SAFE EFFECTIVE CARE. The Nursing Technology Fund LEADERSHIP SUPPORTING CLINICAL AND PROFESSIONAL IMPROVED OUTCOMES

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1 The Nursing Technology Fund SUPPORTING SAFE EFFECTIVE CARE CLINICAL AND PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IMPROVED OUTCOMES RIGHT DATA, RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME High quality care for all, now and in the future

2 NHS England INFORMATION READER BOX Directorate Medical Nursing Finance Operations Policy Human Resources Patients and Information Commissioning Development Publications Gateway Reference: Document Purpose Document Name Author Guidance Nursing Technology Fund Paul Rice Publication Date December 2013 Target Audience Care Trust CEs, Foundation Trust CEs, Directors of Nursing, NHS England Regional Directors, NHS England Area Directors, NHS Trust Board Chairs, Directors of Finance, NHS Trust CEs Additional Circulation List Medical Directors Description Cross Reference Superseded Docs (if applicable) Action Required Timing/Deadlines (if applicable) Contact Details for further information This document provides full details for NHS trusts including foundation trusts of the process for applications to the Nursing Technology Fund. It highlights the benefits delivered by nursing staff who use new information technologies as part of redesigned clinical business processes. These benefits are available in all care settings. Compassion in Practice Safer Hospitals Safer Wards: Achieving an integrated digital care record N/A Submission of applications to the Nursing Technology Fund 15 January 2014 Paul Rice Head of Technology Strategy Room 7E14 Quarry House LS27UE Documents Status This is a controlled document. Whilst this document may be printed, the electronic version posted on the intranet is the controlled copy. Any printed copies of this document are not controlled. As a controlled document, this document should not be saved onto local or network drives but should always be accessed from the intranet

3 3 Contents Foreword 4 1. Introduction Background Strategic Context Delivering the Vision 8 2. The Nursing Technology Fund Programme Overview Enabling the Delivery of Modern Nursing Care and Practice Organisational Eligibility Factors to Consider in Applying to the Fund The Focus for FY2013/14 Funding Application Process for FY2013/14 Funding Key Dates The Application Pack Submitting an Application Evaluating the Applications Received Memorandum of Understanding/Agreement Further Guidance for Applicants Expression of Interest for FY2014/15 Funding Rationale Process Further Considerations Public Dividend Capital and Funding Considerations Capital Classification Public Sector Equality Duty 19

4 4 Foreword Not only is the demand for healthcare increasing with an ageing population and more patients with multiple conditions but the role of nurses, midwives and care staff is also changing. In this climate, it is both timely and fitting that we are launching the Nursing Technology Fund 100m of funding uniquely available to technology projects which will support nurses, midwives and health visitors to make better use of digital systems to deliver new kinds of care and care in all settings including people s homes. It will enable nurses to get information on patients conditions in real time to ensure care is effective. It will enable information to be shared effectively between clinical teams and with patients and people using services. Technology can support care to be efficient and reduce bureaucracy so that nurses have maximum time to care.the fund will support nurse and midwife-led activities across trusts in England, including foundation, acute, community, mental health and ambulance trusts. It doesn t matter how technologically advanced an organisation is, we welcome applications from any nurse or midwife who can demonstrate benefits to patients and nursing or midwifery staff through the use of a particular piece of digital technology. This is a fundamental part of NHS England s drive to help deliver an information revolution essential to creating a modern, safe NHS where staff have the right tools and information to do their jobs effectively. Nurses, midwives and care staff play an extraordinary role in providing compassionate care, often when people are at their most vulnerable. Compassion in Practice, the vision and strategy for nursing, midwifery and care staff, sets out an explicit commitment to ensuring nursing and midwifery practice is supported by appropriate technology. The Safer Hospitals Safer Wards Technology Fund supports NHS trusts and foundation trusts investment in the underlying capability to provide comprehensive information about patients and decision support at the point of care. By enabling patient information to be accessed and updated at the point of care whether that is in a patient s home or in a hospital setting nurses and midwives will have at hand all the information they need to deliver a safe, personalised, efficient service and be freed from the burden of unnecessary paperwork. For this reason, we have established a fund specifically for nurses, midwives and health visitors. As its primary objective, the Nursing Technology Fund aims to support nurses, midwives and health visitors to realise their desire to deliver safe, compassionate care and spend more time with their patients. Whether it is digital pens, mobile apps or automated vital signs recording, digital technologies will enable nurses to see more patients for longer and reduce the time spent on unnecessary travel to locations where patient information can be accessed and updated.

