Quangos and HIV

posted: 15/10/2010

The government promised a bonfire of the quangos, but it seems that beneath the surface not a lot will change for HIV. Two HIV advisory groups are scrapped, the Health Protection Agency will go, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be reformed, the Cabinet Office said.
 

Not a lot will change with the scrapping of the two HIV advisory groups. They don’t really disappear at all. One will be reincarnated as a Department of Health / Public Health Service committee of experts, and the other will be reborn as a stakeholder advisory group. Will anyone be able to tell the difference – we don’t think so.

The Health Protection Agency will be abolished and its work transferred to the proposed Public Health Service. Details have not been published.

The EHRC will be reformed but there are no details yet. An EHRC spokeswoman said that the situation was currently "largely speculative" and any proposed changes would be subject to wider consultation. The government is understood to be keen to "streamline" the commission and part of its work may be incorporated into the Government Equalities Office. A Government Equalities Office spokesman said the commission's work was currently being assessed with decisions to be made later in the year.
 

List of Quango changes

Axe for HIV quangos?

posted: 04/10/2010

Two expert HIV advisory bodies - quangos - could be abolished under government plans to save money. Both the 'Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS' and the 'Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV' are on a leaked list of quangos that are to be scrapped, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. Two other quangos performing useful work for people with HIV could also be abolished - the Health Protection Agency (HPA), and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
 

Both of the HIV advisory bodies offer expert advice to the government from national experts; and the Health Protection Agency produces all the national HIV statistics and public health guidance, and the EHRC acts as a human rights watchdog, looking after the interests of people with HIV, among other groups.
 

After the election, prime minister David Cameron promised a "bonfire of the quangos" to save public money. Thousands of jobs are expected to be lost. The fate of these quangos should become clear after the autumn spending review is published in late October. Both the Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS  and the Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV are unpaid advisory bodies.

Scrapping these two advisory bodies will save almost no money, but the price we would all pay would be the loss of valuable HIV expertise the Department of Health does not have among its own staff and ministers. 
 

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Social Care Rises in Importance

posted: 25/11/2009

While social care is growing more important for people with HIV, workforce standards and uncertain future funding all cause concerns, say expert government HIV advisers.
 

In its annual report and advice to the government, the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, say that already 15% of people with HIV are 50 or over, and this proportion of older people will rise, faster.
 

This means services will face new service and information needs, such as about dealing with pensions, potential treatment clashes between HIV medicines and those for age-related conditions, as well as the long-term care needs of HIV positive people.
 

Workforce ignorance
The group warned there were "considerable gaps in knowledge about HIV" among social care and NHS staff. It also highlighted the government's failure to meet its pledge to introduce standards for delivering social care for people with HIV, which was part of its 2001 National Strategy on Sexual Health and HIV.

Aids Support Grant must be kept
The report worries about the "recent closure of HIV-specific services in some local authorities" and says the Department of Health must keep ring-fenced Aids Support Grant (ASG). This is for funding social care services for people with HIV/AIDS and totalled £21.8m in 2009-10, and the DH has promised to distribute a similar sum in 2010-11.

However, the grant's future beyond 2011 is uncertain, and a survey published by the National Aids Trust in August found a third of councils would cut services if the ring fence was removed. Community sector organisations were even more pessimistic about future HIV spending levels if this happened.
 

The expert group say: "The ASG has been an important catalyst in the development of services in local authorities and, as clinical experience illustrates, its continuation, indeed the monitoring of its use, is an important part of the package of care that is needed now and in the future."

Report of The Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV - Building on progress: Enhancing the response to HIV in England
 

image credit HIV and Social Care website

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