Month: May 2023

Virtual wards staffing needs to be properly planned, says report

A report by the NHS Confederation looking at virtual wards says virtual ward staffing needs to be properly planned. It says long-term establishments should be set and regularly reviewed for virtual wards and staffing plans implemented, which provide both permanent and secondment-based opportunities for clinical staff (including from social, community and primary care), to help reinforce the role of virtual wards as a permanent service which can offer real benefits to career development. It adds placements for students should include exposure to virtual wards alongside other traditional placements.

The report spoke to a range of NHS leaders, including integrated care system (ICS) chairs and chief executives, integrated care board (ICB) digital leads, clinicians, and senior operational and finance staff. It focuses on the delivery process of virtual wards; the opportunities they bring to the quality of care and impact on demand; the challenges leaders face in implementing virtual wards, including the implications for the NHS workforce; and potential solutions to improving virtual wards as they become commonplace in the NHS.

Realising the potential of virtual wards | NHS Confederation

High risk children and young people being cared for in unsafe environments, HSIB report finds

The latest interim report from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has found children and young people exhibiting high-risk behaviours are being cared for in NHS paediatric wards which may not be a safe environment and can impact on the wellbeing of those patients and their families and pose a risk to other patients and staff.

The report comes as HSIB undertakes an investigation into the risks associated with design of paediatric wards in hospitals.. The body says it has seen and heard that there are significant challenges in caring for children and young people exhibiting high-risk behaviours.

Wards may contain many self-harm and ligature risks and NHS staff, patients and families commented to HSIB that the wards are crowded, busy and noisy, and were unsuitable for children and young people experiencing a mental health crisis and/or who have sensory needs.

The interim report states that 13 out of the 18 hospitals the investigation spoke with said that for children and young people with high-risk behaviours the paediatric ward was “not safe” and was not a suitable environment, particularly if the child or young person did not have a physical health condition. The remaining five spoke of the huge challenges they face and that they try to make the environment as safe as possible but felt more could be done.

 

Commissioners and services need a better understanding of and support for unpaid carers, report finds

A report on the “current picture of local support available for unpaid carers in England” by think tank the King’s Fund has found unpaid carers provide levels of support equivalent to four million paid care workers to family or friends, but often struggle to gain support for themselves. It says carers are a hugely diverse group – both in terms of who they are and who they care for – but policy and services do not always reflect this diversity.

The think tank interviewed commissioners and providers of support to unpaid carers and ran focus groups with unpaid carers in four areas of England, spoke to national stakeholders and reviewed existing literature and national data sets.

It says to better support unpaid carers locally, commissioners and services need to develop and maintain a good understanding of their populations, build local support offers accordingly, and embed awareness of carers in strategic-level and commissioning decisions.

Caring_in_a_complex_world_unpaid_carers.pdf (kingsfund.org.uk)

Guidance published on individual placement and support for severe mental illness

NHS England guidance for integrated care systems on how individual placement and support should be embedded within integrated models of primary and community services for patients with severe mental illness has been published. The implementation of IPS has been part of the NHS Long Term Plan and preceding strategies for national mental health improvement for over eight years and is a fundamental part of the ongoing transformation of community mental health services.

NHS England » Individual placement and support for severe mental illness

Quality Improvement bulletin available

The latest Quality Improvement bulletin produced by the NHS Somerset Foundation Trust Library and Knowledge Service is available. If you need help with accessing any of the articles included in it please contact academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk.

QI Evidence Monthly updates (including COVID-19 Evidence) | Fab NHS Stuff