Health Management and Policy Alert

NHS Bradford City CCG: improving the detection and prevention of Type 2 diabetes - Bradford Beating Diabetes (BBD)

NHS Right Care - 
This casebook outlines an initiative introduced by Bradford City CCG to improve diabetes prevention in the local population using evidence-based methods and a focus on outcomes. 

• Casebook
• NHS Right Care publications

Global Health Security Agenda pilot assessment of the United Kingdom

Department of Health (DH) -
The Global Health Security Agenda is a US-led initiative to make progress, through international collaboration, toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease and other health threats. The UK volunteered to pilot an assessment tool designed to assess how countries are performing against the national actions and targets set out in 11 action packages spanning prevention, detection and response preparedness. This report follows a self-assessment and a week-long assessment visit to the UK in June 2015 by a panel of international experts. The report concludes that, overall, the UK has demonstrated a strong baseline position across all areas. One key area of strength was the cross-government and organisational coordination and response to the Ebola crisis.

• Report
• Associated documentation

Medical revalidation - guidance on the role of the responsible officer: consultation

Department of Health (DH) - 
This consultation seeks views on the revised guidance on the role of the responsible officers appointed by healthcare organisations. This guidance has been produced in collaboration with the Scottish and Welsh governments and NHS England and is aimed at three key audiences: doctors licensed with the General Medical Council to practise medicine; responsible officers and those taking on the responsible officer role; and organisations designated in the regulations. The closing deadline for this consultation is 22 October 2015.

• Consultation
• Response form
• DH consultations

Horizon 2035 - future demand for skills: initial results

Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) - 
This report outlines the interim findings from Horizon 2035, a piece of work which aims to consider how a series of challenges and opportunities may combine in the future and impact the health, public health and social care workforce. It finds that based on our current understanding, we are projecting that demand for health and care skills could grow more than twice as fast as overall population growth by 2035. Much of this growth is driven by increasing healthcare and support demands associated with long term conditions. This relates both to the ageing population and a projected increase in prevalence across age groups. The initial results also suggest that the future profile of demand may be profoundly different to the picture of demand today. For example, growth in demand for lower ‘levels’ of skill – such as those associated with unpaid care, support carers and NHS bands 1-4 - are projected to substantially outstrip growth in demand for higher skill levels associated with medical and dental professionals.

• Report
• Press release

Communications in health care improvement - a toolkit

Health Foundation - 
Evidence indicates that considering communications from the beginning to the end of a project could be an important factor in the spread of successful health care improvement. This toolkit is written for health care professionals working in improvement who want to understand and use communications to better plan, implement and spread their work. It takes you, step by step, through the practical actions necessary to harness the power of communications to your cause.

• Toolkit
• Press release

Assessment of termination of pregnancy on grounds of the sex of the foetus

Department of Health (DH) - 
The Serious Crime Act 2015 requires an assessment to be carried out into evidence of gender abortions occurring in England, Wales and Scotland. This report responds to that requirement and sets out the actions and evidence that have been considered in carrying out the assessment. It also includes updated birth ratio analysis for 2009 to 2013.

• Report
• Systematic map of data
• DH publications

The Birthplace in England national prospective cohort study: further analyses to enhance policy and service delivery decision-making for planned place of birth

National Institute for Health Research - 
Evidence from the Birthplace in England Research Programme supported a policy of offering ‘low risk’ women a choice of birth setting, but a number of unanswered questions remained. This project aimed to provide further evidence to support the development and delivery of maternity services and inform women’s choice of birth setting: specifically, to explore maternal and organisational factors associated with intervention, transfer and other outcomes in each birth setting in ‘low risk’ and ‘higher risk’ women.

• Report
• Summary
• Abstract

Social worker supply and demand model

Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) - 
This model aims to help employers with estimating and influencing the number of social workers required in the future. It is a system for workforce planning based on reliable and high quality information and aims to be accessible and useable by local authorities, regional partnerships, higher education institutions and national organisations including the government. 
Please note that this item requires free registration for full access to the tool.

• Tool
• CfWI news

Neurology outpatient analysis

Public Health England (PHE) - 
This data briefing provides insight into neurological outpatient activity in England, with a particular focus on the provision of local CCG services. It targets clinicians and commissioners to support and inform local commissioning priorities, help drive improvements, and effectively manage demand for neurological care. It presents the possible reasons why variation in local service provision may have occurred, including differences between local areas in prevalence of neurological conditions, capacity for assessing those with neurological problems, and the use of alternative assessment pathways.

• Briefing
• Press release

NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP) non-diabetic hyperglycaemia

Public Health England (PHE) - 
Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, also known as pre-diabetes or impaired glucose regulation, refers to raised blood glucose levels, but not in the diabetic range. People with non-diabetic hyperglycaemia are at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and also other cardiovascular conditions. This analysis uses a population representative sample of people with valid measurements to indicate non-diabetic hyperglycaemia. The accompanying spreadsheet outlines the number of people in every local authority who are estimated as having non-diabetic hyperglycaemia.

• Report
• Local authority data
• PHE publications