambition is to remove unnecessarily adversarial processes and resolve disputes via alternative dispute resolution (ADR) models such as early neutral evaluation, resolution summits and case stock-takes. ACSO welcomes this, especially given significant civil court delays at present, and aims to facilitate the uptake of ADR through its ADR Working Group. 

ADR can improve access to justice by promoting speedier resolutions to claims, keeping costs down and reducing the already heavy burden on the courts. 

Increased reliance on technology, in part contributed to by the pandemic, has also opened up a variety of options when it comes to online ADR. NHSR proposes to innovate further in this area and extend the use of remote mediations, which is also welcomed. 

What NHSR offers little commentary on, however, is the legislative backdrop to all this, and specifically where the government's proposals to fix legal costs in lower-value clinical negligence cases will lead. ACSO's longstanding concerns over these proposals and their potentially very damaging impact on access to justice continue. 

Author: Jack Normington, Trainee Solicitor at Fletchers Solicitors and ACSO secondee. 

NHS Resolution publishes ‘early look’ 2022-25 strategy

NHS Resolution revealed an insight into its future strategy last week, publishing an ‘early look’ at four intended strategic priorities.

The organisation is set to introduce the new three-year strategy up to 2025, to build on ‘successes’ and to ‘reflect the environment’ of health and care now.

Of the priorities that are subject to final approval, NHS Resolution notes:

Delivering fair resolution

Our Advice, Appeals and Claims Management services will focus on achieving fair and timely dispute resolution, keeping patients and healthcare staff out of formal processes, where possible, so as to minimise distress and cost.

Sharing data and insights as a catalyst for improvemen t

Ensuring that our unique datasets help derive usable insights that benefit patients and the healthcare system.

Collaborating to improve maternity outcomes

We will build on our reputation as a trusted partner in the maternity healthcare system, bringing together key parties to see what more can be done to improve maternity outcomes.

Investing in our people to transform our business.

The NHS is about to undergo a major restructuring while continuing to respond to/recover from the pandemic. We plan to evolve alongside it and have initiated change programmes to invest in our services, systems and people including development of our claims management service and upgrading our core IT systems.

In June 2021, LH News reported on the publication of NHS Resolution’s business plan, covering its key priorities for 2021 – 2022.

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NHS Resolution - Advise, resolve and learn: Our strategy to 2025 (19 May 2022)

• PUBLISHED 23 May, 2022
• TYPE Reports and articles
• CONTENT TYPE Pre-existing
• COPYRIGHT STATUS Original author
• PAYWALLED No
• ORIGINAL AUTHOR NHS Resolution
• ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE 19/05/22
• SUGGESTED AUDIENCE Everyone
• Collaboration
• Legal issue
• Patient engagement

In this three-year strategy, NHS Resolution outlines its strategic priorities to 2025. The four priority areas in the new strategy are:

• Deliver fair resolution – focussing our resources to avoid patients and healthcare staff having to go through formal processes that can be distressing and costly
• Share data and insights to improve services – sharing our unique data and insights to reduce risk and help improve the healthcare system
• Collaborate to improve maternity outcomes – working with others in the maternity care system to reduce neonatal harm
• Invest in our people and systems – building up our corporate capacity and capabilities internally to support the health and legal systems.

These priorities aim to help the organisation contribute to:

• a reduction in harm to patients.
• a reduction in the distress caused to patients and healthcare staff involved when a claim or concern arises.
• a reduction in the cost required to deliver fair resolution. This will release public funds for other priorities, including healthcare.
• ensuring indemnity arrangements are a driver for positive change across the healthcare system.

NHS Resolution has also produced a video summary of the strategy .

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Business Plan

The 2023/24 priorities and operational guidance outlines three key tasks for the NHS. The immediate priority is to recover our core services and productivity. Second, as we recover, we need to make progress in delivering the key ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan. Third, we need to continue transforming the NHS for the future.

NHS England’s business plan for 2023/24 sets out the organisation’s work in leading and supporting the NHS to respond to these three key tasks, including the actions to meet the objectives set out in the mandate from government. It also describes our fourth key task of completing the creation of our new organisation and continuing to improve how we work in line with our operating framework .

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How the government plans to address the NHS staffing crisis - from shorter degrees to extra medical school places

Alongside £2.4bn in additional funding, the new NHS workforce plan to fix staffing shortfalls in the service also includes consulting with the General Medical Council and medical schools to offer a shorter, four-year medical degree.

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Shorter medical degrees, apprenticeships, and £2.4bn in funding are among the radical plans being put forward to solve NHS England's severe staffing crisis.

The latest on this story is here .

The long-awaited NHS workforce plan is due to be published in full on Friday, outlining how the service will address existing vacancies and meet the challenges of a growing and ageing population.

It has been hailed as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to put staffing in the service on a sustainable footing over the next 15 years, with Health Secretary Steve Barclay telling Sky News it was "a hugely important day for the NHS".

Staffing vacancies currently stand at 112,000, with fears shortfalls could grow to 360,000 by 2037.

