The Nursing in Practice Awards 2010 reward best practice in a variety of clinical areas and are designed to recognise excellence and innovation in the primary care setting. Applications are invited from individual nurses or teams of primary healthcare professionals who have undertaken projects to improve the quality of care for groups of patients.
Download the Care of Older People application form.
The Dying Matters Coalition Resources are now available online, including:
It lists some of the things that will be happening around the country during Dying Matters Awareness Week (15-21 March 2010) and allows you to upload details of your own events happening during the week and beyond...
A consultation has been launched on a strategy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) services in England.
The strategy sets out a number of recommendations to improve outcomes for patients and help to reduce the cost of COPD to the NHS including: identifying the disease earlier, improving diagnosis of COPD and asthma, helping people to manage their condition better through structured education and exercise, reducing admissions and re-admissions to hospital, improving access to end of life care, and working to prevent COPD.
Closing date: 6 April 2010.
Further information is available on the Consultations page.
The Alzheimer’s Society has produced a "This is me" leaflet aimed at helping hospital staff care for people with dementia. The leaflet can be filled out when a person with dementia goes into hospital and given to staff to help them get to know the individual and provide the best possible person-centred care.
M&K Update Ltd are seeking speakers to participate in a national event exploring innovative practice and excellence in identifying, assessing and managing deteriorating acutely ill patients who may not be in an identified critical care setting. The event is scheduled for 21 October 2010 in London.
Further details are available on the Conference Calls page.
NHS North East and NHS East Midlands are working with a range of providers to pilot quality accounts for primary care and community services providers. This pilot aims to explore how quality accounts for these providers could best develop and help inform the direction of any requirements relating to the production of quality accounts by primary care and community services providers.
The Department of Health has developed, in discussion with those involved in the pilot, a framework for quality reports by primary care and community services providers.
The latest issue of the National End of Life Care Programme newsletter Team Briefing - Issue 18: February 2010 is now available.
The theme for this issue is Developing the workforce.
Previous issues are available on the Newsletters page.
A major new Alzheimer’s Research Trust commissioned University of Oxford report, Dementia 2010, reveals that the impact of dementia on the UK’s society and economy is higher than ever. It also shows that dementia research remains severely underfunded compared to other conditions like cancer and heart disease.
Further information is available on the Dementia page.
Macmillan Cancer Support has launched the Macmillan Quality Environment Mark (Macmillan QEM). The Macmillan QEM is a framework for assessing whether facilities meet the standards required by people living with cancer and will aim to measure excellence across a series of key performance indicators shaped by people living with and beyond cancer.
Developed in collaboration with more than 400 people living with cancer and stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the scheme has assessed and awarded the Macmillan QEM to 14 beacon sites.
The National End of Life Care Programme and its partners have published A framework of National Occupational Standards to support common core competences and principles for health and social care workers working with adults at the end of life.
The primary purpose of this document is to provide the underpinning framework of core National Occupational Standards (NOS) for the end of life care workforce - from health care professionals (medics, nurses and AHPs), managers and social care workers through to care assistants and ancillary staff. These standards can support workforce development, training and education, and the development of new and enhanced posts and roles.
Further information is available on the Workforce development page.
Skills for Care have published Knowledge sets for end of life care (Revised, 2010). It provides guidance on knowledge sets to improve consistency in the underpinning knowledge learnt by the adult social care workforce in England and specifies what they are and describes the learning outcomes expected.
Further information is available on the Workforce development page.
The King's Fund has published Delivering better care at end of life: The next steps. It seeks to ensure that end-of-life care remains a priority for clinicians and policy makers. The report, produced following a summit of leaders in end-of-life care, outlines ten recommendations to help give patients high-quality care at the end of their lives and meaningful choices about where they die.
A summary is available in the King's Fund news release.
