Health Management and Policy Alert

Saving and improving lives: the future of UK clinical research delivery

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
This policy document outlines the Government's vision to unleash the full potential of clinical research delivery to tackle health inequalities, bolster economic recovery and to improve the lives of people across the UK.

• Policy
• More detail

Adult weight management services grant determination 2021 to 2022

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
The adult weight management services grant is a new ringfenced grant available to local authorities to support the commissioning of adult behavioural (tier 2) weight management services worth £30.5 million. These documents provide information to local authorities on allocations and grant conditions.

• Guidance

Shaping the Covid decade: addressing the long-term societal impacts of Covid-19

British Academy - 
This report argues that the societal impacts of the pandemic have exposed several gaps in public policy making that the government now has the opportunity to address. It suggests seven strategic goals for policymakers to pursue: build multi-level governance; improve knowledge, data and information linkage and sharing; prioritise digital infrastructure; reimagine urban spaces; create an agile education and training system; strengthen community-led social infrastructure; and promote a shared social purpose.

• Report
• Press release

Investigation into government funding to charities during the Covid-19 pandemic

National Audit Office (NAO) - 
In 2020, the government announced a £750 million financial support package for frontline charities. It designed the package as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It targeted its support at those organisations in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector providing vital services to the vulnerable. This report explores the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s distribution and oversight of £513 million of the package. It considers how the Department allocated funds, how financial support could be accessed by the sector and where financial support was received.

• Report
• Summary

 

Welfare trends report

Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - 
This annual report examines the drivers of welfare spending in the UK and this year, it focuses on Universal Credit and the pandemic’s impact on our working-age welfare spending outlook.

• Report
• Supporting documentation

Ethnic diversity in fertility treatment 2018

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) - 
This report looks at how access to, and outcomes of fertility treatment, differed by ethnic group between 2014 and 2018. It finds disparities in the experience of patients from ethnic minority backgrounds and makes recommendations for the HFEA, fertility clinics and commissioners to help better understand the root of these inequalities so that action can be taken to improve access and outcomes for ethnic minority groups.

• Report

National Education and Training Survey 2020

Health Education England (HEE) - 
This survey gathers opinions from students about their time in clinical placements, asking them to provide feedback on what worked well and what they think could be improved. The results offer universities, colleges, healthcare placement providers and Health Education England further insight into the quality of the clinical learning environment. This year, as students may be undertaking clinical placements during pandemic surges, the survey provides an additional opportunity to understand their experience and any impact on the quality of training. Results of the survey are now available below by region and by profession

• Survey results

GP access during Covid-19

Healthwatch - 
This report looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people access their GP and how this affected people's experience of care. Whilst remote consultations have made getting care quicker, more efficient and easier to fit around their lives for many people, many people are struggling to access care from their GP practice, leaving them feeling frustrated and confused. Certain groups also risk being left behind, such as older people, disabled people, people affected by homelessness and on low incomes, and those whose first language isn’t English.

• Report
• Press release

One-year report on the status on the non-devolved provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020: March 2021

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
The Coronavirus Act 2020 was designed to protect public health and ensure that the NHS had the capacity to deal with the peak of the virus. The Act also required ministers to publish a one-year report on the status of the non-devolved provisions, contained in this publication.

• Report

The NHS's role in tackling poverty: awareness, action and advocacy

The King's Fund  - 
One of the main drivers behind the creation of the NHS was to protect the poorest in society from being bankrupted by the need to pay for care. But the NHS can do more to mitigate, prevent and reduce poverty. This report sets out what the NHS, as the largest economic institution in the country, needs to maximise its contribution to tackling poverty, within its resources and with its partners.

• Report