Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England

December 27, 2017 Comments Off on Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England

Many thanks to Dan Livesey for providing a detailed summary of this driver which can be viewed in full here.

What does this mean for libraries? 

  • Develop services to support both an international mental health workforce and a diversified workforce.
  • Searching and appraisal services can support the development and redesign of new mental health care models.
  • A larger workforce and roles in the community will place greater demand on library and knowledge services.
  • Opportunities to work collaboratively with increasingly multidisciplinary and cross-organisational teams.
  • Increasing the dissemination of research findings to relevant groups.
  • Ensure that Acute partners have resources to enhance the ‘taster’ 2-week attachment in Psychiatry.
  • Support staff who are retraining or enhancing their qualifications and those returning to practice.
  • Signpost physical health resources to staff to support the physical health in mental health priority.

Source: Health Education England

Link to main document

Date of publication: July 2017

Summary of driver:  This document outlines the additional staff needed to deliver the transformation set out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. Current trials are taking place to identify the best skill mix to deliver evidence-based care. The plan will require providers, commissioners, Arms Length Bodies, local authorities and the third sector to work together. This document considers the existing workforce and indicates that by 2021, 11,000 more qualified staff will be needed. It concludes by outlining key actions required to achieve this with a view to providing a framework and workforce model that enables STPs to develop local plans and actions.

The following two summaries were written by Katie Nicholas from the Knowledge Management team at HEE

Stepping Forward Mental Health Workforce Plan – Summary

Future of the Mental Health Workforce – Summary

Date last updated: 27th December 2017

 

Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: progress report 2016-2020

November 15, 2017 Comments Off on Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: progress report 2016-2020

A Policy Briefing aimed at healthcare professionals is available for LKS staff to share in their own organisations. This has been produced and shared by the JET Library, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Please feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement to JET Library) for your own purposes.

Impact on library policy/practice:

Libraries already support cancer services by providing knowledge services to cancer professionals, and supporting patient care, research and education.

The forthcoming HEE cancer workforce strategy may have implications in terms of additional trainees, and there are already a number of new non-medical endoscopists being trained.

With the continued variations in the experience of care, along with the introduction of new treatments and piloting of new pathways, there is a real need for sharing of knowledge across the NHS. The KfH Knowledge Management Toolkit offers some ways that libraries can help support knowledge sharing.

Source: NHS National Cancer Transformation Programme

Link to main document

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: October 2017

Summary of driver:

This is a progress report on NHS England’s National Cancer Programme, and shows significant progress towards delivering the cancer strategy. The strategy aims to reduce preventable cancers, increase cancer survival and improve patient experience and quality of life.

Key features of driver:

  • Survival rates have never been higher
  • Overall patients report a very good experience of care
  • There needs to be more work on early diagnosis which has a major impact on survival
  • Patients continue to experience variation in their access to care
  • £130m committed for technology and equipment to ensure patients have access to the best and latest radiotherapy treatment
  • £200m spent to accelerate diagnosis and assessment of patients
  • Aim to embed new generation of smarter, kinder treatments which target cancers more precisely to improve survival and reduce side effects in routine healthcare as quickly as possible
  • Cancer Alliances have been established to bring clinical leaders and teams together. Three joined together to form a Cancer Vanguard acting as a test-bed and blueprint for future care
  • Nine multidisciplinary diagnostic centres have been set up
  • Diagnostic networks have been developed
  • Aim to provide people with a recovery package and move to personalised follow-up care after treatment
  • A long-term quality-of-life metric will be piloted in five areas from October 2017
  • There is a specific focus on the 62-day referral-to-treatment standard
  • There will be a new standard to give patients a definitive diagnosis within 28 days by 2020. Five sites are piloting this
  • Health Education England are working with stakeholders to develop a cancer-workforce strategy by the end of the year
  • A new Be Clear on Cancer campaign pilot was launched in the East and West Midlands in February 2017
  • More non-medical endoscopists will be trained with a target of 200 new trainees by the end of 2018
  • New drugs made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund have benefited more than 15,000 patients
  • A Cancer Dashboard has been set up to present important cancer-related data and information in one accessible place
  • A Cancer Alliance Data, Evidence and Analysis Service is being set up
  • A cancer-patient feedback system has been set up to collect real-time patient feedback
  • There will be a new screening programme to detect HPV from April 2019
  • A new bowel-cancer-screening test for over 4 million people will be introduced from 2018