Effective and sensitive communication between staff and patients, their relatives and carers is fundamental to high quality end of life care. A one-year communication skills pilot project is currently underway. This project will explore and develop communication skills training for the workforce involved in end of life care. The National End of Life Care Programme has published a new promotional leaflet Developing Skills: Talking about end of life care - Twelve pilot schemes in Englandwhich provides information about the project and details the approaches being taken by each pilot site.
Further information is available on the Workforce Development page.
This e-Learning for End of Life Care for All project briefing outlines how to find the e-learning sessions available, key aims, issues being addressed and the core courses for assessment, advance care planning, communications skills, symptom management and integrated learning through case studies.
Further information is available on the Workforce Development page.
A full list of case studies are avaible in the Making Change Happen section.
e-ELCA (End of Life Care for All) is one of the key elements in a programme to improve the skills of up to 2.5 million people working with dying people and their families – a key recommendation of the End of Life Care Strategy published in 2008.
The programme will be launched in London today (21 January) with around 60 highly-interactive learning sessions complete and soon to be available across large parts of the health and social care workforce. Each session lasts around 20 minutes and includes features such as self-assessment tools, audio/video clips and case studies.
For more information see the e-ELCA News Release.
Co-production as a new way of thinking about public services has the potential to deliver a major shift in the way we provide health, education, policing and other services, in ways that make them much more effective, more efficient, and so more sustainable.
The National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) has published the paper "The Challenge of Co-Production". It provides the basis for both a better understanding and a stronger evidence base for co-production.
The Department of Health have published Improving the process of death certification in England and Wales: overview of programme. It provides a general overview of the Death Certification Programme and an update on current progress.
From 19 January 2010, all organisations (including voluntary ones) supplying NHS services in England are legally obliged to take account of the rights and pledges set out in the NHS Constitution.
The Department of Health have published Information tool for improving care of people with long-term conditions. This information tool sets out a common vision of a good service for people with long-term conditions and offers some practical suggestions for commissioners to help bring about that vision.
Further information is available on the Long-terms conditions page.
The Church of England has joined more than 1,000 organisations in the national Dying Matters Coalition. Led by the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC), working closely with the Department of Health (DH) and other key stakeholders, the coalition aims to promote public awareness around death, dying and bereavement.
The Department of Health is funding a set of new bodies, called Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs), that combine the expertise of industry, health and education, to promote innovation in the NHS. Many are highlighting end of life care as a priority.
HIECs are cross-sector partnerships between NHS organisations, the higher education sector and blue chip companies such as BMW, GlaxoSmithKline and BT. They will provide professional education and training and promote innovation in healthcare by speeding up the adoption of research.
BT has launched a scheme to help carers cope with the demands of caring and their working life.
The company has teamed up with Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care, to give employees who look after someone the chance to make a positive difference to their lives and those of the people for whom they care.
NHS 2010–2015: from good to great; preventative, people-centred, productive has been published by the Department of Health and outlines the Government vision for the NHS in the next 5 years. It includes implementing the vision, the deal for patients and the public, the deal for NHS staff and how the system will support NHS staff and organisations to deliver.
The North West London Cardiac & Stroke Network have reviewed the Symptom Control Guidelines for patients with Chronic Heart Failure. These guidelines have been produced to provide healthcare professionals looking after patients with end-stage heart failure to focus on symptoms that are either particularly common or especially troublesome in this patient group. They should be used in conjunction with locally developed strategies and relevant documentation e.g. screening tools, referral criteria between services and assessment needs of patients and their carers.
A public consultation on a draft Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy in Northern Ireland has been launched. The strategy aims to provide a policy framework and best practice guidelines for the planning and delivery of palliative and end of life care across the public, independent, community and voluntary sectors and make sure that individuals with palliative and end of life care needs, their families and carers are provided with high quality, consistent and integrated care across all care settings and conditions.
The closing date for responses is 19 February 2010.
More public consultations are shown on the Consultation page.
