Gifts and Hospitality Policy

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1 Gifts and Hospitality Policy Compliance with all CCG policies, procedures, protocols, guidelines, guidance and standards is a condition of employment. Breach of policy may result in disciplinary action.

2 Version Control Version Date Issued Details 0.1 Draft 0.2 Draft /10/2014 Final Brief Summary of Change New document Updated to show that CWS Governance Team is responsible for maintaining the Gifts & Hospitality register Minor grammatical changes and changes to wording throughout. Author CWS CCG Governance Team Assistant Head of Corporate Business For more information on the status of this policy, please contact: Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group Approved by Corporate Business Team Noah Curthoys Approval Date 09/10/2014 Next Review Date 09/04/2016 Responsibility for Review Corporate Business Team Contributors Audience All CCG officers and staff (which includes temporary staff, contractors and seconded staff) and CCG members in their capacity as commissioners. NHS Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group is the clinical commissioning group covering Adur, Arun, ARCH (Association of Regis and Chichester) Chanctonbury and Cissbury (Worthing) Localities An Equality impact assessment has been carried out to ensure that this policy is non-discriminatory 1

3 Contents 1. Background Position for GP Members Gifts Hospitality and Meetings Document Development and Responsibilities Governance Policy implementation and review... 7 Appendix A- Gifts and Hospitality Approval Form... 7 Appendix B- External Remunerated Activity Declaration Form

4 Background This document sets out the policy and management of Gifts and Hospitality for all staff employed by NHS Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (the CCG). The description CCG staff covers all staff employed by Coastal West Sussex whether directly working for the CCG or on secondment to/from other organisations, and all members of the Clinical Commissioning Executive, it s Committees and any other Committee or working group member in respect of their CCG responsibilities. This policy should be read in conjunction with: Policy and Procedure for Declarations of Interest and Register of Interests. Policy on Commercial Interaction with the Pharmaceutical and Related Industries CCG Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions. Standards of Business Conduct HSE(93) 5 The NHS Code of Conduct The Seven Principles of Public Life The CCG is determined to ensure the organisation inspires confidence and trust amongst its members, patients, staff, partners, funders and suppliers by demonstrating integrity and avoiding any potential or real situations of undue bias or influence in the decision-making of the CCG or its staff. 2. Position for GP Members Coastal West Sussex CCG is a membership organisation with a statutory responsibility for commissioning specified services for their population. It is recognised that individual GPs, who may have a role within the CCG have a separate role as providers of services. High standards of probity and transparency are required when fulfilling both roles, however activities undertaken as providers of services are regulated and governed through separate processes, including the GMC and adhering to the principles set out in Good Medical Practice. While the CCG policy relates to activities undertaken in relation to fulfilling CCG responsibilities, in practice it will be impossible to ever draw a completely separate distinction between the two roles. 3

5 The primary objective is to ensure transparency and openness in all dealings and GPs undertaking a position of decision making within the commissioning organisation are encouraged to declare all gifts and hospitality (with the exceptions outlined below) for the purposes of full transparency and openness. GPs that may be considered as having decision making powers are: 1 Nominated Practice representatives as members of the CCG/Locality Group 2 Clinical Directors, Clinical Chairs and Clinical Chief Officers selected or elected serving on the Clinical Commissioning Executive, Governing Body and / or other committees 3 GPs undertaking short term project work for the duration of that work period only. 3. Gifts Casual gifts offered by contractors or others may not be in any way connected with the performance of duties as an employee of the CCG, Clinical Commissioning Executive or a Governing Body member and must nevertheless be refused. Articles of low intrinsic value such as diaries, calendars or stationery need not necessarily be refused. The offer of individual gifts with a value exceeding 25 whether accepted or declined or several small gifts worth a total of over 100 from the same or closely related source in a 12 month period must be reported, using the attached form to the CCG s Audit and Assurance Committee. This must also be recorded in the Gifts and Hospitality Register maintained by the CWS Governance Team. In this context small gifts received by GPs from individual patients (for example Christmas gifts) are excluded. It is not appropriate to give monetary or non - monetary gifts to individuals or organisations at public expense. 4. Hospitality and Meetings Modest hospitality, provided it is normal and reasonable in the circumstances, e.g. lunch in the course of working visits, may be acceptable, though it must be similar to the scale of hospitality which the NHS as an employer would be likely to offer. The following extract from the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Code of Professional Conduct 2011 is useful in framing the extent of acceptable hospitality and this is consistent with Commercial Sponsorship Ethical Standards for 4