Primary audience: Healthcare staff, members of the public

Date last updated: November 2017

Due for review: November 2018

Group member responsible: JC

Improving Digital Literacy

November 9, 2017 Comments Off on Improving Digital Literacy

Impact on library policy/practice: 

Libraries are well-placed to support digital literacy, and some already do for instance by supporting e-learning, providing training in social media or other new technologies, or having access to mobile devices for people to try. This doesn’t need to be just the technical aspects, but might include aspects of copyright, information governance or online security.

Library staff may need to be educated in how to use new technologies such as wearable devices (e.g. fitness trackers), or voice controlled devices (such as the Amazon Echo) and this may involve purchasing examples for library staff or users to try out. We may need to provide training on areas outside of the traditional information skills, and branch out into areas such as Twitter or LinkedIn.

We should if possible position ourselves as the ‘digital champions’ in the Trust, and this driver could be used to argue the necessity of such a role.

Although this document is focused on healthcare professionals, there may be scope for providing digital healthcare literacy support for patients as part of the KfH Patient and Public Information work, perhaps in collaboration with public libraries.

Source: Health Education England and the Royal College of Nursing

Link to main document

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: July 2017

Summary of driver:

This report is focused on the digital literacy skills of healthcare professionals, and the definition of digital literacy that HEE has developed is

‘Digital literacies are the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning, working, participating and thriving in a digital society’.

The six domains included in this definition are:

  • Digital identity, wellbeing, safety and security
  • Communication, collaboration and participation
  • Teaching, learning and personal/professional development
  • Technical proficiency
  • Information, data and media literacies
  • Creation, innovation and scholarship

This report is part of HEE’s digital literacy project that aims to ensure health and care staff have the widest range of digital skills to provide the best possible patient outcomes and ensure effective personal and professional development.

This report is also part of the RCN’s ‘Every nurse an e-nurse’ project that identified an aim that by 2020 every UK nurse should be an e-nurse. The impact of technology and the potential that it has to transform care is a professional issue touching on care delivery, practice, education and research, and includes the involvement of nursing and midwifery staff in the design and implementation of information technology, increasing access to education and training, and using data to improve care.

Key features of driver:

The digital literacy work by Health Education England is includes supporting awareness-building about those capabilities that make up sound digital literacy across professions and disciplines, increasing individual motivation to develop those capabilities supporting individuals in accessing and using digital tools and resources, unlocking some of the barriers to accessing technology in healthcare.

The report does recognise there are challenges and barriers (which are further addressed in another paper) including attitudes to technology, lack of time to explore new technologies, lack of confidence, technical factors (such as patchy WiFi or blocked websites), and organisational policies (such as discouraging staff from using smartphones to access learning at work).

The report also looks at some potential solutions to improving the digital literacy of their workforce, including:

  • Leaders need to clearly express the importance of digital literacy, which also needs to be built into the vision and strategy of the organisation
  • There needs to be an open and trusting culture, with an ethos of information sharing
  • Allowing time for the development and improvement of digital capabilities
  • Developing ‘digital champions’ whether formally or informally

Primary audience: Senior leaders in healthcare, education and training staff, nurse leaders.

Date last updated: November 2017

Due for review: November 2018

Group member responsible: JC

National Information Board – Patient Carers and Service User Vision

November 7, 2017 Comments Off on National Information Board – Patient Carers and Service User Vision

A Policy Briefing aimed at healthcare professionals is available for LKS staff to share in their own organisations. This has been produced and shared by the JET Library, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Please feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement to JET Library) for your own purposes.