A competency document has been developed by St Christopher's in response to, and been guided by, the End of Life Care Strategy. It focuses on the specific competencies required to give consistent care across all care settings to those at the very end of life. The document aims to empower the carer and nursing workforce to deliver end of life care in accordance with the identified pathway recommended by the End of Life Care Strategy.
For further information or to order contact Denise Brady.
The Department of Health has published the The Operating Framework for 2010/11 for the NHS in England. It sets out a number of new and powerful shifts in national policies and levers to support the NHS. It also provides a set of enablers and tools to support NHS staff to drive the transformation that will be required.
Further information is available on the NHS Operating Framework page.
The latest issue of the National End of Life Care Programme newsletter Team Briefing - Issue 17: December 2009 is now available.
The theme for this issue is Dementia Care.
Previous issues are available on the Newsletters page.
The International Journal of Palliative Nursing (ILPN), in collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support, has announced the IJPN awards 2010. The awards aim to recognise excellence in palliative care and this year's categories are palliative care nurse of the year, educator of the year, development award, non-cancer award, multidisciplinary teamwork award, service user/carer/volunteer of the year and lifetime achievement award.
The closing date for entries is 29 January 2010.
The Care Quality Commission has published a five year plan outlining how it aims to drive up standards on behalf of people with learning disabilities. This will involve building intelligence networks within services, representative groups and other relevant organisations to feed into the regulator's picture of services and direct where inspections should take place.
21 January 2010 sees the launch of a free e-learning resource for health and social care staff involved in end of life care.
Developed by e-Learning for Healthcare on behalf of the Department of Health and the National End of Life Programme, around 100 modules in this ground-breaking resource will be launched at a national event in London.
Further information is available in the news item on the EoLC Workforce page.
This consultation sets out how the Care Quality Commission (CQC) propose to integrate equalities and human rights in all of their activities. They are asking specifically for feedback on: overall approach to embedding equalities and human rights; human rights-based approach; priorities for action; and action plans.
Responses are required by 25 February 2010
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published guidance for health and adult social care providers on meeting the essential standards of quality and safety that will apply as part of the new registration system. The three documents that comprise this guidance are:
The NHS Scotland chief executive's annual report for 2008 to 2009 has been published. As well as assessing NHS Scotland's performance, the report also explains the financial and policy context of the achievements made and challenges faced by the NHS in Scotland.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have made their first statement on the quality of adult social care in England, based on the publication of several documents. They found that adult social care has improved but a renewed effort is needed to eliminate poor quality services.
This Equal access? A practical guide for the NHS: creating a Single Equality Scheme that includes improving access for people with learning disabilities is a guide published by the Department of Health to support the NHS to include people with learning disabilities in their equality schemes, with practical examples of reasonable adjustments to achieve equality of access.
Following discussions with the Department of Health there have been some significant additions to the criteria of the Capital Grant Programme 2010/11. The main changes are that children’s hospices and NHS hospices are now eligible to apply, albeit with some restrictions. It has also been agreed that professional fees incurred from 8 January to 31 March 2010 can be included as eligible costs in your budget.
Further information is available on the Help the Hospices website.
Lessons Learned is a new interactive e-learning programme offered by Macmillan Cancer Support, designed to address the experience of patients and their carers when facing end of life issues. The aim of this programme is to understand what the key issues are in supporting patients and their carers at the end of life. This course is aimed at health and social care professionals.
The programme can be accessed from Macmillan LearnZone (registration is free).
The Counting the cost: caring for people with dementia report published by the Alzheimer's Society finds that people with dementia, who occupy a quarter of all hospital beds, are staying in hospital far longer than people without the condition who go in for treatment. The report is based on research involving 2,400 people on hospital wards and calls for all hospitals to reduce the average length of stay for a person with dementia by at least a week. Futher information is available on the Alzheimer's Society website.
