PCT procurement guide for improving services for patients

This guide outlines the use of procurement to improve services for patients. It reflects the overarching principles of transparency, proportionality, non-discrimination and equality of treatment.

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Health inequalities team publishes resource manual

The health inequalities national support team (HINST) has published a resource manual containing a range of information, resources and tools, including a series of 'how to' guides and 'masterclass' reports. The manual has been built around good practice identified from the visits undertaken so far, that are expected to make an impact on mortality in a short timescale if delivered at a sufficient scale. The manual can be downloaded from the DH website.

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primary care commissioning guide targets the socially excluded

The seventh in the series of guides from the Department of Health's primary care and community services team - entitled Inclusion Health: Improving Primary Care for Socially Excluded People - is now available. The full list of titles is here.

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New guidance on end of life care launched

New guidance for doctors comes into effect on 1 July 2010.
Treatment and Care Towards the End of Life: Good Practice in Decision Making replaces the booklet Withholding and Withdrawing Life-prolonging Treatments (2002). It expands on the guidance in Consent: Patients and Doctors Making Decisions Together, which sets out the principles on which good clinical decisions should be based, and provides a framework for good practice when providing treatment and care for patients who are reaching the end of their lives.

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Yorkshire and Humber Improvement Partnership

The Yorkshire and Humber Improvement Partnership have produced a one page guide to their 2010 programme, which is intended to help PCT's within the region make best use of the projects.

*Unfortunately this link is only accessible for people accessing the blog from the NHS Leeds network. If you want a copy of the document then please send an email to share.learn@nhsleeds.nhs.uk.

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A guide to values in the NHS

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has launched the Values Development Resource, a suite of tools to allow organisations to check their alignment with the national values in the NHS Constitution.

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Clinical governance and adult safeguarding: an integrated process

The report on the consultation on the review of No Secrets highlighted that adult safeguarding systems were underdeveloped within the NHS. Respondents argued that there is a need to clarify the relationship between adult safeguarding, adverse incident reporting, patient safety and complaints.
The guidance and flow chart has been developed to encourage organisations to establish local robust arrangements to ensure that adult safeguarding becomes fully integrated into NHS systems.

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Realising the benefits: IAPT full roll out

Realising the Benefits details the next steps in the move towards the full roll out of improving access to psychological therapy (IAPT) services. The guidance provides support for established and developing services, focusing on quality standards and analysing the progress that has been made in rolling out services to date.
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Shared Learning - Implementing NICE Guidance

Submit your examples of implementing NICE guidance to their shared learning database and highlight your hard work and expertise with colleagues in the NHS and public health sector.

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How to use NICE guidance to commission high-quality services

NICE has developed a guide to support people involved in commissioning health and social care services and public health programmes in developing systems and processes that embed NICE guidance into commissioning. Click here for further information.

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The standard NHS contracts for acute hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services and supporting guidance

These contracts support the NHS Operating Framework for 2010-2011 and should be read in conjunction with the Principles and Rules for Co-operation and Competition and the PCT Procurement Guide. The NHS standard contracts cover agreements between PCTs and all types of provider delivering NHS funded services. The contract will apply to agreements from April 2010 for:
NHS Trusts
NHS Foundation Trusts
New agreements between PCTs and independent sector providers
New agreements between PCTs and third sector providers

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How to use NICE guidance to commission high-quality services

NICE has developed a guide to support people involved in commissioning health and social care services and public health programmes in developing systems and processes that embed NICE guidance into commissioning. Click here to find out more.

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Commercial and procurement skills for commissioners of children's services

It is vital that commissioners of children's services have access to the commercial and procurement skills needed to develop markets and procure services effectively. These guidance documents from the epartment of Health are designed to help commissioners understand and apply commercial and procurement skills in their work. The documents cover the key principles of procurement, an overview of both strategic procurement and the contracting process, an overview of resource mapping and a basic jigsaw tool designed to help commissioners understand the key principles of change management.

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Use of Resources in Adult Social Care: A Guide for Local Authorities

This guide is to stimulate discussion and debate for local authorities on how to commission and shape services for tomorrow by making best use of resources. DH encourages every local authority to learn from each other about how to take this innovation forward and spread best practice around the country. Click here to view a copy of the guide.

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New DH guidance on substance misuse published

Until now there has been no formal guidance to help clinicians to manage substance dependence among young people. This has left practitioners concerned that their practice may not accord with the developing evidence base. A new guidance document, published by the Department of Health, describes good practice on the best ways to manage a clinically complex condition.

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Integrated care pilots: an introductory guide

This introductory guide to the national programme of integrated care pilots and evaluation provides a summary of the work each pilot will be doing as they implement and test their models of integrated care.

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Your health, your way: a guide to long term conditions and self care - communications toolkit

This toolkit provides all of the assets and artwork to enable you to implement a communications campaign at a local level.
An introduction to Your health, your way (formally the patients prospectus) is included within this section of the toolkit. You can consult the toolkit guidelines for information and guidance on using these assets, as well as recommendations on how you can communicate Your health, your way across various media.
For further information visit NHS Networks’ website

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Working Together For Change: Using Person-Centred Information for Commissioning

The Department of Health worked with a group of councils, providers, community organisations and people using services to test and refine a method for collating and analysing person-centred information for use in strategic commissioning. We called this process Working together for change.
This practical guide describes a process for planning change with people which provides powerful insights into what is working and not working in their lives as well as their aspirations for the future.
Working together for change can be used to ensure that active partnerships with local people and families are the driving force behind social care transformation programmes, as a vehicle for ensuring effective community engagement in the joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) and as a tool for strategic commissioning and service development. Click here for further information.

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Good governance guidance published for PCT provider committees

The Appointments Commission and the Department of Health have published guidance to help PCTs with their governance arrangements for provider committees.
Provider committees are a committee of a PCT board, overseeing the operations of a PCT's provider arm. Governance Arrangements to Support PCT Provider Committees sets out core principles that should underpin the committee's membership and make-up.

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New guide for practice managers promotes access and responsiveness

A comprehensive guide is now available online for practice managers seeking new ways to improve access to and responsiveness of general practice. The DH-sponsored document is the result of collaboration by NHS Alliance, the British Medical Association, the National Association of Primary Care, the Institute for Healthcare Management, AMSPAR, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Family Doctor Association. An interactive version of the guide will be produced later in the year along with a revamped website. The existing site also includes a registration form for the practice managers' network, which has attracted more than 1,000 registrations since it went live earlier this year.

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