Health Management and Policy Alert

Lifting lockdown: how to approach a coronavirus exit strategy

Institute for Government -
This report concludes that the government’s five tests for starting to lift the lockdown are not a good enough guide to the longer-term exit strategy. It suggest that the government must instead set out new tests which explain how it will balance economic and health concerns against each other in lifting the restrictions.

• Report
• Institute for Government - publications

Accounting for the variation in the confirmed Covid-19 caseload across England: an analysis of the role of multi-generation households, London and time

New Policy Institute -
This paper develops a model that goes beyond correlation to measure the size of the impact of various socio-economic variables on the confirmed Covid-19 caseload. Alongside the proportion of over-70s who share a home with people of working-age, these variables include overcrowding and local area deprivation. It also draws out the policy questions raised by the model. Some of them relate to the policy response to the virus over the coming months.

• Research paper
• New Policy Institute - publications

Caring behind closed doors: forgotten families in the coronavirus outbreak

Carers UK -
A survey by Carers UK of nearly 5,000 unpaid carers showed that, on average, carers are picking up an additional ten hours of unpaid care per week, helping loved ones with personal care, practical tasks and emotional support. This report summarises the findings and concludes that reduced care and support services, and paid care workers isolating or without personal protective equipment, mean many carers have no choice but to care round the clock for loved ones with complex health conditions and disabilities.

• Report
• Carers UK - news

A balancing act: youth volunteering in hospitals, in the context of Covid-19

Institute for Voluntary Action Research -
This briefing offers some initial reflections on how hospital volunteering - and youth volunteering in particular - has evolved in response to Covid-19.

• Briefing
• Institute for Voluntary Action Research - publications

Technical summary: Public Health England data series on deaths in people with Covid-19

Public Health England -
This document summarises the Public Health England (PHE) data series on deaths in people with Covid-19 which started on 29 April 2020. This data series provides a daily and cumulative count of all deaths in people who had a laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 test. This document explains the PHE data series, what it includes, details of the data sources, how the numbers are generated, and how it compares to previous data series and weekly reports of Covid-19 death registrations reported by the Office for National Statistics.

• Guidance
• Public Health England - publications

Novel coronavirus (Covid-19) standard operating procedure: running a medicines re-use scheme in a care home or hospice setting

Department of Health and Social Care -
This standard operating practice gives guidance to care homes and hospices about using medicines labelled for one patient who no longer needs them for another patient.

• Guidance
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Personal protective equipment (PPE): resource for care workers delivering homecare (domiciliary care) during sustained Covid-19 transmission in the UK

Public Health England -
This resource is primarily for care workers and providers delivering care in the following settings: visiting homecare, extra care housing, and live-in homecare. It provides guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during sustained Covid-19 transmission in the UK, and explains how PPE guidance applies to the homecare (domiciliary care) setting.

• Report
• Public Health England - publications

Covid-19 population management strategy for prisons

Public Health England -
This paper assesses the impact of various population management strategies implemented in prisons in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Research paper
• Public Health England - publications

Risky business: economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis on different groups of workers

Resolution Foundation -
This report finds that working women are most likely to be bearing the health risks from coronavirus by being key workers, while young people and the low-paid are most likely to work in sectors of the economy that have been shutdown.

• Report
• Resolution Foundation - publications
• Resolution Foundation - press release

Coronavirus (Covid-19): guidance for care staff supporting adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults

Department of Health and Social Care -
This guidance is for care workers and personal assistants who support adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults. The guidance will help care staff to: keep people with learning disabilities and autistic people safe; support them to understand the changes they need to make during the Covid-19 outbreak; and protect their own wellbeing.

• Guidance
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications