Consultation on Temporary Amendments to the Health and Social Care Framework Document for the period June 2020 to May 2022

Overview

On 9 June 2020 Robin Swann MLA, Minister of Health, in a statement to the Northern Ireland Assembly updated the Assembly on his approach to the rebuilding of Health and Social Care (HSC) services to respond to the adverse impact of the initial wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on the delivery of services. In his statement the Minister announced that his approach to rebuilding HSC services has two key elements.

Firstly, the development of a 'Rebuilding Health and Social Care Services Strategic Framework’ which sets out the HSC mission for the immediate future to incrementally increase HSC service capacity as quickly as possible across all programmes of care, within the prevailing COVID-19 conditions.

Secondly, establishing a new Management Board for Rebuilding HSC Services. The Management Board consists of senior Departmental officials, Trust chief executives and senior officials from other key arm's-length bodies and is to give clear direction to the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB), the Public Health Agency (PHA), the Health and Social Care Trusts and the Business Services Organisation (BSO). 

The new governance arrangements will be facilitated through temporary amendments to the existing Health and Social Care Framework Document, which sets out the roles and responsibilities of all Health and Social Care bodies.

You can find out more information on the temporary amendments by viewing the Department's Consultation Document at https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/consultations/HSCframework

Why your views matter

As part of a committment to co-production principles, the Department wrote to a range of relevant bodies on 9 June 2020 inviting views on the temporary amendments as part of a soundings exercise. In total 36 responses were received as part of this exercise. The Department welcomes these responses from the relevant bodies and will address these in full in its initial review in January 2021 of the temporary changes to the Framework Document together with any representations received from the public consultation.

Following on from this, the Department is launching this public consultation in line with it's commitment to ensuring that the views of all external stakeholders on the temporary amendments are fully considered. You can find out more information by viewing the Department's Consultation Document at https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/consultations/HSCframework