5 Foreword 5 However, implementing new digital ways of working will only be successful if nurses, midwives and health visitors value and want to use the equipment on offer. This is why we are asking for applications to the fund to come directly from those who will use the systems. Managers, finance colleagues and IT specialists will, of course, need to play their part, but we will ensure that the Nursing Technology Fund supports those projects which nurses believe will bring about the greatest benefits for them and their patients. Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England Viv Bennett, Department of Health s Director of Nursing and the Government s Principal Advisor on Public Health Nursing Beverley Bryant, Director of Strategic Systems and Technology, NHS England

6 6 1. Introduction 1.1 Background In October 2012, the Prime Minister announced the establishment of a 100m capital technology fund to help free up nurses and midwives time to care by equipping them with technologies designed to help provide safer, more effective and more efficient care to patients and service users. The Department of Health created the fund and NHS England will make the central funding available through two application rounds held during 2013/14 and 2014/15. The capital funding will be issued in the form of Public Dividend Capital (PDC) for NHS trusts and foundation trusts to spend on eligible projects. A total of 30m is available in FY2013/14 for this first round which must be spent before the end of the 2013/14 financial year. This first round is available to projects with procurement channels in place. In a modern NHS, front line nurses and midwives require access to the appropriate information technology to drive up clinical quality, increase patient safety and engage patients and carers in decision making about their care. Across the country, routine paper based or manual activities are being replaced with technology enabled alternatives. These improve efficiency and effectiveness, supporting nurses and midwives to access and record clinical information once at the point of care delivery, whether in a hospital or community setting. Mobile working eliminates the need to make unnecessary trips back to the office as the information and insights required to deliver high quality care are available at the nurse s finger tips. Technology that allows the recording of vital signs at the bedside delivers accurate information on the patient s health status at the touch of a button with in-built alarms triggered to attract attention where a patient is deteriorating. The adoption of new technologies is also essential in order to deliver on Government priorities for transforming community care including prevention, integration and the delivery of more complex care delivered at home, for example, supporting vulnerable older people, preventing hospital admissions for people with long-term conditions and delivering high quality end of life care in the community. 1.2 Strategic Context The launch of the Nursing Technology Fund has come, in part, as a response to the Government s commitment to reduce the burden of bureaucracy on nurses. Chapter three in The Power of Information, the ten-year framework for transforming information for health and care, published in May 2012, outlines how health and care professionals can use connected information

7 1. Introduction 7 and new technology to join up and improve services, make better informed decisions and deliver safer, more integrated care. This chapter notes the benefits and efficiencies that flow from information being recorded once and shared securely. The report and the Impact Assessment are accessed via the web links below. In its letter to the Prime Minister, the Nursing and Care Quality Forum (NCQF) recommended that nurses have more time to spend on delivering care and that local organisations use technology to free up nursing time. In the summer of 2012, the NCQF also commissioned the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to conduct a study into bureaucracy affecting nurses in the NHS. It published a report in September 2012 entitled Patients not Paperwork. The report included an online survey in which the overwhelming majority of nurses who responded (77.9%) confirmed that it was difficult and time-consuming to complete paperwork and 68% felt that it added little value to patient care. The report examined, at a high level, the issues with using technology to reduce bureaucracy, noting the types of technology on offer, what could be achieved with investment in technology and any limitations. The Strategy for Nursing, Compassion in Practice, launched in November 2012 further identified how improvements to patient care can be enabled through good information systems. Staff need the right tools to be able to spend as much time as possible with patients and as detailed in action area 3, delivering high quality care and measuring impact requires care to be delivered that is evidence-based. Timely, accurate and comprehensive measurement of outcomes drives improvement; technology can help make this a reality. In addition nurses and midwives need access to the latest technology to enable them to ensure their practice is able to capitalise on the emerging technologies that make it possible to deliver care in ways that were not imaginable in the past. But investment in technology can and should also bring more than the reduction of bureaucracy. It should be both part of the daily practice of nursing and midwifery and also a way of bringing about organisational change. For example, one of the aims of Transforming Community Services was to bring about changes to community services to provide better health outcomes for patients, families and communities as well as increasing efficiency through modernisation of care by better use of information and information technology. Patients First and Foremost the Government s initial response to the Francis Inquiry, published in March 2013 noted that a key to improving the working lives of dh_ pdf.pdf dh_ pdf.pdf