The Integrated care and support plan (ICSP): high level process is published by the Department of Health, Putting people first and NHS Connecting for Health programme. It describes the collaborative approach used to develop a high-level, generic model for integrated care and support planning and specifically, how Common Assessment Framework messaging would be used to support the sharing of care and support planning information between health and social care systems.
Walk a mile in my shoes: scrutiny of dignity and respect for individuals in health and social care services: a guide will assist Overview and Scrutiny Committees to raise awareness and understanding of dignity and respect for individuals who are receiving health and social care services. Further information is available on the Centre for Public Scrutiny website.
An independent review has been conducted on the impact of the Dignity in Care Campaign since its introduction in November 2006. The review covers many areas of the campaign, including dignity metrics in health and social care. The Campaign has helped to produce new tools to improve dignity.
The Chief Nursing Officer, Christine Beasley, has announced eight high impact actions for nursing and midwifery which, if implemented in every NHS organisation across the country, will hugely improve the quality of care and make significant reductions in cost.
Further information is available on the NHS Innovation and Improvement website.
The Dignity in Care Campaign is celebrating its third anniversary. The event is marked with a number of activities which include publication of new With Respect training materials designed for use by care home and home care providers.
The Care Quality Commission has published guidance aimed at helping health and adult social care services in England prepare for the new registration system.
A guide to the new system of registration gives an overview of the new system, describing the main features and highlighting the key dates involved.
The scope of registration aims to help providers understand whether they need to register with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
The National End of Life Care Programme has appointed its first Social Care Lead in a key move towards improving services for those approaching death and their loved ones.
Professor Margaret Holloway will work two days a week for the programme while continuing in her position as Professor of Social Work at the University of Hull. She has an extensive background in end of life care, death and bereavement issues, particularly those involving spirituality and cross-cultural attitudes to death.
Further details are available in the full press release.
Development of the strategy was led by Professor Keri Thomas, RCGP clinical champion in end of life care. The aim of the strategy is to help develop good practice and promote excellence in this area of patient care and identifies 10 recommended areas for further work.
The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) have published "Caring to the End?". The Summary Report outlines the key findings for the review of the care of patients who died in hospital with four days of admission.
Further information and the full report is available on the NCEPOD website.
The Information Standard has been launched to provide an easy way for the public to identify quality information they can trust. The scheme is open to any organisation producing health and/or social care information for the public. To qualify, organisations must demonstrate they have the necessary systems to ensure that their information is accurate, impartial, balanced, appropriately researched and accessible.
The National End of Life Care Programme has produced a new fact sheet on Independent Mental Capacity Advocates. It provides an introduction to the key elements involved, treatment and accommodation decisions and care reviews.
Other fact sheets are available on the Fact Sheets page.
The latest issue of the National End of Life Care Programme newsletter Team Briefing - Issue 16 October 2009 is now available.
The theme for this issue is Social Care.
Previous issues are available on the Newsletters page.
This report published by the Audit Commission reviews the joint financing and integrated care arrangements between NHS bodies and councils with adult social care responsibilities. It considers how these arrangements are used, focusing on learning disability, mental health and older people - areas where service users most often need health and social care.
The report's recommendations and examples of notable practice aim to help national and local bodies better understand the options available, how to use them and to achieve better outcomes for service users.
The think-tank Demos has published the report At your service: Navigating the future market in health and social care. It looks at how personal budgets will impact the health and social care market, what prospective budget holders know and think about personal budgets, how they would spend it and what difficulties they envisage. It sets out the likely challenges facing local authorities and service providers in delivering the personalisation agenda and contains recommendations about how to make the transition successfully.
As part of the funding made available to support the implementation of the End of Life Care Strategy, the Department of Health has identified £40 million in 2010 - 2011 to fund improvements to the physical environment for adult voluntary sector hospices in England.
At the end of the one year capital grant programme, hospices should be able to point to tangible physical improvements in their environments and show how these contribute to improved care provision for patients, their families and carers.
