Council Meeting
30th April 2020
Present
Dr Chris Bunch (Chairman), Sandra Lomax (Vice Chair), Dr Faouzi Alam, Carey Bloomer, Prof. Martin Crook, Prof. Paul Dargan, Helen Dyer, Christopher Fincken, Andrew Harvey, Stephen Hinde, Mr Adrian Marchbank, Alison Newell, Dr Matt Noble, Surg.Cdr Catherine Powell, David Riley, Dr Cait Taylor.
Guests
Vivienne Avery, Sophie Deakin, Richard Fairchild & Jane Leaman (GLA City Intelligence Unit); Dawn Monaghan (NHSx); Rajoo Veeren & Jenny Westaway (NDG Office).
Observers
Ross Thornton (NDG Office); Debbie Topping (Learning Through Data).
Apologies
Gill Bennett, Sandra Cornwall, Dr Arjun Dhillon, Lucy Hubber, Prof. Alison McCallum, Gill Weatherill, Dr Fenella Wrigley.
Declarations
Conflicts of interest from Christopher Fincken and Sandra Lomax (as training providers) were noted.
Action log
There are currently 3 open actions; 6 actions have been completed since the last meeting..
Chairman’s update
The Chairman updated council members on his recent activities and the meetings he had attended, including the weekly calls with the Strategic Information Governance Network (SIGN) and NHSX the NDG Panel in March 2020 and the National Data Guardian’s (NDG) steering group in April 2020. NDG Panel members were invited to discuss two items at the steering group. The first of which was the proposed consultation on the Caldicott Principles and Caldicott Guardian role and the second item was regarding the urgent NHS Digital GP extraction proposals in support of the Covid-19 emergency. Dr Bunch has also put together a page on the Council website of links to relevant advice and policy relevant to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Finally, the Chairman reported that NHS Digital had kindly agreed to take on regular mailings to ~18,500 Caldicott Guardians identified through the Data Security and Protection Toolkit. A newsletter with a foreword from the National Data Guardian had been successfully sent earlier in the month.
Vice-chair’s update
The Vice Chair updated council members regarding her attendance at the i-network meeting, recent engagement with social care Caldicott Guardians, and some individual mentoring of newly appointed Caldicott Guardians.
UKCGC branding refresh
Dr Bunch introduced a branding proposal developed for the UKCGC by a creative agency and examples of potential logos and designs that had been provided. Council members feedback has been captured and will be input into the continued development of the UKCGC branding refresh project.
The Caldicott Principles
Jenny Westaway the Head of the Office of the NDG and Rajoo Veeren Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of the NDG presented a proposed revision of the Caldicott Principles that had been discussed at a NDG workshop for stakeholders in February, and a proposal that the NDG issue guidance on the role of Caldicott Guardians. A public consultation about the proposals is being arranged which will include both written and virtual workshops.
It was suggested that the NDG advice on appointing Caldicott Guardians might be two tier – that some types of organisation (e.g. hospital trust, local authority) should have a Caldicott Guardian and some should consider it. There was more support amongst members present for all organisations processing confidential health and care information having a Caldicott Guardian, but with some flexibility for smaller organisations in how to achieve this. For instance, they might have a Caldicott function by including this is someone’s role or they might share a Caldicott Guardian across many organisations.
The NDG asked UKCGC members for any additional feedback and for further comments be sent to the NDG mailbox. Council members’ feedback on the proposed consultation will be collated and incorporated accordingly.
Information sharing to tackle violence
Richard Fairchild, Vivienne Avery, Sophie Deakin, and Jane Leaman from the City Intelligence Unit at the Greater London Authority presented the Authority’s Information Sharing to Tackle Violence programme to Council.
The programme uses an online GLA data portal (Safestats) that securely brings together London multi-agency crime, disorder and injury data in one place. This combined ED data, alongside data from police, ambulance and transport networks, enables the analysis of a more complete picture of issues, in particular those not necessarily reported to authorities (e.g. gang violence, domestic abuse). Authorised users of the analysis include Local Authorities, Emergency Services, and Government departments.
Council enquired about the common law duty of confidentiality, data governance, and how best the UKCGC may be able to support the project. It was agreed that the UKCGC may be able to facilitate contact with national bodies working on domestic violence and introduce them NHS Digital information governance colleagues to discuss what further it may be possible to do with the data within the appropriate national governance frameworks.
Training priorities
Christopher Fincken presented a personal reflection on Caldicott Training, suggesting that the two main drivers were a desire to improve the Caldicott function or a need to satisfy toolkit and other governance requirements. Whereas information governance tends to be based on statutory data protection laws, Caldicott Guardians need also to consider common and case law and Case Law and also ethical aspects in individual cases. The Caldicott Guardian role is primarily advisory, but they also should act as the “conscience of the organisation” and speak out when they feel it is important to do so.
Christopher suggested developing a national curriculum which has at its base just three basic concepts: (1) What should I do?; (2) What should I not do? (3) Where should I go to for advice?, and gave examples of modules for different training situations.
Council welcomed the paper and agreed to consider the proposals further.
NHSX updates
Dawn Monaghan, Head of IG Policy for NHSX, provided an update on several NHS England and NHS X activities. These include the Local health and Care Record Exemplars (LHCRE), the Covid-19 Data platform, and guidance around use of communications and video conferencing tools to support the response to Covid-19.
Other business
Ross Thornton asked Council members to send any ideas for topics to be included in the next Caldicott Guardian newsletter to the UKCGC secretariat mailbox.