8 8 1. Introduction staff is to reduce the volume of paperwork they are required to fill in, so that they can focus the vast majority of their time on their patients. At the start of July 2013 NHS England published Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards, achieving an integrated digital care record. This guidance was accompanied by the launch of the Safer Hospitals Safer Wards Technology Fund which committed 260m in financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15 to support NHS trusts on their journey from paper to paper light to paperless. At the start of September 2013 the Secretary of State for Health announced that an additional 250m had been earmarked to enhance the fund in 2014/15 and extend the fund into 2015/ Delivering the Vision The above context outlines some of the reasons why investment in technology can support nurses in delivering the best care possible. Critically, introduction of new service models or clinical business processes enabled by technology must be led by frontline clinicians. Without this commitment technologies languish on shelves, old processes and new processes maintained alongside one another are crushingly inefficient, and practitioners develop work-arounds that fundamentally diminish the impact and impair the benefits anticipated. The Nursing Technology Fund will operate on the principle that nurses and midwives in the frontline should champion and lead the decision making process about the technology in use in their organisations, supported effectively by technical and procurement specialists. Senior managers will ensure decisions are made in a strategically coherent manner. IT projects that are clinically led are more likely to be successful and this fund gives nursing teams a great opportunity to lead in the area of technology adoption and clinical informatics. Nursing and midwifery teams need to be fully engaged in the process of introducing new technology into their working environment to ensure projects are successful, but a range of others, including other ward staff, doctors, allied health professionals and those working in laboratory, imaging or pharmacy roles also need to be involved. Commissioners of services also need to recognise the crucial part that technology can play to support safe, high quality and efficient care. When clinicians have seen the real benefits of using new systems enabled by technology they are hugely resistant to their removal, frequently questioning how did we ever live without this?

9 9 2. The Nursing Technology Fund 2.1 Programme Overview The Department of Health has made 100m of capital available to the fund to be issued in the form of Public Dividend Capital (PDC) for NHS trusts and foundation trusts to spend on eligible projects. A total of 30m is available in FY2013/14 and 70m in FY2014/15. This central capital funding must be spent before the end of the relevant financial year. There will be two application rounds. The first round is for applications for FY2013/14 funding. Further information about the application process for the 70m available in FY2014/15 will be published in spring Enabling the Delivery of Modern Nursing Care and Practice The projects funded by the Nursing Technology Fund are envisaged to deliver a range of benefits for nurses and midwives, helping them: improve patient outcomes through access to information and resources at the point of care; use evaluated web based information to support self-care and health promotion where appropriate sharing records with patients/people using services; see an increased number of patients at the bedside or in their own home; spend more quality time with individual patients with a heightened level of acuity and dependency; reduce unnecessary journeys and overall amount of time spent travelling; significantly reduce multiple collections, transpositions and duplication of data; significantly streamline care processes by eliminating non-value adding steps; and improve access to services and reduce waiting time as a result of releasing time to care. 2.3 Organisational Eligibility The Nursing Technology Fund is available to support nurse or midwife led activity in all NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England, including acute, community, mental health and ambulance trusts. Due to the nature of the funding route, Public Dividend Capital (PDC), it is not appropriate for networks, charities, social enterprises or commercial companies to submit an application to the fund in their own right.

