Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to make use of the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation Scheme to improve coverage of (a) clinical audits and (b) patient experience surveys.

The national Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) scheme for 2014-15 includes national indicators relating to the NHS Safety Thermometer, the Friends and Family Test (FFT), diagnosis and onward referral of patients with dementia or delirium, and assessment of physical health risk factors and provision of appropriate interventions for mental health inpatients. The FFT indicator incentivises providers to implement the FFT scheme and to achieve good response rates; the dementia indicator requires providers to undertake a carer survey; and the mental health indicator involves a specific process of national clinical audit, facilitated by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

CQUIN applies to all providers who operate under the NHS Standard Contract. The Contract, which is used for all providers of National Health Service-funded care other than primary care, already includes as core standards for all providers requirements to:

- put in place an ongoing proportionate programme of clinical audit;

- participate in relevant national clinical audits under the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme; and

- undertake patient, carer and staff surveys, including FFT.

NHS England is reviewing both CQUIN and the NHS Standard Contract and will be publishing updated versions of both for 2015-16 shortly.