Council Meeting
6 December 2022
Present
Dr Arjun Dhillon (Chair), Dr Chris Bunch (Vice-Chair), Dr Faouzi Alam, Prof Martin Crook, Dr George Fernie, Christopher Fincken, Andrew Harvey, Wg Cdr Christopher Lloyd, Darren Lloyd, Alison Newell, Matthew Noble, David Riley.
Observers
Prabu Arumugam, Dr Neil Bhatia, Mark O’Loughlin, Josephine Pravinkumar, Dr Farrukh Shah, Dr Gabrielle Tamura-Rose.
Apologies
Gill Bennett, Carey Bloomer, Helen Dyer, Mr Adrian Marchbank, Prof. Roy McClelland, Dr Cait Taylor, Brigadier Duncan Wilson.
Declarations of interest
Can be found on register of interests. No other new interests were declared.
Notes of previous meeting and matters arising
Council reviewed the notes of the October 2022 Council meeting and accepted them as an accurate record. There were no matters arising.
Action log
The action log was reviewed. Five actions remain open with an update provided by the Chair on progress for each. All other actions were agreed as having been completed prior to this meeting.
Chair and Vice Chair’s report
The Chair and Vice Chair updated Council on recent activities and the key meetings they have attended including:
Publication of the October newsletter. This is sent to registered Caldicott Guardians and subscribers and is now also made available via the UKCGC website.
Council ran a virtual workshop at the beginning of November “Children & Young People: Information Sharing & Confidentiality”. Feedback about the event has been very positive, attendees found the opportunity to discuss these complex issues extremely valuable.
Breakfast clubs have continued, and work is ongoing to secure dates for these sessions in 2023. They are generally well attended and interest in these sessions continues to grow.
The UKCGC is often asked to review training materials for training providers. A group has been established to consider how best the UKCGC can support this.
Work continues on the development of guidance regarding information sharing with the police. More detailed updates will be provided to Council as this work progresses
The Chair attended the annual Strategic Information Governance Network (SIGN) annual conference to speak to Information Governance leads from across the health and care system representing their localities. Andrew Harvey (SIGN Chair) expressed his gratitude for the Chair’s attendance, presentation, and discussion.
Requests for advice to Council
Council discussed recent requests for advice. The Chair noted that requests were mostly routine questions where the secretariat signposted inquirers to the relevant guidance. However, Council did receive some interesting queries relating to information requests for the purpose of public enquiries, requests for information pertaining to Ombudsman investigations, and GP data extractions remain a consistent theme. Council also received a request for advice from a Welsh organisation who wished to know if all NHS funded care services in Wales are required to have a Caldicott guardian and where they could find guidance on this topic.
Christopher Fincken reported a recurrent concern amongst those he has trained recently regarding the scheme to give patients access to their own records. GPs in particular are concerned that mechanisms to hide various pieces of information differ between GP IT systems and, when patients change practice, do not necessarily carry over to the new practice. The Chair pointed to the RCGP toolkit as this is more of a tech issue, and suggested that we link to RCGP toolkit via UKCGC website?
UKCGC priorities and UKCGC roles requiring volunteers (continued from October)
The discussion regarding Council priorities and strategic objectives started at the previous meeting was continued.
The Chair discussed existing processes for the way in which the work of the Council is developed and maintained which involves the Chair and Vice-Chair setting out plans and agendas with support from the Secretariat. Council was asked if they thought that this should be opened up and influenced more heavily by Council. Council was content with current arrangements but suggested regular invitations (prompts) to share items that might be useful for Councils
Action: Secretariat to request items of interest for Council meetings 3 weeks prior to Council meeting to ensure key areas of interest or concern from members/observers are being addressed. Council members would be expected to provide a statement on the topic for consideration on a future agenda.
Action: Collate areas of expertise across Council so that the collective skills can be used to help Council tackle issues using those skills and expertise. Collate this information (in a simple format).
Appointment of Vice-Chair process
Council is hoping to appoint a new Vice-Chair by February 2023. The Chair presented the existing process for appointing the Vice-Chair along with the essential and desirable criteria for the role.
With continuity and organisational memory in mind, Council was also asked to consider two separate approaches designed to support these aims. The approaches consisted of future Chairs serving as the Council’s Vice-Chair for a specified period before undertaking the role of the Chair and stepping back into the role of Vice-Chair once their tenure as Chair had come to an end.
Council saw many positives in these alternative approaches. However, due to the nature of the Council and its members (work situations and job roles change), it was agreed that the constitution would remain as it is (Chair and Vice-Chair appointed independently of one another), however the principles of support and continuity should remain.
Defining the processes for bringing new members to the Council
Council is seeking to standardise the approach for appointing new Council members whilst ensuring adequate representation from constituent countries of the United Kingdom as well as key organisations and services across health and social care.
Council agreed that existing processes within the constitution were sufficient and were supportive of Council membership following a consistent and transparent process in future.
Action: ensure invites for membership are included in the next newsletter
Other Business
Child Protection in England report has been published. Failure to share information has been cited as a factor in the deaths of those children.
Action: Secretariat to consider the information in the report and investigate what ‘failure to share’ means in these instances. Council to consider how they can work together and support the Caldicott Guardian community in this area to ensure they have the confidence to share information in a legal and ethical manner. Council also put forward the view that harms of not sharing information should be a priority for the NDG.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday 18 January 2023.