Council Meeting
28 September 2023
Present
Dr Arjun Dhillon (Chair), Dr George Fernie (Vice-Chair), Dr Neil Bhatia, Dr Chris Bunch, Prof Martin Crook, Helen Dyer, Christopher Fincken, Darren Lloyd, Mr Adrian Marchbank, Allison Newell
Guests
Dr Jonathan Osborn, NHSE
Observers
Raz Edwards, Colin Harper, Dr Phil Koczan, Sophie Reed, Dr Farrukh Shah, Debbie Topping, Dr Koravangattu Valsraj
Secretariat
Ryan Avison
Apologies
Rhidian Hurle, Dr Matt Noble, Dr Erum Nomani, David Riley, Brig Duncan R Wilson
Declarations of interest
Can be found on register of interests. Dr Arjun Dhillon (Chair), registered an interest for item regarding the Advisory Group for Data in NHS England.
Notes of previous meeting and matters arising
Council reviewed the notes of the 19 July 2023 Council meeting and accepted them as an accurate record. There were no matters arising.
Action log
The UKCGC Chair and Council members reviewed the action log. Of the six actions, four remain open. An update was provided by the Chair on progress for each. All other actions were agreed as having been completed or ongoing prior to this meeting.
Chair and Vice Chair’s report
The Chair welcomed Raz Edwards to the meeting. Raz is taking the place of Andrew Harvey, representing the Strategic Information Governance Network (SIGN) as an observer to the UKGCC.
The Chair and Vice Chair updated Council on recent activities and the key meetings they have attended:
1. Breakfast Clubs: The last breakfast club took place on 29 August. The next breakfast club is on 29 September.
2. Evening Classes: Helen Dyer continues to run a series of evening classes for Caldicott Guardians. The last evening class took taking place on 25 September (5:30-6:30pm) and was on “An introduction to DPIAs for Caldicott Guardians”. The Chair and members thanked Helen Dyer for running the evening classes.
3. Caldicott Guardian Conference: Following a successful Caldicott Guardian Conference that place on 23 May 2023, the Chair updated on plans to sponsor another conference in 2024 and asked for volunteers from the UKCGC to speak at the next conference.
4. UKCGC Chair attended NDG Panel: the UKCGC Chair attended the NDG Panel meeting on 12 September 2023. Guests included a team from Suffolk and North East Essex ICS who presented on local population health initiatives, Understanding Patient Data, and representatives from SIGN.
5. NDG attending Scottish Caldicott Forum: The Vice-chair updated that the NDG will be attending the Scottish Caldicott Forum on Monday 2 October.
General Updates from Council Members
This agenda item in Council meetings is a dedicated space for Council members to discuss updates on working groups, breakfast clubs, evening classes and UKCGC representation on meetings.
Helen Dyer provided updates from the breakfast clubs and evening classes for Caldicott Guardians.
Christopher Fincken updated on his attendance at Inter-Collegiate and Agency Domestic Violence Abuse (INCADVA) Forum meetings.
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.
Information Sharing Advice for Safeguarding Practitioners
The UKCGC Chair started this item by providing an update on the UKCGC response to the Department for Education’s consultation on Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners. As part of responding to this consultation the Council members drafting the response had discussed the currently available guidance documents on this topic. The Chair summarised that when having these discussions, Council members suggested that more focussed guidance could be given to Caldicott Guardians that would better support them in making a decision on how to handle requests for information that relate to a safeguarding concern of a child. The Chair then introduced Christopher Fincken and Dr Neil Bhatia, both of whom had drafted a document to aid Caldicott Guardians in making such decisions.
Christopher presented a document, which focussed on the ethics of sharing information for safeguarding, and the considerations to be given when receiving a safeguarding request. Christopher talked through how his document considered the Caldicott Principles and related ethical questions. Christopher stressed the complexities, and seriousness of requests for information relating to child safeguarding, and a fundamental need to share information where appropriate. Christopher reinforced the importance of information sharing by noting a few cases where information sharing has been an issue, and serious harm has come to a child.
The Chair invited Neil to present his developed workflow which sets out, the legal considerations on deciding if information can be shared for the purposes of safeguarding. Council discussed the legal frameworks set out in the document, and debated how and where any decision regarding a request to share information should be documented.
The Chair thanked both members for their presentations, and thanked Council members for their contributions. The Chair stated an intent to review both documents, how they can be aligned to be consistent with other guidance in the online UKCGC manual.
Reflection on the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD) retirement and the new Advisory Group for Data (AGD)
Dr Jonathan Osborn attended the meeting to provide an update on the newly formed AGD in NHS England. The UKCGC Chair stated his conflict of interest on this item, and the Vice-Chair chaired this particular item.
Jonathan provided the history to the foundation of groups advising on the dissemination of information from NHS Digital (NHSD). Jonathan explained that in September 2010, NHSD (then Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)) established the Data Access Advisory Group (DAAG), an independent monitoring and recommendation’s function, to improve transparency and to build public trust. And that following a consultation with the public in 2016, the NHS Digital Board then established the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD). Jonathan set out how IGARD had operated in NHSD until the merger between NHSE and NHSD in February 2024.
Jonathan advised that following the merger of NHSD into NHSE, statutory guidance stipulated for an advisory group to be established in NHSE (the Advisory Group for Data). AGD will be advising in line with its responsibilities as set out in the guidance. Jonathan set out how the Group will have a keen interest in internal access processes within NHSE, new or novel uses of data, data dissemination precedents and items that the public would be concerned about. Jonathan stated that the groups Terms of Reference are still being agreed.
The UKCGC Chair provided some further background to the AGD, from his capacity as a NHSE employee.
Council members emphasised the importance of transparent decision-making, and questioned if there is sufficient social care representatives on the group. Council members also questioned the need for a Caldicott Guardian on the group who was independent of NHSE.
The UKCGC Vice-chair and Council members thanked Jonathan for his attendance and presentation.
Other Business
Dr Faouzi Alam raised an issue he has been made aware of regarding the body cameras and related privacy concerns. Faouzi said he would write to the UKCGC Chair.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be held virtually on Thursday 28 November 2023 from 13:00-16:30pm.