Impact on library policy/practice: 

These plans do not directly apply to libraries, but some of the vision has implications for information libraries may wish to make available through their activities for providing information to patients or the public; or to NHS /social care staff that need to know of or share this information with the public and patients.

As these plans are intended for local development and implementation – which aspects of the plans are developed will vary from one place to another.

If locally the plans are taken forward to highlight access to good quality information online via NHS Choices, or for the NHS to help patients understand what mobile apps and wearable devices for tracking/monitoring their health can be safely trusted – libraries may wish to include this information their provision/signposting of information to the public and patients.

If organisations focus on the implementation of more telehealth or telemedicine solutions for providing service to patients or for the sharing of patient data, test results and information between organisations e.g. hospital and GP, there may be an interest in resources around these topics from staff to raise their awareness of these technologies and see what good/existing practice is already in place.

Source: National Information Board

Link to main document: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personalised-health-and-care-2020-service-user-vision

Supporting documentation: The Clinical version: Information and Digital Technologies Clinical Requirements 2020 http://www.aomrc.org.uk/publications/reports-guidance/information-digital-technologies-clinical-requirements-2020/

 Publication format: PDF

 Date of publication: October 2017

Summary of driver: Patient Carers and Service User Vision: Personalised Health and Care 2020.

This vision document states what the Government’s and national health and care organisations’ current digital technology programmes will enable health and social care services to deliver for people in England; through improved use of information technology.

These plans are to be implemented locally, with local decision making, so how they are achieved may different from one area to another. The plans may mean doing things differently, doing new things or just doing existing things better.

Key features of driver:

  • It will be easier to find reliable online information and advice to maintain fitness and wellbeing
  • Online support through NHS 111 will help people if they have a health problem
  • NHS 111 will signpost people to the right help
  • It will be easier to find information at nhs.uk
  • The NHS will help people understand which apps they can trust
  • People will be able to link information from wearable and devices to their own health records
  • There will be free wi-fi in all NHS premises
  • People will be able to book and change appointments online
  • People will be able to track their test results online
  • People will be able to talk to their doctors via phone or Skype
  • GPs will be able to use remote consultation more quickly and easily
  • GP and hospital systems will link up more effectively
  • Children’s red books will become electronic
  • People will have a choice about where, when and how medicines are delivered
  • The accuracy of prescriptions will be improved
  • Test results will be available more quickly and easily
  • It will be easier for different health-care teams to work together
  • It will be easier to find out what social care support people are eligible for and how to access it
  • Carers will find it easier to get hold of the information and support they need
  • Data from gene testing will be linked to other information and analysed in new research hubs
  • Health and care services will have more reliable, joined-up and secure systems

 Primary audience: Public, NHS and social care organisations.

 Date last updated: November 2017

 Due for review: November 2018

 Group member responsible: FG

 

Thriving at Work: a review of mental health and employers

November 7, 2017 Comments Off on Thriving at Work: a review of mental health and employers

A Policy Briefing aimed at healthcare professionals is available for LKS staff to share in their own organisations. This has been produced and shared by the JET Library, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Please feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement to JET Library) for your own purposes.

Impact on library policy/practice: 

Whilst this driver is something that needs to be implemented at a higher level, there are still some things libraries can do to support it and the document demonstrates that investment in mental-health initiatives show a positive return.

Firstly, all NHS libraries contribute to the provision of information to patients and the public, and there are a number of suggestions in the PPI Ideas Bank that support mental wellbeing, including:

  • Offering work placements in the library team for service users recovering from mental illness.
  • Service user reading groups or book clubs
  • Provide materials for Recovery Colleges
  • Provide access to self-help collections such as the Reading Agency’s Books on Prescription titles, or Mood Boosting books

Libraries also support the wellbeing of staff (as recommended in the Boorman review), and this might be through self-help book collections, craft or reading groups, stress relief initiatives such as jigsaws and colouring books, organising mindfulness training, writing competitions, organising ‘pets as therapy’ sessions, or in many other ways. As well as staff, the needs of students need to be considered, and many universities are running programmes to support their students especially during exam time and NHS libraries might be involved in these, run their own, or signpost to them.

