Health Management and Policy Alert

General election 2017: manifesto analysis

National Voices -
These briefings aim to summarise the health and care aspects of political party manifestos in the build up to the 2017 General Election.

• National Voices - publications

Supporting strategic commissioning: collaborative working between CCGs and AHSNs

NHS Clinical Commissioners -
This report aims to show how collaboration between CCGs and AHSNs can bring positive benefits to local patients and populations. It recommends that the most successful collaborations between CCGs and AHSNs will be ones that focus on a specific issue rather than on providing more general support. It also states that projects that focus on delivery at scale, will be the most impactful making AHSNs natural partners for commissioners working as a part of an STP.

• Report
• NHS Clinical Commissioners - news

Social care: a step forwards or a step backwards?

Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) - 
This briefing examines the manifesto proposals for social care and outlines the current state of social care provision and funding.

• Briefing

Excellence by design: standards for postgraduate curricula

General Medical Council (GMC) - 
These newly developed standards aim to make postgraduate training more flexible for doctors and they provide a framework for the approval and provision of postgraduate medical education and training across the UK. All medical colleges and faculties are required to update all 103 existing postgraduate medical curricula against the GMC’s new standards, with a target to complete the process by 2020.

• Standards
• Press release

A Teaching Care Home pilot

International Longevity Centre - UK (ILC-UK) - 
This series of reports evaluates a Department of Health funded pilot which aimed to empower the workforce in care home nursing and to ensure the future sustainability of the workforce in the sector. The pilot created five centres of excellence across England which would share learning and best practice and help to strengthen leadership and care culture in care homes.

• Reports

Provision of community care: who, what, how much?

The Health Foundation -
This briefing analyses information on the community care contracts held by 78 per cent of CCGs in England to enable better understanding of the provision of these services. It finds that NHS providers hold more than half of the total annual value of contracts in the sample, while private providers held 5 per cent of the total annual value, but 39 per cent of the total number of contracts issued.

• Briefing
• The Health Foundation - publications

Election briefing : a sustainable workforce - the lifeblood of the NHS and social care

The Health Foundation -
This is the third in a series of Health Foundation briefings ahead of the June 2017 general election. It focuses on the challenges facing the NHS and social care workforce in England, pointing to a combination of issues around recruitment, retention and morale. It highlights that the future workforce for the NHS and social care sector is at risk without urgent action from the incoming government to establish a sustainable and joined up workforce strategy.

• Briefing
• The Health Foundation - publications

NHS efficiency map

The King's Fund -
This map is a tool that aims to promote best practice in identifying, delivering and monitoring cost improvement programmes in the NHS. It contains links to a range of tools and guidance to help NHS bodies improve their efficiency.

• Map
• Healthcare Financial Management Association - publications

Mental health and new models of care: lessons from the vanguards

The King's Fund -
While some of the vanguard sites developing new care models report promising early results from adopting a whole-person approach, the full opportunities to improve care through integrated approaches to mental health have not yet been realised. This report draws on recent research with vanguard sites in England, conducted in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It finds that where new models of care have been used to remove the barriers between mental health and other parts of the health system, local professionals saw this as being highly valuable in improving care for patients and service users. It concludes that there remains much to be done to fully embed mental health into integrated care teams, primary care, urgent and emergency care pathways, and in work on population health.

• Report
• Blog
• Nine principles for success: integrating mental health in new models of care
• The King's Fund - publications

Adolescent obesity and related behaviours: trends and inequalities in the WHO European Region, 2002–2014

World Health Organization -
This report reveals that the number of obese adolescents is continuing to rise in many countries across the WHO European Region. It highlights persisting inequalities in obesity among young people and indicates that ongoing health promotion and disease prevention efforts aimed at reducing childhood obesity are failing to adequately reach these groups.

• Report
• World Health Organization - press release