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The additional funding will help train "record numbers of doctors, nurses, dentists, and other healthcare staff" in England, with plans to employ 300,000 extra staff in the coming years. The funding works out at approximately £21,000 per vacancy.

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Other plans include consulting with the General Medical Council and medical schools on the introduction of a four-year medical degree - one year less than the five it currently takes to complete - which, alongside a medical internship, would mean students could start work six months earlier.

Student nurses will also be able to take up jobs as soon as they graduate in May, rather than waiting until September as they do at present.

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With demand for healthcare staff rising around the world, the Long Term Workforce Plan will set out a path to double medical school training places to 15,000 by 2031, with more places in the areas of greatest need.

Further places will also be offered through degree apprenticeships so staff can "earn while they learn", gaining a full degree as they work towards a full qualification. One in six (16%) of all training for clinical staff will be done this way by 2028 - including more than 850 medical students.

Officials say the plans set out, along with new retention measures, could mean the health service has at least an extra 60,000 doctors, 170,000 more nurses, and 71,000 more allied health professionals in place by 2036/37.

The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years now, so critics - including Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting - have asked why the party didn't act sooner.

But the health secretary deflected these questions this morning, telling Sky News "significant work" had already gone on to increase staffing levels.

Mr Barclay said: "This long term vision for the NHS, backed up by £2.4bn of funding... will give us the confidence the NHS will have the staff it needs to treat people in the future by boosting the number of doctors and nurses that we have."

He added: "We recognise from the pandemic, with an older population, and looking to the long term future of the NHS as we celebrate its 75th birthday, we need to put in place long term plans in addition to the many things we're doing here and now."

Flexible working and pension reforms for staff

The NHS workforce plan comes at a time when large parts of the health service are striking over the staffing crisis, and levels of pay.

The plan aims to reduce reliance on expensive agency spend, which would cut the bill for taxpayers by around £10bn between 2030 and 2037.

The plan will focus on the retention of staff, with better opportunities for career development, improved flexible working options, and government reforms to the pension scheme, which is hoped will keep 130,000 staff working in NHS settings longer.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: "As we look to adapt to new and rising demand for health services globally, this long-term blueprint is the first step in a major and much-needed expansion of our workforce to ensure we have the staff we need to deliver for patients.

"We will take practical and sustained action to retain existing talent, we will recruit and train hundreds of thousands more people and continue to accelerate the adoption of the latest technology to give our amazing workforce the very best tools to provide high-quality care to millions of people across the country each day."

The NHS will mark its 75th anniversary on 5 July.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "On the 75th anniversary of our health service, this government is making the largest single expansion in NHS education and training in its history. This is a plan for investment and a plan for reform."

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, added: "Our plan will end the reliance on expensive agency staff, while cutting waiting lists in the coming years and building an NHS which can match up to the scale of tomorrow's challenges."

'They should have done this a decade ago'

Wes Streeting MP, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, responded to the publication of the NHS workforce plan.

He said: "The Conservatives have finally admitted they have no ideas of their own, so are adopting Labour's plan to train the doctors and nurses the NHS needs.

"They should have done this a decade ago - then the NHS would have enough staff today."

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Mr Streeting added: "Instead, the health service is short of 150,000 staff and this announcement will take years to have an impact.

"Patients are waiting longer than ever before for operations, in A&E, or for an ambulance.

"The Conservatives have no plan to keep the staff working in the NHS, no plan to end the crippling strikes, and no plans to reform the NHS."

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NHS Resolution publishes business plan for 2019/20

Date published: 7th May 2019

Our Business plan 2019/20 has just been published. In it, we set out key objectives for year three of our five year strategy, Delivering fair resolution and learning from harm .  We have six key priorities for the new financial year, and in supporting these we plan to focus our investment across three main areas of data, accommodation and workforce.

Resolution is one of the four main themes threaded throughout our five year strategy, and we continue to strive to keep claimants and healthcare staff out of court. Working with claimant law firms, we want to find the most appropriate methods of resolving claims without them progressing to formal litigation or trial.

Following on from our previous two annual clinical reviews into cerebral palsy and suicide-related claims, this year we have appointed emergency medicine consultant Dr Freya Levy. As we have seen a shift in the highest volume area of clinical negligence claims away from orthopaedic surgery towards emergency medicine, Dr Levy’s focus during her year-long secondment will be to produce a thematic review of emergency medicine claims – aimed at driving improvements in patient care and safety.

Another strand of our strategic priorities focuses on intervention; we have built on the first year of our maternity incentive scheme to deliver a second year incentivising safer maternity and neonatal services. We are also continuing our work to get closer to serious obstetric incidents in order to share as much learning as possible, as quickly as possible

We also want to look more closely into how we are working with NHS trusts, claimants, their families and healthcare staff to improve the way in which the NHS responds to incidents.

Our Practitioner Performance Advice service will relaunch its assessment service.. We will be implementing swifter and more focused interventions to support organisations in resolving performance concerns about individual clinicians locally.

Finally, on 1 April 2019 we launched a state-backed Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice (CNSGP). This is a new area for us and we look forward to using the tremendous opportunities for learning that are presented by claims from both general practice and secondary care coming under one roof.

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