10 10 2. The Nursing Technology Fund However, NHS organisations may choose to partner with other organisations to deliver the objectives they outline in their proposals. Trusts working in partnership must ensure that all capital assets purchased through the Nursing Technology Fund are capitalised in accordance with trust guidelines. It is recognised that all NHS organisations are at different stages with regard to having the underlying technical capability in place to maximise the benefits available from such investment. The capital fund invites applications from eligible organisations irrespective of their current level of clinical digital maturity or technical capability. 2.4 Factors to Consider in Applying to the Fund It is recognised that timescales are tight for the first round of applications for FY13/14 funding, both in terms of completing the application, and then if successful, in spending the funds before the end of the financial year. Organisations considering submitting an application in the first round should note Section 2.5, which sets out some characteristics that successful applications are likely to share. Organisations are allowed to make up to three submissions one per proposed project - in both application rounds. There are no limits on the amount of funding requested by an organisation per project, per round, or overall. Proposed projects should aim to deliver a value for money return in line with the Department of Health expectations of major capital funded projects a VFM ratio of 2.4:1. Organisations must be able to afford the NHS capital charges, depreciation and any other consequential revenue or capital run-on costs arising from the initial award. Section 5.1 provides further information on Public Dividend Capital and funding considerations, and Section 5.2 provides guidance on capital classification. Funding may be used to: enhance or supplement existing capability; and/or support investment in new capability. Successful applicants will be expected to fulfil a series of obligations in return for funding, and to commit to these through signing a Memorandum of Understanding / Agreement. Further details are provided in Section 3.5. Organisations intending to submit an application in the first round of funding for FY2013/14 should refer to Section 3, which provides further details of the application process. Organisations with an interest in the second round of funding for FY2014/15 are requested to complete an Expression of Interest. Further details are provided in Section 4.

11 2. The Nursing Technology Fund The Focus for FY2013/14 Funding Three technology types have initially been selected because the benefits of these systems are well understood, there is experience in implementation and the potential time and cost savings to be gained are evidence based. The technology types are: digital pens; mobile technology; and systems for collection and logging of vital signs and essential clinical information that enables uploading to digital care records. Funds requested must be for hardware and associated software for example, operating systems or extending the licensing of core clinical systems to mobile devices. Funding should not be used for infrastructure development (including wireless infrastructure), nor for bespoke single instance application development. For applicants to be successful in the first round, they will need to already have a degree of momentum behind their proposed projects, to enable: a quality application to be submitted by the published deadline; the funds to be spent by the end of the financial year (FY13/14); the requisite clinical business process change to be in step with the technology deployment; and a clear benefits realisation strategy to bear fruit within a reasonable timeframe from the funding being awarded. Consequently, the evaluation of first round applications will look for, amongst other things, evidence of: nursing leadership of the project being in place; Director of Finance approval secured; a credible sourcing approach that can deliver rapidly; and an existing infrastructure for managing projects and tracking benefits.

12 12 3. Application Process for FY2013/14 Funding This section details the process for eligible organisations to follow to apply for FY2013/14 funding. 3.1 Key Dates Submission of applications 15 January 2014 midday Notification of successful / unsuccessful applications mid-february 2014 Completion of Memorandum of Understanding / Agreement end-february The Application Pack The pack consists of the following templates to complete and submit: Application Form; Financial Analysis; and Value for Money Analysis. The Value for Money Analysis requires applicants to detail projected costs and benefits. The spreadsheet automatically applies discounting and calculates the VFM ratio. It also requires risks to be documented. Additionally, a Technology Diagram is required to be submitted as part of the application. Further details are provided in the Application Form. Please remember that if you are applying for funding for more than one project, separate forms need to be submitted for each project. The application pack also consists of the following supporting information: Prospectus (this document); Application Instructions for Bidders; and VFM Guidance. The application pack documents are available to download from uk/ourwork/tsd/sst/nursing-technology-fund/. Please share or signpost these documents with relevant subject matter experts in your organisation. The Financial Analysis requires applicants to include an indication of the total project costs by year, the profile of the costs split by capital/revenue, the amount of capital sought from the fund and the on-going revenue funding provided by the trust.