Libraries can also support managers to support their staff, and could look at what resources they have on managing staff wellbeing or engagement.

Whilst these are no substitute for formal mental health support, they are things that could help promote mental wellbeing and reduce the burden of mental ill-health on the individual and the organisation.

Source: Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health

Link to main document

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: October 2017

Summary of driver: Thriving at Work sets out what employers can do to better support all employees, including those with mental health problems to remain in and thrive through work.

Key features of driver:

  • 300,000 people with long-term mental-health problems lose their jobs every year
  • Around 15% of people in work have symptoms of an existing mental-health condition
  • The cost to employers of mental ill-health is estimated at between £33bn and £42bn
  • The cost to the Government is estimated at between £24bn and £27bn
  • The cost to the economy as a whole is estimated at between £74bn and £99bn
  • Case studies consistently show a positive return on investment for mental-health initiatives
  • Employers should:
    • Produce, implement and communicate a mental-health-at-work plan
    • Develop mental-health awareness among employees
    • Encourage open conversations about mental health and the support available
    • Provide employees with good working conditions
    • Promote effective people management
    • Routinely monitor employees’ mental health and wellbeing
  • Larger employers should increase transparency through internal and external reporting and provide tailored in-house mental-health support
  • In the public sector:
    • Regulatory bodies should include employers’ handling of mental health in assessments
    • Senior leaders should have a performance objective of supporting mental health
    • NHS England should continue developing its Healthy Workforce programme
    • Employers should identify people at higher risk of stress or trauma and produce a national framework to support them
  • The Government should:
    • Form a mental-health online information portal to promote best practice
    • The Access to Work, Fit for Work and other NHS services should be aligned to create an integrated in-work support service
    • The Government should protect and promote the current tax reliefs for mental-health schemes
    • Legislate to enhance protections for employees with mental-health problems
    • Statutory sick pay should be more flexible to make a phased return to work easier
    • NHS bodies should provide clear ratings for apps and other digital platforms which provide mental-health support
    • Government and the NHS should improve patients’ access to their medical records so patients can share their data with employers should they wish to

Primary audience: Employers and managers, both public and private sector

Date last updated: November 2017

Due for review: November 2018

Group member responsible: JC

Protected: Meeting 31st October 2017

October 30, 2017 Comments Off on Protected: Meeting 31st October 2017

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Integrating care: contracting for accountable models by NHS England

October 2, 2017 Comments Off on Integrating care: contracting for accountable models by NHS England

A  Policy Briefing aimed at healthcare professionals is available for LKS staff to share in their own organisations. This has been produced and shared by the JET Library, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Please feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement to JET Library) for your own purposes.

Impact on library policy/practice: 

Possible knowledge management opportunities whilst working with managers, commissioners, transformation teams and other healthcare leaders to support organisations and staff whilst undergoing these changes.

Current awareness / linking into other organisations and disseminating that information- condensing the amount of information available/ do once and share.

Source: NHS England

Link to main document

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: August 2017

Summary of driver: 

The Five-Year Forward View and the Next Steps update published in March 2017 described a movement towards integrated care delivered through collaboration across health and care systems. It also introduced the concept of Multispecialty Community Providers (MCP) and Primary and Acute Care System (PACS) vanguards.

