Author: Sarah Woodhall

Categories
STPs

Sustainability and transformation partnerships in London: an independent review

By The King’s Fund (2018)

Our new report, commissioned by the Mayor of London, reviews the progress made over the past year by the capital’s five sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs), new bodies established to implement local plans for the future of health and care services. It finds evidence of improvements in services for patients in boroughs and neighbourhoods across London which are often supported by the partnerships, but that London’s STPs are less advanced than those in many other parts of England.

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Categories
Accident Prevention Care of the Elderly Community Safety CVD Flu Health Protection (Emergency planning infection prevention Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease seasonal mortality)

Flu vaccination programme in England

By House of Commons (2018)

This report examines the planning for the flu vaccination programme, how advice is formulated and cost-effectiveness issues are addressed, the reasons for different types of vaccines for different groups of the population, the effectiveness and take-up of the vaccination programme, and any plans for adjustments for the next flu season in terms of the vaccines uses and groups targeted.

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Categories
CYP Healthcare Healthy Child including NCMP & CDO Healthy Settings healthy weight Nutrition Obesity

Promoting healthy weight in children, young people and families: A resource to support local authorities

By Public Health England (2018)

This resource is made up of briefings and practice examples to promote healthy weight for children, young people and families as part of a whole systems approach. The briefings help to make the case for taking action to reduce childhood obesity, give examples of actions that can be taken, and provide key documents that form the evidence base and other useful resources. Practice examples are also given to illustrate what local areas are doing.

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Categories
cost-effective CVD Healthy Settings Heart disease Interventions Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Long-Term Conditions Public Health Advice to NHS Commissioners Respiratory Disease

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Return on Investment Tool: Final Report

By Public Health England (2018)

This resource has been developed to help commissioners provide cost-effective interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease.

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Categories
A&E Preventable/avoidable STPs

Briefing: Emergency hospital admissions in England: which may be avoidable and how?

By The Health Foundation (2018)

This report looks at trends in emergency admissions over the past decade. It finds that one in three patients admitted to hospital in England as an emergency in 2015/16 had five or more health conditions. This is up from one in ten in 2006/7. It calculates the financial implications for the NHS in England and finds that the cost of emergency admissions in 2016/17 was £17 billion, up £5.5 billion in ten years.

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Categories
Cancer Screening

Guidance for the development, production and review of information to support UK population screening programmes

By UK National Screening Committee (2018)

This guidance provides the four UK nations with best practice in terms of developing public information resources such as leaflets to support the national screening programmes. It also provides a definition of ‘personal informed choice’.

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Categories
Accident Prevention Community Safety councils gambling Healthy Settings Licensing Local Government Planning

A ‘Whole Council’ Approach to Gambling A guide for public health and other council officers to support the revision of borough statements of policy

By London Councils (2018)

Gambling is often described as a ‘hidden addiction’ and problem gambling is now recognised as a complex public health issue that has an impact on individuals, families, and communities. This guidance outlines the areas in which public health can add value and support local gambling policies.

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Categories
Evidence Based Healthy Settings Library Licensing Planning Policy makers Public Health

Development of measurable indicators to enhance public health evidence-informed policy-making

Tudisca, V. et al. Health Research Policy and Systems, 2018: 16:47

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Background
Ensuring health policies are informed by evidence still remains a challenge despite efforts devoted to this aim. Several tools and approaches aimed at fostering evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) have been developed, yet there is a lack of availability of indicators specifically devoted to assess and support EIPM. The present study aims to overcome this by building a set of measurable indicators for EIPM intended to infer if and to what extent health-related policies are, or are expected to be, evidence-informed for the purposes of policy planning as well as formative and summative evaluations.

Methods
The indicators for EIPM were developed and validated at international level by means of a two-round internet-based Delphi study conducted within the European project ‘REsearch into POlicy to enhance Physical Activity’ (REPOPA). A total of 82 researchers and policy-makers from the six European countries (Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, the United Kingdom) involved in the project and international organisations were asked to evaluate the relevance and feasibility of an initial set of 23 indicators developed by REPOPA researchers on the basis of literature and knowledge gathered from the previous phases of the project, and to propose new indicators.

Results
The first Delphi round led to the validation of 14 initial indicators and to the development of 8 additional indicators based on panellists’ suggestions; the second round led to the validation of a further 11 indicators, including 6 proposed by panellists, and to the rejection of 6 indicators. A total of 25 indicators were validated, covering EIPM issues related to human resources, documentation, participation and monitoring, and stressing different levels of knowledge exchange and involvement of researchers and other stakeholders in policy development and evaluation.

Conclusion
The study overcame the lack of availability of indicators to assess if and to what extent policies are realised in an evidence-informed manner thanks to the active contribution of researchers and policy-makers. These indicators are intended to become a shared resource usable by policy-makers, researchers and other stakeholders, with a crucial impact on fostering the development of policies informed by evidence.

Categories
Alcohol exercise General Practice Healthy Settings Mortality Oral Health Physical Activity Smoking Cessation Tobacco & Drugs

Going the Distance: Exercise professionals in the wider public health workforce

By Royal Society for Public Health (2018)

This report, written with ukactive, explores how fitness professionals can play an enhanced role in supporting the public’s health. It calls for GP drop-in and smoking cessation services inside gyms and leisure centres to help ease pressure on local health facilities and improve access to health improvement services.

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Categories
economic evaluation Green spaces Healthy Settings Licensing Planning Well-Being

Revaluing parks and green spaces: measuring their economic and wellbeing value to individuals

By Fields in Trust (2018)

This report demonstrates that parks and green spaces across the UK provide people with over £34 billion of health and wellbeing benefits and generates savings to the NHS of at least £111 million per year. It calculates that parks provide a total economic value to each person in the UK of just over £30 per year and that this is higher for individuals from lower socio-economic groups and also from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

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