13 3. Application Process for FY2013/14 Funding Submitting an Application Your completed documents should be sent in a single to england. nhsnursingtechfund@nhs.net by the deadline of midday on 15 January Late applications will not be accepted. Please remember that if you are applying for funding for more than one project, separate applications need to be made. Organisations submitting an application to the fund will receive an within two working days confirming receipt. Any technical problems with the application process must be reported by to england.nhsnursingtechfund@nhs.net. Further instructions on submitting an application are detailed in the guidance document Application Instructions for Bidders. 3.4 Evaluating the Applications Received Applications will initially be screened for eligibility against the following criteria: organisational eligibility (see Section 2.3); commitment to spend any funding received before the end of the financial year; and the proposed technology solution is aligned with the focus for FY2013/14 funding (see Section 2.5). Applications that succeed at this stage of the process will then undergo a technical assessment, and if this is passed, a detailed evaluation will be undertaken, led by Regional, Area team and Clinical Commissioning Group lead nurses. They will be supported by a team of expert advisors including clinical, financial, commercial and technical representatives, drawn from a number of organisations including NHS England, the Department of Health, the Health and Social Care Information Centre and trusts. The detailed evaluation will result in different aspects of the application being scored, and the weighted scores will contribute to an overall score for the application. The highest scoring applications are likely to display the following characteristics: high aspirations for securing benefits for patients and clinicians; strong nursing ownership and support, both at board level and operational level; a significant VFM ratio, with demonstrable realisation of benefits; local finance engagement in the application, including Director of Finance approval; strong alignment with the organisation s clinical transformation, information and IT strategies; a credible sourcing approach that can deliver rapidly; a strong approach to managing the project, including effective governance, stakeholder management and benefits tracking; an effective approach, supported by previous experience, of clinical process redesign and change management; and relevant previous experience and current capability to develop, deploy, train staff and support the proposed technical solution.

14 14 3. Application Process for FY2013/14 Funding In the event that the funding round is oversubscribed after discounting applications that fail to meet the eligibility criteria or fail the technical assessment, we will consider the following: the relative scores of each application; for organisations who have submitted multiple applications, the priority indicated for each application; and proposing part-funding selected projects. 3.5 Memorandum of Understanding/ Agreement Successful applicants will be required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding/ Agreement. This will set out a series of obligations that a trust will be expected to fulfil in return for receiving funding from the Nursing Technology Fund. These will include: publication of a Commitment to Proceed on the organisation s public website, based on a template to be provided by NHS England; publication of project-related achievements on the organisation s public website; identifying a board member or senior officer as local project sponsor and champion; complying with the project requirements, including project reporting and data collection, as these are developed between local organisations and the Nursing Technology Fund team (project monitoring and evaluation framework); tracking benefits arising from the project; participating in media activities if requested; contributing to on-going activities to define and capture clinical digital maturity information about NHS organisations and care economies; participating in the community of practice in order that lessons learnt, exemplar care studies and other development materials are produced to support the share and spread of technology enabled care models; resourcing the audit and assurance element of fund governance and benefits realisation; complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty (see Section 5.3); participating in on-going activities to quality assure suppliers; and contributing to a national evaluation of the Programme. Once your project is complete, we may expect trusts to provide: a brief final report detailing what you have achieved, what you would have done differently; and a more detailed case study encompassing best practice, lessons learned and benefits delivered to patients and clinicians. Underlying these obligations is a commitment to sharing learning from the projects funded by the Nursing Technology Fund across trusts, NHS England, Department of Health and any other interested parties.

15 3. Application Process for FY2013/14 Funding Further Guidance for Applicants When completing your Application Form, please give concise answers as word limits apply. Content in addition to the stated word limits will be disregarded. If you remain unsure about the specific information required in a section of the application after referring to the guidance material and the Frequently Asked Questions (see below), then please submit an enquiry to england.nhsnursingtechfund@ nhs.net. Applicants must note that whilst we aim to respond to these enquiries quickly, a specific response time cannot be guaranteed, especially if the volume of enquiries is particularly high immediately prior to the closing date. We will publish Frequently Asked Questions on the NHS England website where we see a wider benefit in sharing the answers we have provided to individual trusts. These FAQs will be accessible at ourwork/tsd/sst/nursing-technology-fund/. We will use the address provided in your Application Form for any correspondence in relation to your application. Please ensure that arrangements are in place at all times for monitoring this mailbox.