Key features of driver

  • Sustainability and Transformation Programmes (STPs) are a way of facilitating this collaboration among local leaders and clinicians
  • Eight areas are ready to go further and become Accountable Care Systems (ACSs) – they will have greater freedom and control over the operation of their local health system and how funding is deployed More ACSs will be added later as STPs mature
  • Some areas also want to establish Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs). ACOs are where the commissioners in that area have a contract with a single organisation for the great majority of health and social-care services. This is a long and complex process and most places are looking to become ACSs first
  • A few areas – particularly some of the Multispecialty Community Providers (MCP) and Primary and Acute Care System (PACS) vanguards – are on the road to establishing an ACO. An ACO model simplifies governance and decision making, brings together funding streams and allows a single provider organisation to make most decisions about how to allocate resources and design care for its local population.
  • ACOs will need to demonstrate a number of features viz:
    • A focus on delivering concrete service improvements
    • A compelling vision of the benefits to be delivered
    • A robust and sustainable financial model
    • Consistency with STP/ACS plans for the future
    • High levels of engagement and support among health-and-social-care leaders
    • Sufficient commitment from primary-care providers
    • Robust system plans to commission, procure, fund, establish and oversee the ACO
    • Clear plans to identify, mitigate and manage risk
  • Three main contractual approaches through with accountable models can be established in practice:
    • Virtual. Practices, local community service providers and commissioners enter into an “alliance agreement,” which would overlay existing commissioning contracts
    • Partially-integrated. Commissioners re-procure, under a single contract, all services that would be within the scope of a fully-integrated model except for core General Practice
    • Fully-integrated. Commissioners re-procure, under a single contract, all of the ‘in scope,’ services including core General Practice

Primary audience: Clinical commissioning groups, local community service providers and other commissioners, health and social care staff.

Date last updated: September 2017

Due for review: September 2018

Group member responsible: LK

MAP on tour: Supporting NHS South librarians to demonstrate impact

September 26, 2017 Comments Off on MAP on tour: Supporting NHS South librarians to demonstrate impact

Last week MAP Toolkit (Tracey and Victoria) went on tour in the NHS South region, hosting workshops in Taunton and Winchester.  Participants explored ‘How to demonstrate impact in 5 easy steps’ and enjoyed an animated discussion on the ways that LKS in the health sector can demonstrate value to stakeholders.  We loved it!  Meeting other LKS professionals to share ideas and learning is always a fascinating opportunity for us; thank you everyone who joined us.  We thought it would be useful to share some of the actions that our workshop participants identified for their return to the workplace – see below.  And if you’d like us to deliver this workshop at your regional meeting, please get in touch 🙂

“When I get back to work, I’m going to…”

  • “Look at ways to “shout about it” within the Trust”
  • “Write up a detailed SMART impact plan”
  • “Increase use of Twitter /Facebook / Instagram accounts for impact of service”
  • “Arrange to meet the Health & Wellbeing committee to discuss a health and wellbeing fair / information event”
  • “Follow more people on Twitter so that we know what’s going on, look at creating some social media cards, and explore using Twitter polls to demonstrate impact on Trust values”
  • “Try to find a customer who is willing to contribute to a case study – I like the idea of sharing these on social media or corporate blog”
  • “I am going to think about my project (replacing print journal archives with electronic) in terms of impact on stakeholders (who are the stakeholders and how to measure impact)”
  • “Consider ways in which we can use the feedback we already receive to shout about it!”
  • “Choose a project to use the five steps with”
  • “Activate a Twitter account. Love the ideas!”
  • “Re-jig my next presentation to include impact”
  • “Take a long hard look at what I can reasonably expect from survey i.e. focus on individual groups rather than organisations”
  • “Encourage my team to collect feedback which highlights the difference and/or change LKS has made”
  • “Create a post-it literature search feedback board”
  • “Talk to head of transformation re: impact of LKS support”
  • “Launch a library competition: tell us your library story”
  • “Work out what ‘shout about it’ ideas are feasible”

Expansion of Undergraduate Medical Education: Government Response to Consultation

September 14, 2017 Comments Off on Expansion of Undergraduate Medical Education: Government Response to Consultation

Impact on library policy/practice: 

The impact on specific library services depends on how the additional places are allocated, and whether the organisation is already a teaching trust and has the infrastructure in place to support medical students.

