Health Management and Policy Alert

Integrated homes, care and support measurable outcomes for healthy ageing

The Extra Care Charitable Trust - 

This report provides an overview of the research findings from the collaborative research project between Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing (ARCHA) and the ExtraCare Charitable Trust. This report extends the findings of the 2015 report, covering the period from 2012 to 2018. Throughout the report, the focus is on the benefits to residents generated through ExtraCare villages and schemes, including sustained improvements in markers of health and well-being for residents and subsequent cost implications for the NHS.

• Report
• More detail

Chief Social Worker for Adults' annual report: 2018 to 2019 – social work leadership in changing times

Department of Health and Social Care -
The Chief Social Worker for Adults in England, Lyn Romeo, sets out progress in improving the education, training and practice of social work with adults. The report details: how social workers are taking a practice leadership role in delivering safe and best outcomes for people with health and care needs; and priorities to further raise the quality and profile of adult social work across an integrated system. It offers examples of social workers demonstrating leadership, professional oversight and co-operation with individuals, families and the wider health and care sector.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Payments and contracting for integrated care: the false promise of the self-improving health system

The King's Fund -
Why should the new payment systems being developed to support integrated care be any more successful than previous ones? This report calls for urgent reform of the system for paying and contracting services in the NHS.

• Report
• The King's Fund - publications

A teachable moment: delivering perioperative medicine in integrated care systems

Royal College of Anaesthetists - 

This report showcases a number of innovative and award-winning programmes in hospitals across England that are improving patient care before, during and after surgery. The time preparing for, undergoing and then recovering from an operation is known as the perioperative period and the College believes that tailored care throughout this time will improve long-term outcomes for patients after surgery.

• Report
• Press release

 

Age UK’s Personalised Integrated Care Programme: evaluation of impact on hospital activity

Nuffield Trust -
Age UK’s Personalised Integrated Care Programme (PICP) aims to improve the lives of older people through practical support, underpinned by a change in the way that the health and care system works together for these people locally. This report analyses the hospital use of 1,996 older people who had received a service from PICP in eight areas in England, compares their activity to that of a carefully selected control group. The research concludes that it has almost certainly not been able to reduce costs or emergency admissions. However, the results suggest that the scheme may be identifying unmet need in the population, which manifests in greater use of hospital care.

• Report
• Nuffield Trust - publications

Governance and accountability for integrated health and care

NHS Clinical Commissioners - 

This explainer for the NHS and local authorities, produced in association with the Centre for Public Scrutiny, outlines some of the key governance and accountability challenges that these organisations may face when seeking to work more collaboratively and potential solutions. It also highlights some of the key enablers from those systems that have already progressed on this journey and what they need to go further.

• Explainer
• Press release

 

Are patients benefitting from better integrated care?

Nuffield Trust -
This briefing breaks down a range of indicators to see whether drives to integrate services have led to improvements for patients.

• Briefing
• Nuffield Trust - blog

State of child health: England - two years on

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health -
This report congratulates the Government on its commitment to child health, commending them on bold pledges in areas such as obesity, mental health and the integration of children’s health services. However, the scorecard also reveals that England continues to lag behind other Western European countries on a range of child health outcomes and notes areas for improvement, particularly in universal public health provision, including: reducing child poverty and inequality; child deaths; tobacco and alcohol control and breastfeeding.

• Report
• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health - press release

Children and young people with disabilities and severe complex needs: integrated health and social care support and service guidance

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence -
This guidance will cover all settings in which health and social care is provided for disabled children and young people with severe complex needs, including educational settings. As well as looking at integrated health and social care support it will also aim to ensure that effective commissioning and joint working occurs between practitioners across health and social care services. The consultation closes on 5 February 2019.

• National Institute for Health and Social Care - consultations

Public guidance: NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
This guidance is for people who may be in need of ongoing care and support from health and social care professionals as a result of disability, accident or illness. It explains the process used to determine whether someone is eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare and takes into consideration the changes made in the 2018 update of the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare. 

• Guidance
• Further information