Last review date 27/06/2023

National Contracts Disclaimer

We are still in the process of updating the full suite of NCD resources for 2024-25. Please see the IIF 24/25 guide for resources produced so far. 

NCD 2023-24

Ardens can support practices and PCNs with the delivery of the Network Contract DES (NCD) in many ways.  

The NCD DES dashboard is also available on Ardens Manager for all Ardens Manager National Contract subscribers. 

1. Templates

The PCN DES template hosts all the code clusters alongside links to any corresponding more detailed templates. Access the main template by going to 'Auto-Consultation > Contracts > NCD PCN DES'.  You can make it even quicker to access the template by adding it to your F12 favourites. 

Codes linked to payment/IIF indicators are highlighted with a blue star and £
Codes linked to management/service requirement indicators are highlighted with a blue star

2. Reports 

Disclaimer: The Ardens National Contract Reports (including QOF, NCD, SMI, NHS HC) are to be used purely as an indicative guide for practices for practical purposes. They are not intended to replace the national reports. Whilst they are based on the business rules, they do not accurately reflect every rule.

All NCD clinical reports can be found under 'Clinical Reporting > Ardens > Contracts | 2023 24 | NCD'.

2.1 IIF

These folders support the IIF requirements and are broken down into IIF and IIF work to do

a IIF - Will show IIF activity achieved

Please note the following-

Cancer - Final achievement for the IIF Cancer indicator is based on activity count (number of Lower GI 2WW referrals with a FIT test recorded in the 21 days before the referral) rather than patient count (patients may have multiple referrals recorded in the year). It is not possible to set the percentage column in clinical reporting to show a percentage of activity count therefore the percentage shown will not be an accurate calculation to work from (The percentage shown is the percentage of patients in the report against your whole practice capitation).

Access - The IIF access indicator (ACC-08 - Percentage of appointments where time from booking to appointment was two weeks or less) is based on GPAD data so we are unable to build any reports in SystmOne to assist with this. It is therefore really important you ensure your local SystmOne slots types have all been mapped to the correct national category slot types - Further information on the national slot types including examples can be found here (Page 7).

ACC-08 includes slot types mapped to any of the following 8 national category slot types (Further specific information on ACC-08 can be found here)

• General Consultation Acute
• General Consultation Routine
• Unplanned Clinical Activity
• Clinical Triage
• Walk-in
• Home Visit
• Care Home Visit
• Care Related Encounter but does not fit into any other category

To check your slot mapping in SystmOne go to Setup > Appointments > Slot Types

You can then check which National Category Slot Type has been mapped to your local SystmOne slot types (including any that havent been mapped at all)

To add/amend the mapped National Slot Type select the required slot and click Amend Slot Type.

You can then select the required National Slot Type needed from the National Slot Type Category drop down.

Systmone have now introduced the ability to 'exception report' appointments mapped to 4 of the 8 national categories included in the ACC-08 indicator if you are booking the appointment more than 14 calendar days in the future. The 4 national categories that can be exception reported are: 

• General Consultation Routine
• Home Visit
• Care Home Visit
• Care Related Encounter but does not fit into any other category 

When you are booking an appointment that meets the criteria above you will now have the ability to record an exception reason.

The exception reasons available are -

• Patient preferred an Appointment on a future date or at a specific time 
• Clinician requested follow-up Appointment after providing care or advice 
• Patient preferred an Appointment with a specific clinician or Practice User
• Patient preferred an Appointment in a specific location

Please note the following from SystmOne -  NHS England have advised that PCN performance for 23/24 will continue to be measured through the existing ACC-08 indicator. At this stage, Exception Reporting is being introduced for testing and data development only and will have no affect on ACC-08 achievement payments. 

If you are an Ardens Manager National Contract Subscriber you can log in here to view the Network Contract DES Dashboard which includes your GPAD data or you can log in to the National GPAD Dashboard here.

b IIF Work to do - Will show outstanding IIF work to do

2.2 Service Requirements (no specific targets)

The folders c to l support the different service requirements included in the Network Contract DES (where we are able to provide reports). 

c Other Work to Do - Will show all outstanding work to do for the service requirement reports

d to l - Will show work done for the service requirements split into the different areas (Cancer, Capacity and Access, Care Homes, CVD, Inequalities, Other, Prescribing, Vaccinations and Workforce). These are generally based on work done in the last 12 months (rolling period) and not limited to only work done between 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2024. 

m End of financial year - Will show work done for the service requirements based on work done between 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2024. 

Please note the following -

There are only end of financial year reports where required so not all service requirement reports found in the folders d-l will have an equivalent end of financial year report.

Some of these reports will return the same number as the equivalent service requirement report found in the folders d-l. For example Inequalities | Autism - Register and EOFY | Inequalities | Autism - Register will return the same numbers as they are only register reports.

Some of these reports will return 0 patients until later in the fiscal year. For example, EOFY | Drug Monitoring | On methotrexate + FBC done in L3M + age >=18y will only return patients who have had a FBC between 1st Jan 2024 and 31st March 2024. 

n Data Quality - Will show patients who have potential incorrect or missing codes/smartcard roles covering both the IIF and service requirement reports.

o Denominators - Will show all the denominator reports used for both the IIF and service requirement reports.

Please note the following- 

Workforce - The workforce reports all look at smartcard roles rather than 'seen by' SNOMED codes. It is therefore important you check staff have the correct smartcard role for their ARRS role.

The following table lists each ARRS role and the Smartcard roles that are included in the business rules - 

 This also links to the QOF QI indicator (QI018 - The contractor has participated in network activity to review the samrt cards of all staff employed under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS)) which is worth 6 QOF points.

3. Additional Support Articles

The following support articles provide further information about supporting resources on Ardens:

• Structured Medication Review

• Enhanced Health in Care Homes 

• Early Cancer Diagnosis

• Social Prescribing Service

• Learning Disability Health Checks

4. Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS)

The following roles can all be supported by Ardens:

• Care Coordinator
• Clinical Pharmacist
• Dietician
• First Contact Practitioner
• Health and Wellbeing Coach
• Mental Health Practitioner
• Nursing Associate
• Occupational Therapist
• Paramedic
  
• Pharmacist Technician
• Physician Associate
• Podiatrist
• Social Prescriber
• Trainee Nursing Associate

These individual templates can be found via 'Auto-Consultation > ardens OTHER PROFESSIONALS

Further learning - for an overview of the Network Contract DES requirements for this year, access Ardens Academy and enrol on the Introduction to the Network Contract DES module.