Health Management and Policy Alert

Home to the unknown: getting hospital discharge right

British Red Cross - 

This research explored patients’ unplanned stays in hospital and what it was like for them after they had returned home. More specifically, the research sought to reveal: patients’ experiences of being discharged from hospital; hospital systems and healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of the discharge process; and what it was like for people returning home from hospital feeling more or less prepared. As a result, it aimed to explore the impact of discharge on recovery and wellbeing and to identify opportunities to improve systems, communication and support.

• Report
• More detail

Caring about complaints: lessons from our independent care provider investigations

Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman -
This good practice guide shares lessons from complaints to help adult social care providers improve their services. It is based on the Ombudsman’s experience of investigating complaints about independent providers and gives real-life examples of the common problems the organisation sees as well as offering some ways to avoid the pitfalls.

• Report
• Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman - news

Peer support hub

National Voices -
This Hub aims to provide high quality resources for people looking to measure, evaluate, sustain and grow different types of peer support. It collates, curates and categorizes the best quality information and evidence together in one place, making it easier for people to find useful, high quality peer support resources. By making this information more accessible, the Hub aims to support the development of more effective peer support in the UK.

• Peer support hub
• National Voices - news

Inequalities in mobility and access in the UK transport system

Government Office for Science - 

This review looks at the links between unequal mobility and inability to access jobs, education, training, healthcare, affordable food and leisure opportunities in the UK. The report builds on the premise that a people-centric approach to understanding transport accessibility and inclusion is the key to ensuring socially sustainable transport futures for all.

• Report
• More detail

Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2018: results from the British Social Attitudes survey

The King's Fund - 
This report, written with Nuffield Trust, shows that public satisfaction with the NHS overall continued to fall in 2018. The four main reasons people gave for being satisfied with the NHS overall were: the quality of care; the fact that the NHS is free at the point of use; the range of services and treatments available; and the attitudes and behaviour of NHS staff. The four main reasons people gave for being dissatisfied with the NHS overall were: long waiting times; staff shortages; a lack of funding; and money being wasted.

• Report
• The King's Fund - publications

Proceed with caution: what makes personal budgets work?

Reform - 

This report provides a critical examination of how personal budgets have been used to deliver public services in the UK. It suggests where personal budgets show potential to deliver more effective, personalised public services, whilst also highlighting and suggesting solutions to the key challenges raised by their implementation so far.

• Report
• More detail

Extending legal rights to personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets: consultation response

Department of Health and Social Care - 

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England held a public consultation that explored giving more people the right to have personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets. This would give people more choice and control over the money spent on meeting their health and wellbeing needs. This document summarises the main findings and conclusions from the consultation, and provides an analysis of each individual question. The document also explains the approach the government and NHS England are going to now take following the conclusion of the consultation.

• Report
• More detail

The Daffodil standards

Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) - 
GP surgeries will now be able to display a 'daffodil mark' as a sign of commitment to improving end of life care, as part of a new partnership between the Royal College of GPs and the terminal illness charity Marie Curie. The mark, synonymous with the charity, is based on a new set of criteria called the Daffodil Standards – a set of eight quality improvement statements designed to support primary care teams in delivering care to patients living with an advanced, serious illness or at the end of their lives, and their loved ones.

• Standards
• 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

Research and development work relating to assistive technology: 2017–18

Department of Health and Social Care -
This report sets out government-funded projects supporting the development, introduction and evaluation of assistive technology. These projects aim to increase the independence or wellbeing of disabled and older people.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications