Health Management and Policy Alert

The Innovation Ecosystem Programme – how the UK can lead the way globally in health gains and life sciences powered growth

NHS England -
The Innovation Ecosystem Programme (IEP) was launched to identify how best to streamline the research, development and adoption of those innovations that have the potential to make the NHS a global leader. The guiding principles for the IEP are to create a framework for future innovation activity that will reorient the NHS to address current, emerging and future health care priorities. This report summarises IEP findings from the last 18 months and recommends a package of actions to move forward.

• Report
• NHS England - publications

Accelerating Reform Fund 2024 to 2025: grant determination

Department of Health -
The Accelerating Reform Fund provides a total of £42.6 million over the financial years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025. It supports local authorities, working in integrated care system consortia, to take forward projects that scale innovations in adult social care and improve services for unpaid carers. This is the grant determination for the Adult Social Care Accelerating Reform Fund for 2024 to 2025, outlining funding allocations for the £22.6 million allocated for that year.

• Guidance
• Department of Health - publications

Healthcare provision in prisons: continuity of care

Health Services Safety Investigations Body -
This report raises concerns over female prisoners privacy and dignity after an investigation found they are often taken to outpatient appointments by male prison officers. The finding came during a wider investigation exploring how prisons maintain continuity of care, both for internal (GP, dentist) and outpatient (hospital, specialist clinic) appointments.

• Report
• Health Services Safety Investigations Body - news

Our future homes: housing that promotes wellbeing and community for an ageing population

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government -
This report seeks to understand the market in England for older people’s housing today and into the future. It outlines the enablers for older people when seeking to move into appropriate or specialist housing. It also looks at the opportunities and benefits of broadening provision and choice for older people, including continuing to live in their own home if they wish to do so and aims to develop a viable and implementable approach for enhancing choice for older people in the housing market.

• Report
• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - publications

The state of medical education and practice in the UK: workforce report 2024

General Medical Council -
This report highlights the changing nature of the country’s medical workforce. It finds that, UK-wide, the overall headcount of doctors rose in the last year at the fastest rate since the report began over a decade ago. But one group has been growing much faster than others – locally employed (LE) doctors. LE doctors are employed on local terms by trusts and health boards, rather than employed in formal postgraduate training programmes. The report argues that the roles are often poorly defined with limited opportunities for career progression and training and many are employed in short-term or non-permanent posts.

• Report
• General Medical Council - press release

 

Maternity survey 2024

Care Quality Commission -
This survey looked at the experiences of pregnant women and new mothers who used NHS maternity services in 2024. It shows some areas of improvement over the past year, particularly regarding access to mental health support during pregnancy. However, there remain other aspects of maternity care where people report a poorer experience and where analysis indicates a longer term decline in positive feedback over time, including communication during labour and birth, information provided during care in hospital after birth and involvement in postnatal care.

• Survey results
• Care Quality Commission - press release

In the blink of an AI: clearing the backlog in UK public services

Social Market Foundation -
This report outlines the benefits the civil service and public sector can reap by further integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and automation into its user-facing workstreams, as well as the time savings available to the public which use them. It looks across different types of public sector organisations, where AI was being adopted in public-facing services such as DVLA, GPs, and HMRC. It argues that AI could cut patient waiting times by almost three quarters (73%) overall and almost half (47%) during peak times – ending the notorious ‘8am rush’ for appointments.

• Report
• Social Market Foundation - press release

The state of integration at place: exploring how and why place is the 'engine room' of integration

NHS Confederation -
This report details how integration through the places that matter to people can shift the government’s ambitions to prioritise community-centred design and delivery of services into a working reality. It draws on the insights of over 60 leaders across integrated care boards, integrated care partnerships, local NHS services, including acute and primary care, local government and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, and two roundtables with local leaders focused specifically on how a new Labour government can best enable integration at place.

• NHS Confederation - publications

Investigation into the NHS dental recovery plan

National Audit Office -
The dental recovery plan was published in February 2024 under the previous government and aims to increase access to NHS dentistry services. The £200 million plan was intended to deliver more than 1.5 million additional NHS dentistry treatments in 2024-25. This report sets out information on the current delivery of NHS dentistry services and the development and progress of the plan for 2024-25. It finds that the dental recovery plan is not on course to fulfil this ambition – even if the target was reached it would still be 2.6m fewer treatments per year than pre-pandemic levels.

• Report
• National Audit Office - press release

 

Knowledge is power: a survey of 2,000 UK adults using the Ipsos Knowledge Panel

Patient Information Forum -
This report contains research into health information access across the UK. It aims to offer insights on information access, trusted sources, communication with healthcare professionals and the impact of misinformation. It is based on a cross-sectional, nationally-representative survey of 2,003 adults in the UK from May to June 2024 using the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. It reveals the demand for the NHS to signpost trusted information and wide support for the verification of health information.

• Report
• Patient Information Forum - publications