Health Management and Policy Alert

Next steps for integrating primary care: Fuller stocktake report

NHS England -
This is the final report of the stocktake undertaken by Dr Claire Fuller on integrated primary care, looking at what is working well, why it’s working well and how the implementation of integrated primary care (incorporating the current four pillars of general practice, community pharmacy, dentistry and optometry) across systems can be accelerated. The report contains a new vision for integrating primary care, improving the access, experience and outcomes for our communities, which centres around three essential offers: streamlining access to care and advice; providing more proactive, personalised care with support from a multidisciplinary team of professionals; and helping people to stay well for longer.

• Report
• NHS England - publications

Valuing lived experience - learning report: are you ready to commit to the work of co-production?

National Voices -
Voices for Improvement is a National Voices project which seeks to strengthen collaboration between those with lived experience and decision-makers, in the service of improving health and social care. The project supports those with lived experience to provide coaching and mentoring to those in senior positions in health and care. The coaching allows clients to gain deeper understanding of lived experience perspectives and promotes the confidence to try new approaches to co-production in their own work. This report summarises two years of work of the project.

• Report
• National Voices - publications

Mental Health Act reform: race and ethnic inequalities

Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology -
The Government announced plans in the Queen’s Speech to bring forward legislation to reform the Mental Health Act 1983. The proposals include approaches to reduce the disproportionate number of individuals from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities subject to compulsory detention and treatment. This briefing outlines research on race and ethnic inequalities in relation to the Act, summarises proposals for reform and stakeholder views.

• Briefing
• Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology - publications

South Asian Dementia Pathway Toolkit (ADaPT)

Race Equality Foundation -
This toolkit aims to provide improved culturally sensitive support for people living with dementia from South Asian communities. People from South Asian communities are at greater risk of developing dementia but are less likely to access all points of the care pathway – and more likely to present in crisis and/or at a later stage. They are more likely to face barriers including a late or missed diagnosis, reduced access to treatments, and inappropriate or inadequate support coupled with problems caused by language barriers. They often rely on local, community-led organisations for support.

• Toolkit
• Race Equality Foundation - press release

Preparing for reform

County Councils Network -
This report aims to reveal the regional impact on local authorities as a result of the government’s adult social care reforms, concluding that the costs of these proposals could be significantly underestimated. It estimates that the costs of reforms in the nine years from when they are introduced to 2032 could be a minimum of £10bn higher than currently estimated and could create a further workforce crisis in social care, with over 5,000 extra staff projected to be required to carry out extra care and financial assessments for those seeking to benefit from the reforms.

• Report
• County Councils Network - news

Myths and misinformation: mapping the barriers to smoking cessation and the uptake of nicotine alternatives

Demos - 

This report uncovers a huge level of misunderstanding around the harms posed by tobacco, with 93 per cent of Brits overestimating the health risk of nicotine, one of the main chemicals in tobacco. The over 60s and those from the lowest socioeconomic groups (C2DE) are the most likely to be misinformed, illustrating the scale of the task at hand for the government.

• Report
• More detail

Recruiting young people from care into NHS careers

NHS Employers - 

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) looked after children pre-employment programme supports young people with a background in care and unaccompanied asylum seeker children, providing opportunities in NHS roles such as health care support, administration and ancillary. It was developed in partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Next Step and The Prince’s Trust.

• Case study

Bringing together digital and quality improvement: how boards can connect the dots and create allies in service transformation

NHS Providers - 

This briefing from the Digital Boards programme focuses on the benefits of bringing together digital and quality improvement. Trust leaders reflect on their collective role in leading these changes and how they can make best use of existing improvement capabilities, and set out some key considerations for boards.

• Briefing
• More detail

Support at the end of life: the role of hospice services across the UK

Nuffield Trust - 

Covid-19 created huge disruption to end of life care services, with many thousands more people dying at home than previously. Hospices play a vital role supporting people and their families at the end of life, but little is known about how these services are being delivered and the issues they are grappling with. This analysis, based on a survey carried out by Hospice UK, provides a picture of a sector undergoing rapid change in the face of fast-changing circumstances.

• Report
• More detail

Systemic racism, not broken bodies: an inquiry into racial injustice and human rights in UK maternity care

Birthrights - 

This year-long inquiry heard testimony from women, birthing people, healthcare professionals and lawyers outlining how systemic racism within maternity care – from individual interactions and workforce culture through to curriculums and policies – can have a deep and devastating impact on basic rights in childbirth. The report sets out five actions maternity services should take to drive forward concrete change. Free registration is required to download the full report.

• Report
• Executive summary