Health Management and Policy Alert

A review of local authorities’ relative needs and resources

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government -
This consultation seeks views on the approach to measuring the relative needs and resources of local authorities, which will determine new baseline funding allocations for local authorities in England in 2020-21. This includes funding received for public health services. The closing date for comments is 21 February 2019.

• Consultation
• Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government - publications

Framework for effective board governance of health system quality

Institute for Healthcare Improvement -
This research finds that board members, and those who support them, desire a clear and consistent framework to guide governance of all dimensions of quality beyond safety, including identification of the core processes and necessary activities for effective governance of quality. The framework is published alongside a quality assessment toolkit and supporting guidance.

• Documents and further information

Inspire, attract and recruit: an interactive toolkit to support your workforce supply

NHS Employers -
This toolkit provides guidance, good practice, checklists, top tips, questions and leading examples from across the NHS, to help employers take stock of what may need to be done to sustain a workforce pipeline. It aims to provide practical information on understanding audiences, how to attract the right people and ensuring employees have the best on-boarding experience.

• Toolkit
• NHS Employers - news

Robotics in social care

Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology -
This POSTnote introduces robotic technology and the main ways it has been developed for use in social care. It reviews evidence on the impact of robotics on the costs and quality of social care and its workforce, and explores the main ethical, social and regulatory challenges to its use in social care.

• Briefing
• Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology - publications

Making NHS data work for everyone

Reform - 

This report looks at the access and use of data held by the NHS for product and service development purposes by the private sector. Benefits can emerge from the NHS partnering with the private sector to develop healthcare technologies. The private sector can provide skills and know-how to develop data-driven tools whilst the NHS makes the data available alongside medical expertise - described as the “value exchange”. There is a lack of clarity over what a fair value exchange looks like. This combined with the lack of national strategy on types of partnerships that could be developed has led to a messy patchwork on the ground.

• Report
• More detail

Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) and other adaptations: external review

University of the West of England - 

Commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and written by the University of the West of England, Foundations, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Ferret Information Systems, this review looks at how the Disabled Facilities Grant currently operates and makes evidenced based recommendations for the future. The aim is to support more people of all ages to live in suitable housing so they can stay independent for longer, and make the case for more joined up action across housing, health and social care.

• Report
• More detail

Post-qualifying standards for social work practice supervisors in adult social care: government response

Department of Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care sought views on the knowledge and skills statement for adult social work supervisors, to make sure it covered the key skills and knowledge needed to support high quality, reflective social work practice. This consultation response provides: a summary of overarching messages and key themes identified from the consultation and an overview of the general issues and trends identified in each of the consultation questions. The final post-qualifying standards have also been published.

• Response
• More detail

Home care in England: views from commissioners and providers

The King's Fund - 

Our new report, produced in association with the University of York, finds that the market for home care providers is extremely fragile, with squeezed margins and low fees forcing providers to leave. In 2017 providers handed back home care contracts in more than one in three local authorities, and some of the largest providers have withdrawn from the publicly funded home care market altogether. Staff shortages are also a ‘relentless challenge’ for home care providers in many places.

• Report
• Press release

Rough Sleeping Strategy: delivery plan

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government - 

In the Rough Sleeping Strategy, the government committed to publish a delivery plan setting out how they intended to deliver the 61 commitments made. This document provides an update on progress so far, further information including key milestones on all 61 commitments, and information on next steps.

• Report
• More detail

The government response to the Science and Technology Committee’s seventh report of the session 2017-19 on e-cigarettes

Department of Health and Social Care - 

This command paper sets out the government’s response to the Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry report into e-cigarettes, published by the House of Commons in July 2018.

• Report
• More detail

A better future for adult social care

Hymans and Robertson - 

In this report the pensions and risk consultancy, Hymands and Robertson, calls for cross party political bravery to address the crisis in adult social care so that older adults and their carers can be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. Lack of public understanding of the scale of the crisis is one of the biggest barriers to the implementation of a sustainable and fair funding system.

• Report
• Press release

Advancing medical professionalism

Royal College of Physicians -
This report underlines how essential professionalism is in increasing job satisfaction, improving patient care and raising productivity, and looks at what this means for doctors under growing pressures from increased workload, to their own remit and to their relationship with patients. It points to a growing gap between what doctors are trained to do and the realities of their workplace – competing ideals of what is good practice, rising demand, and increasing regulatory and legal obligations. According to the report, doctors also face ethical dilemmas and clashes in professional personal values.

• Report
• Royal College of Physicians - news

Nursing degree apprenticeships: in poor health?

House of Commons Education Committee -
This report warns that the uptake of nursing degree apprenticeships has been slow with no more than 30 starters beginning training through the scheme last year. It argues that there is no evidence of how the Department for Education intends to meet the target of 400 nursing associates progressing to degree apprenticeships from 2019. It finds universities and employers are currently trying to navigate a 'maze of bureaucracy' when trying to deliver degree apprenticeships and calls for much greater flexibility in the system and the use of the apprenticeships levy.

• Report
• House of Commons Education Committee - news

The carers’ covenant

Demos -
This report calls for a new settlement between the state and informal carers. It is estimated there are now almost eight million informal carers in the UK making the informal care economy equivalent to £139 billion – more than seven times the UK’s total annual spend on adult social care. The report sets out an overhaul of current policy, including the introduction of a new Universal Carer’s Income for all carers providing more than 35 hours a week.

• Report
• Demos - publications

Modernising the Mental Health Act: increasing choice, reducing compulsion

Department of Health and Social Care -
This independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983 sets out recommendations for government on how the Act and associated practice needs to change. It covers four principles that the review believes should underpin the reformed Act: choice and autonomy; least restriction; therapeutic benefit; and people as individuals. The review looked at: rising rates of detention under the Act; the disproportionate number of people from black and minority ethnic groups detained under the Act; and processes that are out of step with a modern mental health care system.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications