Revised FFT guidance

Revised FFT guidance
NHS England 2 September 2019

• Revised Friends and Family Test guidance takes effect from 1 April 2020.

Friends and Family Test case studies

Friends and Family Test case studies
NHS England

• FFT case studies by area of care, including inpatient, outpatient, A&E, community, mental health and General Practice.

New FFT guidance for General Practice

FFT guidance for General Practice
NHS England, NHS Employers, BMA General Practitioners Committee,. July 2014

• As of 1 December 2014 all GP practices will be required to implement the Family and Friends Test.
• Practices must:
• Provide an opportunity for people who use the practice to give anonymous feedback through the FFT
• Use the standard wording of the FFT question and the responses. 
• Include at least one follow up question which allows the opportunity to provide free text.
• Submit data to NHS England each month.
• Publish results locally.
• See the Bedfordshire CCG GP case study here.

Review of the first six months of FFT

The Friends and Family Test review
NHS England, 21 July 2014

• The Family and Friends Test (FFT) has been used to gather experiences of patients visiting Accident and Emergency and hospital inpatients since April 2013. This review assessed the implementation, publication, use and reception of the during the first six months of national data collection.
• The review found that, as well as providing data to inform the public, FFT has proved to be a powerful tool for service improvement, and has increased the emphasis on patient experience.
• Its strengths include the real-time nature of the data, the fact that everyone has the opportunity to feedback and the qualitative data that allows staff to understand both what they are doing well and what they can do to improve the service. 
• However the review found that it is not meeting its original ambitions in all instances.
• See the FFT case studies 

Friends & Family Test resources from Picker Institute

Friends and Family Test Resources
Picker Institute Europe, 29 August 2013

• The following online resources are now available on the Picker Institute website, and more are planned for the future:
• how the FFT score is calculated
• FFT score and confidence interval online calculator
• FFT score difference and confidence interval online calculator
• FFT calculation and comparison: key assumptions and caveats
• the effect of response numbers on FFT score confidence intervals
• what to do with small numbers of FFT responses
• how to make use of people's free text comments to improve
• See NHS England website - FFT data and guidance  

Friends and Family test - first national results

Friends and Family Test Data
NHS England

• The Friends and Family Test (FFT) is a single question survey which asks patients whether they would recommend the NHS service they have received to friends and family who need similar treatment or care. It is initially for providers of NHS funded acute services for inpatients (including independent sector organisations that provide acute NHS services) and patients discharged from A and E (type 1 and 2) from April 2013. 
• Results will be published every month on the NHS Choices website

Family and friends test results

Family and Friends Test Results Dashboard
NHS Midlands and  East

• Results for providers across the East Midlands patch (including MK Hospital) are available to January 2013