16 16 4. Expression of Interest for FY2014/15 Funding This section sets out the process for organisations submitting an Expression of Interest for FY2014/15, when 70m of funding is expected to be available. Section 2.5 sets out the focus for FY2013/14 funding, referencing three technology types and a requirement for momentum. These criteria may not apply to the second round, and your Expression of Interest should not be constrained by them. The form asks for information on: 4.1 Rationale Organisations with an interest in the second round of funding for FY2014/15 (including those who are submitting an application in the first round) are asked to complete a simple form. This will include contact details, allowing NHS England to keep in touch regarding the Nursing Technology Fund as the application process for the second round is developed. If an organisation subsequently submits an application to the second round, they should not be constrained by any preliminary plans or proposals that they submit as part of an Expression of Interest. The evaluation of second round applications will not refer to any information provided within an Expression of Interest. the solutions you are thinking about; who you are thinking about deploying them to, and in what approximate numbers; whether you have relevant experience in these solutions; and the key challenges you foresee in achieving a successful project. NHS England will collate the information provided across all Expressions of Interest submitted, in order to build a picture of future demand. This will facilitate the design of the application process for the second round of funding and help to inform whether alternative or additional procurement mechanisms need to be developed. Further details on the application process for FY2014/15 funding will be published in spring 2014.

17 4. Expression of Interest for FY2014/15 Funding Process Please submit your Expression of Interest by midday on 26 February There is no need for multiple Expressions of Interest to be submitted. Even if a number of projects are being considered, please submit only one Expression of Interest. The template can be downloaded from sst/ nursing-technology-fund/. Your completed form should be returned by to england.nhsnursingtechfund@nhs.net with a subject of Expression of Interest.

18 18 5. Further Considerations 5.1 Public Dividend Capital and Funding Considerations Capital funding is available in FY2013/14 and FY2014/15. The Department of Health capital funding for this initiative is only available to NHS trusts and foundation trusts, although NHS organisations may choose to partner with other organisations and collaborate with one another to deliver the objectives they outline in their proposals. The capital funding will be made available as Public Dividend Capital (PDC). Funding can only be spent on items that score as capital expenditure in trust accounts. The PDC funding to successful trusts will be issued in line with the NHS Trust Development Authority Capital Regime and Investment Business Case Approvals Guidance for NHS trusts (paragraphs 2.20 and 2.21): As funding for this initiative is strategic capital, the normal PDC rule that trusts must exhaust their internal cash reserves prior to drawing PDC will be waived. In order to meet HM Treasury rules it is vital that payments are not drawn down in advance of need. Trusts are responsible for the revenue implications of the capital applied for and must be able to cover these costs. All central capital funding for the first round of applications must be spent by March If the project slips, there is no guarantee that central capital funding will be made available in subsequent years. Discrete elements of larger capital projects are eligible to apply for funding from this capital fund but elements awarded capital from this fund must be in place by March Applicants must make it clear how the funding for the rest of the project is being secured. Examples of this type of project may include where a trust is already implementing a project under the Safer Hospital, Safer Wards Fund, or is already in the process of a major information technology project. Trusts should draw down funding within the month that initial expenditure is incurred and will be expected to provide an expenditure forecast alongside draw down requests. Funds must be kept in trust Citibank accounts until payments are made.

19 5. Further Considerations Capital Classification For the purpose of this programme, capital is classified as work that generates a physical asset, with an expected life of more than one year. Capital resources may only be used to finance the delivery of what, under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), are regarded as non-current assets (tangible, intangible or investments). A key requirement of non-current assets is that there is a reasonable probability that they will deliver future economic benefit (i.e. valuable service) over more than one year (in most cases many years). A non-current asset can be bought or enhanced with capital funds. Expenditure to maintain an asset at its current state is not normally regarded as capital expenditure and cannot be funded with DH capital. A threshold value of 5,000 per item inclusive of VAT must generally be reached before expenditure can be funded with capital. Exceptions may be allowed where the assets form part of a group of assets that aggregates to more than 5,000. To qualify as a group, the assets must meet all of the following criteria: functionally interdependent (e.g. an equipment network); acquired at the same date and likely to be disposed of at about the same date; under single managerial control; and each component asset of the group must cost 250 or more. Only costs that are directly attributable to bringing a non-current asset into being and into appropriate condition for their intended use can be capitalised and funded with DH capital. 5.3 Public Sector Equality Duty For information on the Equality Duty please refer to the Government Equalities Office Quick Start Guide at the link below: uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/85019/equality-duty.pdf The Public Sector Equality Duty applies to any decision made, any policy developed, any programme implemented and any practices driving activity. It also applies to functions and services provided by others on behalf of a public body. Applicants should be able to demonstrate how they have paid due regard to the three aims of the Duty which are: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic; and promote good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.