6 the NHS and The Medicines (Advertising) Regulations 1994: Companies must not provide hospitality to members of the health professions and appropriate administrative staff except in association with scientific meetings, promotional meetings, scientific congresses and other such meetings, and training. Meetings must be held in appropriate venues conducive to the main purpose of the event. Hospitality must be strictly limited to the main purpose of the event and must be secondary to the purpose of the meeting i.e. subsistence only. The level of subsistence offered must be appropriate and not out of proportion to the occasion. The costs involved must not exceed that level which the recipients would normally adopt when paying for themselves. It must not extend beyond members of the health professions or appropriate administrative staff. Where meetings are sponsored by external sources then the fact must be disclosed in the papers relating to the meeting and any published proceedings. The offer of hospitality with a value exceeding 25 whether accepted or declined or several small offers of hospitality worth a total of over 100 from the same or closely related source in a 12 month period must be reported, using the attached form to the CCG s Audit and Assurance Committee and will be recorded in the Gifts and Hospitality Register maintained by the CWS Corporate Business Team. For clarity - in this context where a Practice accepts reasonable hospitality in the sponsorship of meetings related specifically to practice business this can be excluded. Individual GPs with roles of responsibility within the CCG should consider if practice sponsorship is of a frequent or enduring nature whether it should be disclosed if it could be perceived to have an impact on CCG business. It is recognised that some GP members undertaking roles of responsibility within CWS CCG will also be offered remunerated engagements such as speaking at conferences or serving on advisory panels. These engagements may be related to their CCG role i.e.: the individual is invited because they are the Chair of a CCG. Equally they may be related to their professional GP status such as service on an advisory panel. Because of their self-employed status, GPs will be able to accept such payments in circumstances where a CCG employee would not expect to receive a fee or would if undertaken during work time, pay the fee to the employing organisation in recompense for their time. In these circumstances, the payment is not strictly a gift or hospitality and those terms could give the wrong impression. However in line with the principle of openness and transparency it would be preferable that these are declared and known. If undertaking public office, additional sources of income could be judged to be in the public interest. This policy therefore covers the inclusion of such paid engagements for persons covered by this policy- please see Appendix B. It should be noted that any standing and on-going interests will be declared in 5

7 the Coastal West Sussex CCG Register of Interests for all members, so this inclusion relates to events occurring outside of these standing interests. 5. Document Development and Responsibilities All CCG staff are responsible for ensuring that a record is kept of all offers of gifts or hospitality whether accepted or not as per Appendix A. Approval must be obtained in advance for any acceptance of a gift or hospitality as described above. Any gifts or hospitality declined must still be noted and brought to the relevant approver s notice. The approval form is included as Appendix A to this document and the level of approval required is set out in the table below: Applicant Clinical Commissioning Executive member (excluding Chair & Accountable Officer) Accountable Officer / CCG Chair GP Member with CCG responsibilities All other staff members Approval Required Two other Clinical Commissioning members (one to be one of the lay members) Lay member for Audit and Assurance Committee and one other Clinical Commissioning Executive member CCG Chair and one other member Line Manager It is a criminal offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and 1916 for employees corruptly to accept any gifts or consideration as an inducement or reward for: Doing, or refraining from doing, anything in their official capacity, or Showing favour or disfavour to any person in their official capacity. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1916, any money, gift or consideration received by an employee in public service from a person or organisation holding or seeking to obtain a contract will be deemed by the courts to have been received corruptly unless the employee proves the contrary. A breach of the provisions in these Acts renders staff liable to prosecution and may also lead to loss of employment and superannuation rights in the NHS. 6

8 6. Governance The Chief Finance Officer will ensure that all declarations in respect of Gifts and Hospitality are recorded on the appropriate Register which will be subject to regular external scrutiny. In the event that a breach of policy has occurred that cannot be dealt with through an employment disciplinary process, the CCG will seek external review and determine appropriate action. 7. Policy implementation and review Staff will be made aware of their obligations at induction and Line Managers must ensure that all staff have access to the policy. This policy will be reviewed every 18 months. Appendix A- Gifts and Hospitality Approval Form 7

9 To be completed on all occasions where: 1 An offer of a gift with a value exceeding 25 whether accepted or declined has been made 2 Several small gifts worth a total of over 100 from the same or closely related source in a 12 month period have been made 3 An offer of hospitality with a value exceeding 25 whether accepted or declined has been made 4 Several small offers of hospitality worth a total of over 100 from the same or closely related source in a 12 month period have been made Date: Department: Name: Offer received from: Offer: Approximate Value Details of gift or Hospitality: Where a gift or hospitality is to be accepted, prior approval is required. I declare that the proposed hospitality is entirely consistent with the requirement of the Code of Conduct for NHS managers that decisions are not improperly influenced by gifts or advancements. Signed: (Applicant).. Approved / Authorisation: X X Approved / Authorisation: X X. Please return this form to: 8

10 CWS CCG Corporate Business Team Attn: Head of Corporate Business The Causeway Durrington Worthing West Sussex BN12 6BT Appendix B- External Remunerated Activity Declaration Form 9

11 To be completed on all occasions where: CWS CCG committee member has accepted remunerated activity not covered by standing register of interests Activity may be in persons own time but must be declared in the interests of transparency and openness Date: Department: Name: Nature of Engagement: e.g. speaking / advisor Honorarium / Fee received Was this in CWS CCG funded time? Was this in connection with you CWS CCG Role? Details: Signature.. Position. Please return this form to: CWS CCG Corporate Business Team 10

12 Attn: Head of Corporate Business The Causeway Durrington Worthing West Sussex BN12 6BT 11