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According to the Health Service Journal, NHS England (NHSE) is backing legislation to abolish clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) by April 2022, strip back competition rules, and require trusts to be part of care alliances.
NHSE's legislative recommendations would see integrated care systems become “a statutory corporate NHS body… that additionally brings CCG statutory functions into the ICS”. Previously, NHSE has avoided full reorganisation, but according to new documents published last week, the response to the coronavirus pandemic, and the development of ICS so far, had “increased the appetite for statutory ‘clarity’”. All CCGs must merge to the size of their ICS “before April 2022” and CCG functions will be “absorbed to become core ICS business”.
NHSE is consulting on two options for CCGs — the other option involves creating a “statutory ICS board/joint committee with an accountable officer” but separate to CCGs. However, abolition is NHSE’s preferred option, with the statutory ICS board/joint committee option being described as having “potential downsides”, while making ICS full statutory bodies “offers greater long-term clarity in terms of system leadership and accountability” and provides “a clearer statutory vehicle for deepening integration across health and local government over time”, according to NHSE.
The legislation as proposed by NHSE would also revoke section 75 competition regulations, created by the Health and Social Care Act 2012; and allow NHS services to be removed from the scope of the public contracts regulations 2015, to seek to insulate them from competition rules and regulation.
NHSE and NHS Improvement are also due to become a “formally merged body” under the legislation, which would also “specify the secretary of state’s legal powers of direction in respect of NHS England”. This follows reports that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is eager to have greater power to direct NHSE, though the paper says the powers must be specified “in a transparent way that nevertheless protects clinical and operational independence”.
Organisations have until 8 January to give their views on the proposal. ICSs have been given until April 2021 to lay out their plan to meet current ICS operating requirements, and they must set out how they will “adapt” to the above legislative asks by September 2021.
Source: Health Service Journal, 26 November 2020
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COVID-19 has resulted in a sharp increase in poverty and low incomes across the UK, which would have been much worse without additional government support this year, according to two independent think-tank reports published today.
The Legatum Institute found that the number of people living in poverty had risen by almost 700,000 to 15.2m this year as a result of the pandemic’s impact on jobs, wages and profits while the New Economics Foundation warned that a third of the UK’s population would be living below the minimum socially acceptable standard of living by next spring on current government policy.
Researchers at the centre-right think tank Legatum Institute modelled the likely effects of the pandemic on low incomes and compared the results with the “gold standard” poverty measure that will soon become the official measure used by government. Working-age adults who had previously been in jobs accounted for the largest rise in people living in poverty, with small decreases in poverty among lone parent and some workless families who gained from increases in social security.
The centre-left New Economics Foundation (NEF) said its research showed up the inadequacy of the UK’s welfare safety net, with millions set to fall into hardship even with the additional temporary support measures. The NEF's research took a similar approach to modelling incomes during the pandemic, but used a different threshold for low income — the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s calculation of the minimum income people need to meet their material needs and participate fully in society. This is a higher threshold than Legatum’s poverty line with correspondingly more people falling below it. The NEF warned that without more generous social security into 2020-21, the number of those living with incomes below the minimum income standard would rise from 20m in September to 22.5m in April.
Source: Financial Times, 29 November 2020
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Recent data from industry analysts IRI shows substantial growth in e-cigarette sales in the twelve weeks after the menthol cigarette tobacco ban in May this year, compared to the 12 weeks prior. In the 12 weeks post-ban, IRI figures showed vaping sales grew by 12.6%, with sales of menthol products up 44.6%
Source: EuroWeekly, 30 November 2020
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Tobacco sales across the Balearic islands have plummeted by around 40% between October 2019 and October 2020, according to figures released by the Balearic Ministry of Finance
Annual sales are down by more than €150 million so far this year. The lack of tourists is believed to be a significant driver of the drop, with the lack of British tourists in particular cited as a possible cause given the average cost of cigarettes is just €5 (£4.55) per packet in Mallorca, compared to £12.50 (€13.75) in the UK.
Source: Euro Weekly News, 30 November 2020
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