This study aimed to identify and facilitate the development of innovative practice as it relates to support worker roles in an acute health-care setting; evaluate various acute trust policies and practices designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of stakeholder interaction with support worker roles; and to secure the engagement of various stakeholders in sharing knowledge, practice and learning on support worker roles.

This paper provides an introduction to the subject of long-term policy analysis and its specific NHS workforce planning context in the UK.

The NHS is facing a serious funding gap if demand continues to increase and budgets remain frozen – up to £30 billion by 2021 according to NHS England. The independent Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England, set up by The King’s Fund, is a timely contribution to determining how to address the financial challenge. This guest blog post by IPPR’s Nick Pearce discusses how a dedicated NHS tax might work.

This model was developed by InHealth Associates to support commissioners aiming to engage with patients and the public throughout the commissioning cycle. It has been updated to align with current statutory guidance, new commissioning arrangements and current healthcare challenges.

Blog post from the NHS alliance that considers the value of co-production with patients to reduce the impact of organisation silo thinking on the part of providers and commissioners of integrated services.

Blog post that identifies that all NHS bodies proposing a change in services must inform the public of what they propose to do and why; they must give people enough information to enable them to provide informed comments; and they must give them enough time to do this. For significant changes, that requires a full public consultation. You should ensure that you keep your local Overview and Scrutiny Committee informed and involved from an early stage. Commissioners (whose duties are slightly different from providers) should be involving the public at all stages of the commissioning cycle.

Involving the public is not only a legal obligation: people are less likely to bring a legal challenge if they feel they have been listened to. You are allowed to work up clear proposals before going out to formal consultation, but the public should be involved in the development of those proposals at the earliest stage. Staff working in this field must know the relevant NHS England guidance in this area.

Considers the future challenges and opportunities for the NHS, and interpret leadership in a range of contexts. Includes contributions from three Clinical Commissioning Groups with reflections on their own engagement in, and experience of, these issues. Items address some of the most complex or controversial debates in healthcare – such as decommissioning, integration, engagement, and leadership. Some present research findings and set out the next steps for further exploration, while others are reflections on the
existing evidence base and provide a critical commentary on implications for future developments.

Briefing from the NHS Confederation primarily aimed at members of health and wellbeing boards, but relevant to both statutory and VCS partners, gives an overview of the knowledge, expertise and insight that voluntary and community sector organisations may hold about their local communities and diverse groups of people within these, as well as the different ways this knowledge can be used to enhance joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) and commissioning.

Why day to day behaviour needs to match aspirations and how to use vocabulary that helps everyone understand what makes your company or team special.

Hospital bed blocking occurs when hospital patients are ready to be discharged to a nursing home but no place is available, so that hospital care acts as a more costly substitute for long-term care. We investigate the extent to which higher supply of nursing home beds or lower prices can reduce hospital bed blocking. We use new Local Authority level administrative data from England on hospital delayed discharges in 2010-13. The results suggest that delayed discharges do respond to the availability of care-home beds but the effect is modest: an increase in care-homes bed by 10% (250 additional beds per Local Authority) would reduce delayed discharges by about 4%-7%. We also find strong evidence of spillover effects across Local Authorities: higher availability of care-homes or fewer patients aged over 65 in nearby Local Authorities are associated with fewer delayed discharges.