Realising the benefits of provider collaboratives – NHS Providers
NHS trusts will play a critical role in delivering the key purposes of integrated care systems, often through partnership arrangements that will act as delivery vehicles within ICSs including provider collaboratives, place-based partnerships and neighbourhood multi-disciplinary teams. This briefing: provides a brief overview of how provider collaboratives are developing across England; illustrates some of the emerging benefits that collaboratives are working to realise; explores how trust leaders see the role of provider collaboratives developing within ICSs; and identifies some key enablers and risks trust boards need to consider.

Digital health care across the UK: where are we now? – Nuffield Trust
Achieving digital transformation in health and social care in England has long been a goal, but progress on it over the past decade has not been straightforward. But what is happening elsewhere in the UK? With Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England all embarking on ambitious digital health programmes, this explainer describes the various approaches being taken.

Memorandum of understanding between the UK and Nepal on the recruitment of healthcare workers – Department of Health and Social Care
This memorandum of understanding (MoU) sets out the framework under which healthcare workers from Nepal will be recruited to the UK. The MoU includes: general principles of recruitment; implementation; and the establishment of a joint committee to oversee implementation of the provisions of the MoU.

Where does the buck stop? Understanding accountabilities and structures in the national health and care system in England – The King’s Fund
The Health and Care Act 2022 and concurrent reforms to the public health system have introduced a range of changes and some simplifications to the landscape of national bodies in the health and care system. Here, we explain the core functions of the national bodies with the most significant role in setting policy for and shaping the operation of the health and care system. We also look at how these organisations are held accountable for carrying out those functions and the extent to which central government can direct them.

The latest from NHS Employers

• Introducing the Professional Nurse Advocate programme in York and Scarborough NHS Trust York and Scarborough NHS Trust recently trained their first cohort of Professional Nurse Advocates to support their nursing workforce.
• Workforce Alliance International Recruitment Framework updated The latest version of a framework for international recruitment has opened for bids from those organisations on the Ethical Recruiters List.
• Asymptomatic COVID-19 testing paused in remaining settings The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that asymptomatic COVID-19 testing will be paused in all remaining settings from 31 August.
• More trusts celebrating employer recognition scheme awards A bumper number of NHS trusts have achieved silver awards as part of the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).
• Conflict at Work: key insights into conflict management Join our webinar discussion with ACAS looking at current research within conflict management in the workplace.
• Journey of an international AHP: student to director A blog exploring the career journey of an international allied health professional from being a student to becoming a programme director at HEE.
• Episode 4: Being in the service of others with Vilma Nikolaidou Vilma Nikolaidou on OD in the higher education sector in a time of hybrid working, growing inequality and short-term thinking.
• National nursing and midwifery job profile review webinar Webinar: NHS Agenda for Change, reviewing the national job evaluation profiles for nursing and midwifery.
• The NHS Pension Scheme as a tool for retention A free, online learning course outlining the value of the NHS Pension Scheme and how to promote it to help retain and recruit staff.

HSJ Roundup –  Full text available << click here to e-mail your request to the Hanley Library >>

• Patients fit for discharge stuck in hospital for up to nine months Medically fit patients are waiting up to nine months to be discharged from some NHS hospitals as increasing numbers of working age people develop more complex conditions amid ongoing social care shortages.
• ‘Emergency’ pension rule changes extended to help NHS cope with winter The government is planning to extend measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic which relaxed the pension rules for staff who ‘retire and return’.
• Revealed: Only two ICSs seeing more elective inpatient activity than pre-covid Providers in just two integrated care systems carried out more inpatient elective procedures in the first quarter of this year than before the covid pandemic, HSJ analysis of official data has revealed.
• Staff shortages force most trusts to suspend NHSE maternity care model More than two-thirds of trusts have been forced to suspend or pause a high-profile service improvement aimed at reducing neonatal and maternal deaths, because of widespread staffing shortages.
• Former chief inspector set to chair safety watchdog The former chief inspector of hospitals has been named the government’s preferred candidate to chair the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.
• Leaked report shows ‘long-standing’ bullying and discrimination within national agency Internal documents show significant evidence of bullying and discrimination within NHS Blood and Transplant which dates back at least eight years, when the organisation was led by the current chief executive of the Care Quality Commission.
• NHS scraps plan to merge national HR and finance systems The NHS has tendered a £1.7bn contract for a new national workforce management system, in what amounts to a downgrading of previous ambitious plans to create a new HR and finance platform.
• Trusts must ‘exercise judgement’ on covid testing after routine swabs scrapped Scrapping routine covid tests in hospitals ahead of autumn boosters could downplay how serious the disease still is, NHS leaders have warned as they said trusts would exercise their own judgement on testing.
• Govt to add trusts with unsafe roofs to ‘40 new hospitals’ programme Several trusts with dangerous structural planks are set to be selected for the government’s flagship hospital building programme, HSJ has learned.
• Trust criticised for ‘extreme positivity’ and drops two ratings to ‘inadequate’ Senior leaders of an ambulance trust have been told their ‘extreme positivity’ has made them appear ‘out of touch’ as the Care Quality Commission downgraded the organisation’s rating to ‘inadequate’.
• Plans to improve urgent care and ambulance handovers £8m short Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust is facing an £8m gap in its finances after funding it had anticipated it would receive for improving urgent care and ambulance handovers has not materialised.
• NHSE director who delivered huge savings to step down NHS England director Blake Dark, whose negotiations with the pharma industry are credited with saving the NHS large sums of money on expensive drugs, will leave in November.
• Exclusive: Barclay summons six hospital chiefs over ambulance delays Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay today called in chief executives of the six worst-performing trusts for ambulance handover delays to ‘ensure accountability’ for addressing the issue, HSJ can reveal.
• Light-touch scrutiny during covid gave ‘freedom’ to improve, says retiring CEO The CEO of a mental health trust that recently moved out of the successor to ‘special measures’ is to retire early next year after more than 40 years in the NHS.
• Top medical director criticised by tribunal after attempted ‘humiliation’ of sacked doctor One of the top medical directors in the North West has been heavily criticised by an employment tribunal, after a doctor who was unfairly sacked was then offered her job back on lower pay.
• Centre rationing hundreds of medical consumables and products Hundreds of items of medical equipment and consumables ranging from dressings to tracheotomy tubes are under strict demand management by NHS Supply Chain, HSJ can reveal.
• Large hospital trusts still missing key crisis support in A&E Some of the country’s leading acute hospitals are not meeting a key NHS standard for mental health support in emergency departments, HSJ research suggests, with some regions faring better than others.
• NHSE director to run London Zoo A senior NHS England director has taken a new job heading up The Zoological Society of London, which runs London Zoo, it has been reported.
• CEO promises ‘long hard look at myself’ if A&E performance still bottom of table next year The chief executive of the trust with the worst A&E performance in England has said he will ‘have a long, hard look at myself’ if sustainable improvements are not made by next year.
• Revealed: CEO and exec turnover at each acute trust Some acute trusts have kept more than half of their executive directors over a five-year period – whereas others have seen all of them change, according to HSJ analysis of top-level managerial stability.
• Trusts warn of continued care delay as IT outage goes on Mental health trusts continue to suffer much disruption after a cyber attack left them unable to access their electronic patient records.