Available funding
Total available funding is £40 million. The minimum grant will be £25,000. There is no upper limit but we do not expect to award grants of more than £600,000 and then only in exceptional cases.
The programme aims to benefit the greatest possible number of people; large grants are likely to be few in number.
Deadline for applications is Friday 8 January 2010.
You should expect to hear a decision on your application by 30 March 2010. If successful you should be ready to start your project on 1 April 2010 and complete it by 31 March 2011.
Personal health budgets are being piloted in primary care trusts until 2012 – direct payments will form part of these. Personal health budgets will help to create a more personalised NHS, by giving people more choice and control over how money is spent on their care.
The consultation document Direct payment for health care: a consultation on proposals for regulations and guidance seeks views on the Government’s proposals for piloting direct payments for health care. This is part of the wider pilot programme to explore personal health budgets announced in High Quality Care For All.
This consultation will run from 23 October 2009 to 8 January 2010
A programme of free training on 'carers awareness' has been developed with the aim of helping staff working in health, social care and housing to provide better services and support for carers. The training has been developed by the Department of Health and Carers UK as part of the National Carers Strategy.
A programme of good practice workshops have also been developed to help staff undertake carers assessments. The workshops will examine relevant legislation and policy and evaluate current practice.
The courses will be held in London throughout November and December. For more information contact socialcarepartnerships.london@dh.gsi.gov.uk
The Liverpool Care Pathway is an integrated pathway tool which can be used during the last 72/48 hours of life. It provides guidance on the different aspects of care required, including comfort measures, anticipatory prescribing and discontinuation of inappropriate interventions.
The National End of Life Care Programme has responded to recent publicity about the Liverpool Care Pathway with a two page leaflet outlining how the programme works and the widespread support it enjoys amongst senior clinicians.
The Liverpool Care Pathway Central Team at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (MCPCiL) has issued a statement addressing recent media reporting of the pathway.
This letter to SHA Chief Executives and Directors of Commissioning from Claire Whittington (Acting Director of Commissioning) gives a progress report on the World Class ommissioning programme, including updates on assurance year two, revisions to the new practice-based commissioning surveys, an update on integrated care pilots and information on new online and film resources.
Two National End of Life Care Programme (NEoLCP) Fact Sheets have been uploaded to the website:
More NEoLCP Fact Sheets are available on the Fact Sheet page
All case studies are available in the Making Change Happen section.
North easterners are being asked to tackle a taboo and talk about death as the region launches the UK’s first ever charter on end of life care.
The pioneering charter sets out proposals for the kind of care and support which people who are dying, their families and carers, can expect. Once agreed, it will guide those who plan and provide end of life care or support.
The consultation on A Good Death will centre around a questionnaire and research will also be carried out by an on street team in towns and cities across the region. Feedback will inform the charter and help NHS North East and other partners plan work around end of life care. The findings are expected to be available in late January 2010.
More details are available on the Consultations page and for further information on the charter and how to respond to the consultation visit A Good Death
A study on the benefits of personal budgets has been announced by the Department of Health. Twenty sites across England have been selected for the study, which aims to identify the benefits of personal health budgets and which patient groups will benefit most from them.
High quality services for carers rely on high quality commissioning. With this in mind, the Department of Health has funded a consortium to produce a guide for commissioners that is available on the IDEA website. Commissioners will find the guide valuable in ensuring not only high quality outcomes, but also achieving their targets in respect of carers.
New Continuing care directions have been issued, giving statutory effect to key elements of the revised National Framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care.
A revised practice guide setting out the process for determining the eligibility for NHS-funded nursing care under the revised framework has been published.
The Department of Health has also published a public information leaflet on NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care, which includes details on who is eligible.
If you work in a specialist palliative care service or hospice and link in with the work of the Gold Standard framework (GSF) in primary care, care homes or hospitals, GSF would like you to complete the GSF and Specialist Palliative Care Survey.
Reply by 1st November 2009
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