Dept. Health & Social Services
The Department of Health, Social Services, and Public Safety in Northern Ireland has three main responsibilities: Health and Social Care, Public Health, and Public Safety.
Health and Social Care includes policy and legislation related to hospitals, GP services, community health, and personal social services. Public Health covers policy and legislation promoting and protecting the health and well-being of the population. Public Safety covers miscellaneous matters, including fire and rescue services.
There are five professional groups in the Department, each led by a chief professional officer: the Chief Medical Officer Group, the Office of Social Services, Nursing, Midwifery, and Allied Health Professions Directorate, Dental Services, and Pharmaceutical Advice and Services.
The Department has a statutory responsibility to promote an integrated system of health and social care designed to improve physical and mental health, prevent, diagnose, and treat illnesses, and promote the social well-being of people in Northern Ireland.
The Department promotes its duties directly and through 17 arms-length bodies. The key strategic policies for the Department include the promotion and improvement of health and well-being, reduction of inequalities through prevention, health promotion, anticipation, and earlier intervention.
Other priorities include improving the quality of service and outcomes for patients, clients, and carers through timely, safe, resilient, and sustainable services, as well as the management of long-term conditions in the community, promoting social inclusion, choice, support, and independence for persons living in the community, and improving the design, delivery, and evaluation of health and social care services through the involvement of individuals, communities, and the community and voluntary independence sector.
The Department also aims to improve productivity by ensuring effective and efficient allocation and utilization of available resources in line with priorities, and ensure the most vulnerable persons of society, including children and adults at risk, are looked after effectively.
The Department’s Business Plan focuses on statutory responsibilities under the Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009. It deals with the Department’s statutory responsibilities in relation to the development of policies, priorities, securing and allocating resources, setting standards and guidelines, structuring the commission of programs and initiatives, monitoring and holding its arms-length bodies to account, and promoting a whole system report.
A 2011 review of health and social care in Northern Ireland made 99 proposals for change, which are now part of the overall systems planning approach. It seeks to reshape how services are structured and delivered to make the best use of resources and ensure that services are safe, resilient, and sustainable.
The Department sets the strategy agenda for the HSC by issuing annual commissioning plans, directions, and indicators of performance to the Health & Social Care Board. It has developed a new cross-cutting framework for public health, supporting public health legislation, policies, and strategies. In
this context, it has published the Public Health Strategic Framework in 2014, aiming to establish new governance and implementation arrangements for the Public Health Framework to put in place monitoring and reporting systems by the end of 2014. It is supporting the Northern Ireland Law Commission in reviewing the Public Health Act 1967 to enable the Commission to complete its consultation and proposals for legislative change.
The Department is enhancing protection of public health through the introduction of screening programs and further development of existing programs, improved survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, introduction of new and amended immunization programs, and increased surveillance of HCAIs (Healthcare-Associated Infections).
The Department, through research, aims to improve health and well-being by increasing understanding of disease prevention, diagnosis, and effective care for people. It has developed and consulted on a draft NI HSC Research and Development Strategy 2014-2019.
The Department has published guidance on governance arrangements for monitoring the new model for consultant-led hospital dental services to improve the oral health of the population and reduce oral health inequalities, supporting the development of safe and effective dental services.
The Department maintains and tests plans and arrangements for the development and review of policy, setting standards to deliver an effective response to threats and hazards to meet obligations under the Northern Ireland Civil Contingencies Framework 2005.
The Department provides strategic direction and support to Northern Ireland to prevent an effective service, and it seeks to deliver the implementation of the Quality 2020 Strategy to protect and improve quality in Health and Social Care. It issues guidance on the contents of ALB quality reports, agrees on the new Q2020 Implementation Team Work Programme, and develops standards and guidance policy framework.
The Department develops and enhances HSC service standards by publishing minimum care standards for children’s homes, independent hospitals, and nursing homes. It has completed consultation on and published the final Children and Young Persons’ Service Framework for implementation, and it is reviewing an update of 2006 quality standards to be completed by March 2016.
The Department’s objective of reconfiguring, reforming, and modernizing the delivery of health and social care services and improving the quality of patient care is being delivered through several initiatives, including a new strategy for Paediatric hospital-based, community-based, and palliative end-of-life care, a policy on the secondary use of patient-identifiable information, collaborative projects between the Republic of Ireland, the shift from hospital-based services to community-based services, finalizing a framework for Imaging Services, updating policy on organ donation, expanding cardiac catheterization capacity, and securing the enrollment of people with Long-Term Conditions through a dedicated chronic condition management program.
Improvements in patient and client outcomes, access to new treatments, and services are being undertaken through the support and development and endorsement of best practice guidance, endorsement of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence Guidance on Technology Appraisals and Clinical Guidelines, reviewing the use of other NICE products for application in NI, developing and agreeing on processes for NICE Public Health Guidance, and progressing the implementation of independent prescribing for allied health professions in line with national direction.