Council Meeting
6th August 2020
Present
Dr Chris Bunch (Chairman), Sandra Lomax (Vice-Chair), Carey Bloomer, Prof. Martin Crook, Dr Arjun Dhillon, Christopher Fincken, Andrew Harvey, Mr Adrian Marchbank, Dr Matt Noble, Alison Newell, David Riley, Col. Robert Russell, Dr Cait Taylor, Dr Fenella Wrigley.
Guests
John Farenden, Ben Brearley, Dawn Monaghan, Alex Rogansky, Randeep Sidhu, Helen Jeffries, Daniel Ashley.
Observers
Ross Thornton (Office of the National Data Guardian), Dr Julian Collinson.
Apologies
Dr Faouzi Alam, Gill Bennett, Sandra Cornwall, Helen Dyer, Dr Marjorie Gillespie, Stephen Hinde, Lucy Hubber, Prof. Alison McCallum, Gill Weatherill.
Declarations
Conflicts of interest from Christopher Fincken and Sandra Lomax (as training providers) were noted.
Action log
There are currently three open actions; four actions have been completed since the last meeting.
Chairman’s update
The Chairman updated council members on his recent activities and the meetings he has attended including Data and Cyber Security Programme Board, the National Data Guardian’s Panel, and presenting at the Northern Regional network virtual workshop.
Vice-Chair’s update
The Vice Chair updated Council on the recent success of the UKCGC Northern Regional network virtual workshop. Over 40 Caldicott Guardians joined the UKCGC Northern network workshop run virtually over MS Teams and discussed a variety of Caldicott Guardian case studies. Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive. The Vice-Chair also updated Members regarding her ongoing engagement with the police and attendance at recent i-network meetings.
Requests for advice
The Council discussed recent requests for advice that have been received by the UKCGC mailbox or raised on the Digital Health Caldicott Guardian forum. These included the use of electronic patient displays on hospital wards, Caldicott Guardians in the education sector, and publishing members' names in the minutes of patient representative groups. Full details of requests for advice can be provided to Caldicott Guardians on request and may also be available to view as discussion topics on the Digital Health Network's Caldicott Guardian forum.
Summary Care Record and GP Connect
John Farenden Senior Programme Lead at NHSx and Ben Brearley Communications Manager from NHS Digital gave an update on progress with the Summary Care Record (SCR) with additional information, and on the GP Connect system.
During the COVID-19 pandemic a change has been made to the SCR so that ‘Additional Information’ is now included by default for patients, unless they have previously indicated that they did not want this information to be shared. To support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, GP Connect—a service that allows authorised clinical staff to share and view GP practice clinical information and data between IT systems—has been enabled on EMIS and TPP GP clinical systems.
A consultation with key stakeholders and the public has indicated that there is strong support across the sector for sharing patient information for direct (personal) care.
These changes have been implemented while the extensions to the Control of Patient Information (COPI) notices for COVID-19 are in force. The possibility of retaining these changes to SCR-AI and GP-Connect after the COPI notices expire is being explored.
Council welcomed the positive engagement with the programme and indicated that transparency and effective public communications would be vital to support the continued use of these systems beyond the pandemic.
Caldicott Guardian training workbook
The Council has recently been in discussions with NHS Digital regarding the Caldicott Guardian training materials which was part of the Information Governance Toolkit but has now been replaced by the Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT).
The DSPT focuses on data protection and security awareness training, but no longer requires use of a specific Caldicott Guardian training workbook. The UKCGC has expressed an interest in taking ownership of these materials, with a view to reviewing, updating and producing a refreshed set of training materials for Caldicott Guardians.
The Chairman sought volunteers to be involved in a work package to review and feed back on how the workbook might be updated and incorporated with a broader UKCGC training strategy.
Caldicott Guardian Manual review and updates
A Manual for Caldicott Guardians was originally written in 2016 and published in hard copy and PDF in January 2017 — before the GDPR came into force. It has been since converted to an editable series of web pages on the Council website, to facilitate updates. The Chairman sought volunteers to be involved in a work package to bring the web version up to date.
UKCGC NDG Consultation Response
The Chair reminded Members that the closing date for the public consultation on the Caldicott Principles and Caldicott Guardians is approaching. Members were requested to submit feedback on the consultation to the secretariat mailbox where it can be reviewed and incorporated into a UKCGC response.
NHSx updates
Dawn Monaghan, Head of Data Sharing and Privacy at NHSx, presented an update on recent developments from the IG Policy team. The team has been significantly involved in the test and trace programme with Department of Health and Social Care colleagues. There is also work underway with Simon Madden from DHSC to develop a data strategy for NHSx.
The IG team is now returning to dealing with a number of 'business as usual' matters that had been placed on hold due to the impact of the pandemic. The team has also commenced work on a strategy to support the NHS in returning to a 'new normal', reviewing pre-pandemic policy and regulations where necessary. Dawn and her team are also helping to develop the IG Portal which aims to provide extra consistency of policy and guidance accessible centrally.
Any other business
Christopher Fincken enquired about the progress of the decision template data sharing in domestic violence situations. This is currently with NHSx for consideration and feedback, and Council will be informed accordingly.
NHS Covid-19 App
Members of the NHS Covid-19 App Team including Randeep Sidhu (lead for the “what we make” pillar), Helen Jeffries (lead author of the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), and Alex Rogansky (stakeholder engagement manager), presented a demonstration of the latest version of the proposed NHS Covid-19 tracing app which forms part of the broader Test and Trace programme.
Members were interested to see the NHS Covid-19 App will be used in practice and asked about accessibility. The App Team has been working to meet accessibility standards including offering the app in multiple languages and allowing display changes to suit the visually impaired.
Members were broadly supportive of the aims of the app, whilst also making clear the importance of public engagement and transparency about how people's data will be used.
The App Team agreed to share communications materials for the NHS Covid 19 App upon release which can be distributed across the Caldicott Guardian networks.