Another national service framework (NSF) document? I've only just finished the first lot. Well, you're not alone. Apparently, people around the world have been reading our National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, and they're very impressed with it.
So impressed, in fact, that they keep asking Al Aynsley-Green how it was produced. Hence this report.
Aynsley-Green? That name rings a bell. It should. Aynsley-Green was national clinical director for children from 2001 until earlier this year, when he was a surprise, but generally welcome, appointment as children's commissioner for England. He started full time as commissioner last month, but has obviously still found the time to bash out another 67 pages to add to the many NSF-related documents that are already knocking around.
What does it tell us? Generally, it gives a bit of an insight into why and how the framework was created. Did you know, for example, that this was only the second one to focus on a group of people, rather than a type of illness? The other one was the framework for older people.
Fascinating. Anything else? Lots. Previous frameworks had set up one external reference group to develop the standards, but this one was so wide-ranging that Aynsley-Green and his team set up seven reference groups to look at different aspects of it: child and adolescent mental health, and disabled children and young people being just two examples.
The groups could work however they wanted, but all had to produce reports in the same format by the summer of 2003. The chairs of the groups had regular meetings with ministers and officials from the Department for Education and Skills, and the Department of Health, to make sure it was all coming together.
Ministers spent the summer reading the reports, and then Carol Joughin, who was the researcher on the mental health reference group, had to pull the whole thing together into a set of standards that could be delivered.
The final version was published in September last year.
And everyone loved it? Basically, yes. Aynsley-Green says it was well received because it contained no surprises, was based on evidence and the views of people who use services. However, he thinks it would be better if young people had been consulted more extensively, and he wants to see some money to put it all into practice.
So what is happening with it now? A delivery strategy was published in December, but this is a 10-year plan so don't expect changes overnight.
Aynsley-Green writes: "Implementing all the standards as a coherent package will be a massive task." He reckons the key is giving incentives and resources to local partners.
He also says it is important to make sure this ties in with the wider reform of children's services, under Change for Children.
FACT BOX
- National service frameworks are Department of Health documents outlining long-term strategies for improving NHS care for particular types of illness or groups of people
- The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services was published in September last year, and presents a series of national standards for health provision that should be achieved in 10 years
- This report, The Development of the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, explains how it was produced, and gives an idea of how it could be implemented
- All NSF documents can be found at www.dh.gov.uk.
