Health Management and Policy Alert

Guidance for panels on the updated job matching profiles for nursing and midwifery

NHS Employers - 
This guidance has been written for local job evaluation leads and panellists to support their understanding and use of the updated profiles for nursing and midwifery. It provides an explanation of the updated format for profiles and provides further advice to ensure matching panels are able to use the profiles effectively and consistently.

• Guidance

Action needed on job evaluation outcomes for nursing and midwifery staff

NHS Employers - 
This guidance, produced by the NHS Staff Council, is for local partnerships to support the publication of updated profiles for nursing and midwifery and improvement of local job evaluation practices.

• Guidance

The Care Act 2014 and occupational therapy: a handy summary

Local Government Association (LGA) - 
This short resource has been developed to support the occupational therapy workforce as part of council preparations for CQC assessment. It summarises the key principles of the Care Act 2014 and the universal and specific duties placed on councils as they relate to occupational therapy, with particular focus on prevention, wellbeing, and promoting independence. Where tips have been included to encourage thinking in preparation for CQC assessment.

• Briefing

Preparing for CQC assessment: a resource for principal occupational therapists

Local Government Association (LGA) - 
This resource was developed following consultation with principal occupational therapists (POTs) from the national and ADASS regional POT networks and incorporates learning and tips from POTs who have gone through Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessment.

• Guidance

Play well: resources for health play services for England

NHS England - 
This toolkit will help commissioners, service managers, health play practitioners and clinical leaders to design, plan and deliver high-quality health play services for babies, children and young people. The resources include guidelines, recommended standards and a quality checklist.

• Toolkit

2025 Spending Review: what's the RCN asking for?

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) - 
This submission to the government's 2025 Spending Review argues that there is an opportunity to start addressing some of the challenges within the nursing workforce and wider health and care system. The RCN ask that the 10-Year Health Plan and the forthcoming Workforce Plan for England, and the Spending Review are aligned in terms of funding, ambition and planning.

• Submission

Cancer in the UK: overview 2025

Cancer Research UK -
This report finds that over the last 50 years, the proportion of the UK population dying from cancer  has fallen by more than a fifth. However it also finds while people are now less likely to die from cancer, more people are likely to get it. And due to the UK’s growing and ageing population, the actual numbers of both cases and deaths are rising.

• Report
• Press release

Four big decisions for the 2025 Spending Review

Institute for Fiscal Studies - 
The Spending Review 2025 will set detailed departmental budgets for most of this parliament. This analysis examines the key choices facing the government on spending in the NHS, health and care, pay and the public sector.

• Report

Spending Review 2025: priorities for health, the NHS and social care in England

The Health Foundation - 
This analysis sets out the Health Foundation’s priorities for health and care investment at the Spending Review and options for how they could be achieved. It draws on evidence submitted to the Treasury in February 2025. It covers the investment needed in public health, the NHS and adult social care services; additionally, it sets out policy actions to strengthen cross-government working on health and prevention and to improve health among the working-age population.

• Report

Implementing innovative flexible working to combat escalating demand on services

NHS Employers - 
This case study outlines how Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust used an innovative flexible working model to combat escalating demand for imaging diagnostic services.

• Case study

Unlocking the potential of primary care provider collaboratives

NHS Confederation - 
Primary care provider collaboratives are fundamental to the successful delivery of a neighbourhood health service. Their role will be pivotal in shifting care from hospitals to community, reducing health inequalities and ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality care. In partnership with KPMG, the NHS Confederation's Primary Care Network has been exploring what is needed to unlock collaboratives' potential and this infographic captures the five key aspects to help realise the potential of primary care provider collaboratives.

• Infographic

Evaluation of the Better Care Fund Support Programme 2023 to 2025

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned Ipsos UK, in partnership with the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University, to conduct an evaluation of the Better Care Fund (BCF) Support Programme. The evaluation explores local authorities' perceptions of the design and delivery of the BCF support programme; the enablers and barriers to effective implementation of changes identified through support; elements of good practice; and the outcomes generated by the BCF Support Programme to date.

• Report

The care expectation gap

Joseph Rowntree Foundation -
This briefing suggests that people are unaware of the challenges of the social care system and thus are likely not preparing for a future in which they may have to meet significant care costs or care themselves. It found that only 19% of the general public correctly guessed that the cost of professional home care services could cost more than £1,000 per week – most thought the cost was lower, with almost half (47%) thinking costs were between £200 and £600 a week on average.

• Briefing
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation - publications

Hospital of the future: hospital as a service, not a building

Re:State - 

This report outlines a model that fundamentally changes the configuration of the modern hospital. The paper proposes a model that combines a radical increase in virtual care with renewed approaches at system-wide integration. It argues that instead of inefficiently relocating hospital staff and infrastructure to communities, hospital-level care should be delivered as a service through entirely new care pathways, shifted financial incentives, and remote digital tools.

• Report
• More detail

Putting young people at the heart of care

NHS Providers - 

This report features four case studies demonstrating how trusts are successfully improving services for children and young people across a variety of sectors: delivering mental health support to children and young people in the community; collaborating at neighbourhood level for the benefit of children and young people; improving access to care through digital interventions; and using co-production to improve services for children and young people.

• Report
• More detail