Health Management and Policy Alert

Sugar and health

House of Commons Library - 
Sugars can be added to food and drinks or occur naturally in fruit, vegetables and milk. A high sugar diet increases the risk of tooth decay and weight gain, and high consumption of sugar sweetened drinks is associated with type 2 diabetes. This paper describes trends in sugar consumption in the UK, the public health implications and outlines policy options.

• Briefing paper
• House of Commons Library publications

Screening quality assurance service: operating model

Public Health England - 
This document sets out the role and purpose of PHE's screening quality assurance service, providing a common approach for all NHS screening programmes.

• Operating model
• Public Health England news

A guide for CCGs: engaging the public in difficult decisions about health service change

NHS Clinical Commissioners -
This guide draws on case studies of three different reconfiguration programmes and offers some tips on how to get your engagement right.

• Guide
• NHS Clinical Commissioners - news

Information sharing for social care employers

Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing - 
Government policy has outlined the importance and increasing need for information sharing between organisations at a local level. Everyone working in social care and health should see the use and safe sharing of information as part of their responsibility. This guidance developed in conjunction with Skills for Care demonstrates how employers have started to meet some of the challenges of information sharing. The guidance includes 3 short films showcasing The Centre for Excellence for Information Sharing and the Information Governance Alliance explaining how they can support social care employers to begin to explore this topic.

• Guidance
• Films
• Further resources

Go gentle into that good night: the past, present, and future of end-of-life care

RAND - 
End-of-life care has received increasing attention in recent years as the baby boomers age and health care costs continue to rise. This attention has brought with it remarkable growth in the field and improvement in care, but there remains work to be done in order to more consistently deliver high quality, compassionate, and patient- and family-centred end-of-life care. This dissertation examines the past, present, and future of end-of-life care in order to shed light on the most effective ways to organise and deliver it.

• Report
• RAND publications

NHS pension scheme: Shadow Scheme Advisory Board annual report 2014/15

NHS Employers - 
The Scheme Advisory Board for the NHS pension scheme was established in shadow form from April 2014. The board is a statutory requirement from April 2015 under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013. This annual report covers the background to the Scheme Advisory Board and legislation; the purpose and function of the board; membership, observers and professional advisors; work areas covered in 2014/15; board member training and; looking ahead to 2015/16.

• Report
• NHS Employers news

Medicines optimisation dashboard

NHS England - 
This dashboard aims to help CCGs improve and understand how well patients across the country are being supported to use their medicines. It brings together data and aligns it to various themes including patient safety, mental health, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, antibiotic prescribing and community pharmacy. It will allow local NHS organisations to highlight variation in local practice and stimulate discussion on the appropriateness of local care.

• Dashboard
• NHS England news

Health, wellbeing and productivity in the workplace: a Britain's healthiest company summary report

RAND - 
This report aims to draw upon data collected during the 2014 Britain's Healthiest Company (BHC) competition in order to understand what drives productivity at work in the participating organisations and, in particular, to examine the relation between the health and wellbeing of staff and their resultant productivity. To understand this relationship, the report look at the links between lost productivity in terms of presenteeism (being in suboptimal health at work) and absenteeism in association with a range of factors.

• Report
• RAND publications

Consultation on revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics

Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) - 
This consultation seeks views on revised standards of conduct which have been reviewed to make sure they continue to be fit for purpose, up-to-date and well understood by registrants and the public. The consultation closes on 26 June 2015.

• Consultation documents
• Response form
• HCPC news

Performance of the foundation trust sector: year ended 31 March 2015

Monitor - 
This report summarises the performance of the NHS foundation trust sector for the final quarter of the year ending 31 March 2015. It found that foundation trusts treated 10.7 million emergency inpatients between April 2014 and March 2015, a 574,000 increase on the previous year. However, this increase in demand for care, combined with an over-reliance on expensive agency staff and the need to make cost savings, is putting trusts under sustained and exceptional pressure. The sector ended 2014/15 in deficit (-£349 million) for the first time, a sign of the increased pressures upon services.

• Report
• Executive summary
• Press release