NHS Litigation Authority Report and Accounts 2014/15
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AnnualAnnual Review Review NHS LitigationLitigation Authority Authority Report andand Accountsaccounts 2013/14 2014/15 SupportingFair resolution the NHS NHS Litigation Authority Report and Accounts 2014/15 Presented to Parliament pursuant to Paragraph 6 of Schedule 15 of the National Health Service Act 2006 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 16th July 2015 HC 293 © NHS Litigation Authority copyright 2015 The text of this document (this excludes, where present, the Royal Arms and all departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as NHS Litigation Authority copyright and the document title specified. Where third party material has been identified, permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. Any enquiries related to this publication should be sent to us at 151 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9SZ This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications Print ISBN 9781474117272 Web ISBN 9781474117289 ID 2903728 07/15 2903728 19585 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the Williams Lea Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Contents Contents Welcome ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Chair’s welcome .......................................................................................................................... 4 Chief Executive’s Report ............................................................................................................... 6 Drivers of clinical negligence costs ............................................................................................... 8 The year in summary ................................................................................................................. 14 Operations ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Claims management ................................................................................................................. 18 Legal developments and important cases for the NHS ............................................................... 28 National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS) .............................................................................. 33 Family Health Services Appeal Unit (FHSAU) ............................................................................... 39 Safety and learning .................................................................................................................. 43 External education and learning .................................................................................................. 48 Finance Report ......................................................................................................................... 49 People ....................................................................................................................................... 52 The year ahead in 2015/16 ........................................................................................................ 55 Strategic and Director’s Report ..................................................................................................... 59 Strategic Report ........................................................................................................................ 60 Directors’ Report ....................................................................................................................... 62 Remuneration Report ................................................................................................................ 63 Governance statement .............................................................................................................. 67 Financial Statements ...................................................................................................................... 83 Statement of Accounting Officer’s responsibilities ...................................................................... 84 The certificate and report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Houses of Parliament ................................................................................................................................. 85 Annual Accounts ....................................................................................................................... 87 Glossary ................................................................................................................................. 120 NHS Litigation Authority Report and Accounts 2014/15 1 NHS Litigation Authority 2 Report & Accounts 2014/15 Welcome Welcome Chair’s Welcome Welcome Ian Dilks Chair I have now been in the role of Chair for just over a year and writing this introduction is a good “The NHS LA does not determine time to reflect. Two things have become clear to either the policies or legal framework me in the last year. which we operate but we have unique unique insights into the financial First, the NHS LA is an effective organisation consequences of what those policies Operations which employs good and diligent people who and framework are. genuinely care about the NHS and its patients. ” The ever increasing volumes of work and the need to embrace the many changes that are One of our priorities for the year ahead is to occurring have placed considerable strains and I therefore work with policy makers, other NHS would like to take this opportunity to thank all bodies, clinicians and our scheme members to our staff for their commitment and hard work. inform the debate on what might be done to reduce the financial burden on the NHS and Second, the environment in which we operate increase the availability of scarce resources to the means that the costs of litigation are placing a NHS and its patients. This will include an burden on NHS finances of a magnitude that was increased focus on safety and learning, never imagined when the NHS LA was transferring back into the NHS our experience of established. what has caused harm to patients and what Strategic and Director’s Report Strategic and Director’s might be done to achieve reductions in harm and Last year we paid over £1.1 billion to patients the cost of harm. who suffered harm and their legal representatives, this coming year it will be The NHS LA was subject to a Triennial Review last c £1.4 billion and with accumulated provisions in year which examined both the need for and our balance sheet of over £28 billion further management of the risk pool operations of the significant increases are already in the pipeline. NHS LA (as a new part of our operations NCAS Currently over a third of what we spend each was not included in the review). The Review year is received by the legal profession and, as confirms the effectiveness of the NHS LA’s later pages explain, most of this is paid to operations and is supportive of our priorities for Report and Accounts claimants’ lawyers. the next few years. NHS Litigation Authority 4 Report and Accounts 2014/15 Welcome There have been a number of senior management and Board changes in the year. Catherine Dixon, our former Chief Executive, left us at the end of November 2014 to take up a new role as the Chief Executive of the Law Welcome Society. We are grateful to Catherine for the changes she initiated in her time with us. After an extensive selection process we appointed Helen Vernon as our new Chief Executive on 1 December. Helen was previously our Director of Claims and the fact that we were able to make an internal appointment, despite the quality of external candidates is a testament to the quality of people in the NHS LA. Professor Rory Shaw’s term as a Non-Executive Operations Director ended on 31 March 2015 and we are very grateful for his support over eight years. On 1 April we were delighted to appoint Professor Keith Edmonds to our Board. Keith is a Consultant Gynaecologist and his experience will be invaluable to us in the years ahead. On 30 April 2015 Nina Wrightson, our Vice Chair and Senior Independent Director, stood down from Strategic and Director’s Report Strategic and Director’s the Board after eight years’ service to the NHS LA. Our thanks go to Nina for her past contributions. The next year will undoubtedly be challenging for the NHS LA as we seek to respond to the many challenges that already face us and the further changes that are likely to come. Further details are set out in the pages that follow. However we have good leadership, good people and a focus on what we need to do, so I am confident that the organisation will be capable of meeting these Report and Accounts challenges. NHS Litigation Authority Report and Accounts 2014/15 5 Welcome Chief Executive’s Report Welcome Helen Vernon Chief Executive Officer I was appointed as Chief Executive in December a lower value, there is a clear need to move to a 2014, following a number of years working position where legal costs are more proportionate within the NHS LA’s claims function, latterly as to damages. We are keen to work with others in the Director of Claims. I am proud of the NHS the market to ensure that claimants have a place LA’s record in achieving ‘fair resolution’. to go for skilled and experienced support. Operations