Sainsbury Centre Policy Watch

The state of health care and adult social care - report from CQC

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT

The Care Quality Commission has published its first annual report to parliament on the on the state of health care and adult social care.

It says that services have steadily improved overall but rising demand and pressure on finances make reform essential. The Commission applauds overall improvements over recent years, but cautions that some services were lagging behind the pack and that there were areas of common concern across health and social care, notably keeping people safe and staff training.

Mentally disordered offenders: A Joint Inspection on work prior to sentence

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

HMI Probation, HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, HMI Court Administration and HMI Constabulary have published a joint inspection report on work with offenders with mental disorders.

The joint inspection team found that although concerns about individuals mental health, once identified, were followed up in almost all cases seen, communication between the criminal justice organisations could be made more systematic and effective.

Read their press release.

The NHS operating framework for England for 2010/11

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

The Department of Health has published the operating framework for the NHS for 2010/11 which sets out their priorities for the year ahead. For the third year in a row, the national priorities in the operating framework remain the same.

It suggests steps that NHS organisations can take to implement the Boorman Review (p. 19) and references the Bradley report (p. 48) as a way to support PCTs in understanding and addressing the needs of offenders.

NHS 2010 - 2015: from good to great. Preventative, people-centred, productive

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

This is the new five-year plan to reshape the NHS to meet the challenge of delivering high quality health care in a tough financial environment. The report describes practical measures to meet the demands of an aging population and the increased prevalence of lifestyle diseases.

The vision is for an NHS that is organised around patients whether at home, in a community setting or in hospital. There will be a renewed focus on prevention with the ambition of delivering cost-effective high quality care across the service.

New guide for mental health commissioners published

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Commissioning high quality modern mental health services presents real challenges - but help is at hand for commissioners in a new guide. NMHDU's Commissioning Friend for Mental Health Services is designed to support primary care trusts and local authorities and assist them in developing their mental health commissioning practice.

Children and young people in custody 2008-2009: experiences of 15-18 year olds in prison

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the Youth Justice Board have published the fifth report of the experiences of children and young people in prison custody. It draws together findings from surveys of every juvenile prison establishment in England and Wales during 2008-9.

The main findings include

A quarter of young men and nearly half of young women had been in care; almost nine out of ten young men and women had been excluded from school
Black and minority ethnic young people were over-represented (36%) – though fewer had been in care, or been excluded, than white young people and more planned to continue education on release. They were more likely to report having been restrained in custody and their expectations of prison were lower.

New Horizons strategy launched

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

The government has published New Horizons: a shared vision for mental health. It is the successor to the National Service Framework in that it sets out the ‘blue-print’ for English mental health services in the future.

The strategy seeks to improve services and help prevent people developing mental illness. Its three main priorities are:

Better prevention
Better treatment, including for women with post-natal depression, ex-servcemen and older people
Reducing the impact of mental health conditions – reducing stigma and suicide prevention

Working our way to better mental health: a framework for action

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

This is the new cross-government national mental health and employment strategy. It addresses wellbeing at work for everyone and better employment outcomes for people with mental health conditions, both in and out of work.

This practical framework sets out a series of commitments from government and what it expects from health professionals, employers, organisations and individuals.

It identifies 6 key areas for action:

Changing attitudes to mental health
Improving health and wellbeing at work
Early intervention
Tailoring support (individualised) in and out of work
Building resilience from early years
Coordinating action across government

A companion guide to the strategy is available from SHIFT.

Realising ambitions: Better employment support for people with a mental health condition

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

This is an independent review of services, led by Rachel Perkins of South West London and St. George’s Mental Health Trust and supported by Paul Farmer of Mind, and Paul Litchfield at BT.

These key recommendations for action can be summarised under 3 main headings:

Make low-cost changes to existing services quickly through better joined-up working of frontline health and work staff and improving welfare-to-work services
Implement IPS in a UK context by embedding employment specialists in all mental health/social care teams, reforming Access to Work and making internships possible for people who have been long-term out of work and allowing a gradual build-up of hours
Monitor outcomes and drive change: agree definitions of employment and mental health and ensure routine monitoring of employment and mental health condition across the Department for Work and Pensions and health/social services. Performance indicators should require a year-on-year decrease in gap between the general employment rate and that of people with a mental health condition

Work, Recovery and Inclusion: Employment support for people in contact with secondary mental health services

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:00:00 GMT

This document forms part of the Government’s response to the Perkins Review (Realising Ambitions). Focused specifically on people in touch with secondary mental health services, this document applies only to England and is the product of the Socially Excluded Adults Public Service Agreement (PSA16).

Work, Recovery and Inclusion endorses the recommendations of the Perkins review for a more 'joined-up' approach to service delivery across DWP and health and social care services. It commits the Government to improving the employment chances of people in touch with secondary services, with the long-term vision being to see a large increase in the number of people in employment by 2025.

The plan covers supporting people to build skills to compete for jobs, enabling people to get jobs, and supporting employers and employees to keep people in work. The plan will be delivered on a local scale by a 'broad spectrum of providers' and the new Mental Health Coordinators in Jobcentre Plus form part of the Government's commitment to strengthening partnerships at a local level.