Health Management and Policy Alert

Achieving integrated care: 15 best practice actions

Local Government Association (LGA) - 
This resource, produced in partnership with the Social Care Institute for Excellence, aims to support local systems in fulfilling their ambition of integration. The 15 actions prioritised in this resource draw on evidence about what works from international research, emerging best practices and engagement with our own stakeholders and partners. The actions are deliberately aligned with national policy, legal frameworks and regulatory guidance, but most important, they allow for local variety in system design and service delivery to flourish.

• Guidance

English local government funding: trends and challenges in 2019 and beyond

Institute for Fiscal Studies -
This report looks at councils’ revenues and spending, focusing on the trends and choices taken over the last decade. It also looks at the outlook for local government funding both in the short and longer term. It finds that cuts to funding from central government have led to a 17 per cent fall in councils’ spending on local public services since 2009–10. It also finds that councils’ spending is increasingly focused on social care services – now 57 per cent of all service budgets.

• Report
• Institute for Fiscal Studies - publications

Mortality and life expectancy trends in the UK: stalling progress

The Health Foundation -
This analysis of mortality data explores the reasons behind stalling life expectancy improvements in the UK and uncovers a trend of a rising number of avoidable deaths among the under 50s. It shows that while people in wealthier areas of the UK continue to live longer, for those living in the most deprived areas, life expectancy is stalling, or even reversing.

• Report
• The Health Foundation - news

HIV: women in the United Kingdom

Public Health England - 

This report provides a summary of the HIV epidemic in women in the UK and contains information relating to: trends in new HIV diagnoses in women; clinical outcomes among women accessing HIV services in the UK; HIV testing patterns in antenatal and sexual health services; quality of life and experiences of women living with HIV; and satisfaction with HIV services and extent that social and women’s health needs are met.

• Report
• More detail

No age limit: the hidden face of domestic abuse

Age UK - 

In this report, Age UK advocates legislation to change what is understood as domestic abuse and make it easier for people to recognise or report it, as well as improving the resources available to help victims and survivors. This includes training for health care practitioners and better links between the NHS and police.

• Report
• More detail

Spatial planning and health Getting Research into Practice (GRIP): study report

Public Health England -
The GRIP initiative aims to help local authority public health and planning teams to influence the planning process in an evidenced-based way by ensuring that improvements in health and wellbeing underpin all local plans and the design of local development projects. This study explores the opportunities and challenges of applying the principles in Public Health England's Spatial Planning for Health: an evidence resource.

• Report
• Spatial planning for health: evidence review
• Public Health England - publications

Get a move on: steps to increase activity levels in the UK

British Medical Association - 

This briefing examines the wide range of benefits of physical activity, the current low levels of physical activity in the UK and the significant inequalities that exist in levels of physical activity within the population. Policy recommendations across four core parts of people’s lives – travel, leisure, school and work – set out the steps government and policy-makers should take to increase physical activity levels across the UK.

• Briefing
• More detail

Government response to the Health and Social Care Committee report on sexual health

Department of Health and Social Care - 

This paper sets out the government’s response to the conclusions and recommendations made in the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee report on sexual health (fourteenth report of session 2017–19).

• Response
• Original report

Investigation into pre-school vaccinations

National Audit Office - 

This investigation sets out the system for providing vaccinations to pre-school children in England. It is prompted by public concerns about the levels of uptake of pre‑school vaccinations. It sets out: the current levels of vaccination uptake and cases of disease across England; Public Health England's (PHE's) and NHS England’s understanding of the problem; and PHE’s and NHS England’s response to the problem. 

• Report
• More detail

Drugs policy

Health and Social Care Committee - 

The United Kingdom has some of the highest drug death rates in Europe, particularly in Scotland. This Report shows how the rate of drug-related deaths has risen to the scale of a public health emergency. It recommends a radical change in approach to UK drugs policy, moving from the current criminal justice approach to a health approach, with responsibility for drugs policy moving from the Home Office to the Department of Health and Social Care.

• Report
• Press release