Any increase in medical student numbers though will have an impact on library services that support medical students, and this could be in the form of demand for additional library stock, IT facilities, space, and pressure for 24/7 opening. Although not stated in the response, student expectations have risen over time, and universities will be keen to get good results on the National Student Survey (NSS). Since some of the questions on the NSS relate to libraries, this could be a good argument for sufficient funding to ensure student demands can be satisfied as far as possible.

Source: Department of Health

Link to main document

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: August 2017

Summary of driver: There will be an additional 1,500 undergraduate training places at medical schools in England within the next few years.

Key features of driver:

  • The new places are for domestic students
  • There will be an increase of 500 places at existing medical schools for the 2018 academic year
  • A further 1,000 places will be allocated by a competitive bidding process for the 2019 academic year
  • The bidding process for the extra 1,000 places will prioritise widened participation and geographical area such as coastal and rural areas, and will support general practice and other shortage specialities
  • International students will be charged the full cost of their course from 2019

As well as the Government’s response, the document also includes some the results from the consultation divided into responses from individuals and responses from organisations.

Primary audience: HEE, higher education providers, undergraduate teams in NHS Trusts

Date last updated: September 2017

Due for review: September 2018

Group member responsible: JC

Adult social care: quality matters

September 8, 2017 Comments Off on Adult social care: quality matters

A Policy Briefing aimed at healthcare professionals is available for LKS staff to share in their own organisations. This has been produced and shared by the JET Library, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Please feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement to JET Library) for your own purposes.

Impact on library policy/practice: 

Library and Knowledge Services already make an important contribution to safe, high-quality care in the NHS. However, an absence of funding currently prevents library services extending their service and knowledge resources to most social care staff, and the number of providers in the social care sector make it difficult to negotiate service level agreements at a local level. This may change in areas where accountable care organisations are created, bringing health and social care together.

Commissioners of social care in local authorities could be approached to discuss the potential contribution of LKS to quality in the social care sector, and see if any SLAs can be created. This may be something that should be done at a national level, to avoid duplication of effort and ensure equitable funding and access.

Source: Department of Health and Care Quality Commission

Link to main document

Publication format: Webpage, with links to the main document and action plan

Date of publication: July 2017

Summary of driver:

The Quality Matters initiative is co-led by partners from across the adult social care sector, and this document sets out the agreed principles that support high-quality, person centred adult social care. The principles reflect those of the NHS National Quality Board.

There is no change to statutory responsibilities.

Key features of driver:

  • There are around 12,000 adult social-care providers in the UK
  • They provide care in around 25,000 different locations – excluding people’s homes
  • The sector contributes around £20bn to the economy
  • It enables families of people being cared for to continue working
  • It employs about 1.43m people doing 1.55m jobs
  • Challenges include:
    • Rising needs from an ageing population with increasingly complex conditions
    • Rising costs to providers of adult social care
    • Restricted public funds
    • Challenges in recruiting and retaining good-quality staff
  • Quality can vary – some is unacceptable and unreliable
  • Quality Matters is a shared commitment for everyone who uses works in and supports adult social care. It aims to achieve:
    • A shared understanding of what high-quality care is
    • More effective and aligned support for quality in adult social care
    • Improved quality in adult social care
  • Single, shared view of quality including:
    • Equity and equality
    • Person-centre care
  • Principles are:
    • Promoting quality through everything that we do
    • Coordinate action
  • Priorities to improve quality
    • Acting on feedback, concerns and compliments
    • Measuring, collecting and using data more effectively
    • Commissioning for better outcomes
    • Better support for improvement
    • Shared focus areas for improvement
    • Improving the profile of adult social care
  • Seven steps to improve quality:
    • Setting clear direction and priorities
    • Bringing clarity to quality
    • Measuring and publishing quality
    • Recognising and rewarding quality
    • Maintaining and safeguarding quality
    • Building capability
    • Staying ahead

Primary audience: Commissioners, managers and staff in the adult social care sector, users of adult social care, regulators and improvement agencies

Date last updated: September 2017

Due for review: September 2017

Group member responsible: JC

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