News

New guides to improve mental health commissioning published

Tuesday, 07 February 2012 14:16

Four practical guides to help current and future commissioners plan and deliver mental health services have been published.

The guides focus on primary mental health care services, services for young people, dementia services and acute liaison services. They have been put together by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) in collaboration with 16 other organisations who form the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health (JCP-MH).

The JCP-MH, which also includes the Royal College of General Practitioners and the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network, began working together in March last year to address concerns about the future of commissioning and create a framework for quality, modern mental health services.

Dr Neil Deuchar, commissioning lead for RCPsych and co-chair of the JCP-MH said: "We know that commissioning mental health services can be challenging, particularly in these times of uncertainty and change.

"By bringing together experts from all parts of mental health – specialist clinicians, social care, providers of all types, service users and GPs – the panel aims help current and future commissioners gain confidence and expertise in ‘values-based’ mental health commissioning."

The guides have already been adopted by many adult social services teams. For example, Terry Dafter, director of adult social care for Stockport Council, described them as a "useful tool and benchmark for commissioners of mental health services".

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Healthwatch England membership consultation

Monday, 06 February 2012 10:35

Stakeholders and the public are being asked to contribute to the development of the Healthwatch England membership regulations.

Healthwatch England will be a national consumer champion that enables the collective views of the people who use health and social care services to influence national policy, advice and guidance.

This consultation asks questions on the key issues in relation to the membership of Healthwatch England that the Department has heard from stakeholders.

Issues are:

• the number of the members
• suitability for membership
• the process for appointing members
• the period of time a member should be appointed.

The Consultation on the regulations for Healthwatch England Membership will help ensure that the public have a strong national presence to represent their views and help drive up improvements across the NHS.

Helping people live healthier lives: the future for public health

Wednesday, 01 February 2012 13:10

On 23 January 2012, the Government made further announcements on its ambitions for a new public health system. For the first time, public health will be measured against a framework, which sets out *66 health measures so councils and the Government are able to see real improvements being made and take any action needed.

In 2012/13 around £5.2bn will be spent on public health services. 

From April 2013, councils get a ring-fenced budget and can choose how they spend it according to the needs of their population. A new health premium will reward areas that make progress.

There are four main objectives within the framework and MH indicators/outcomes are explicitly in the following:

Objective 1 – Improving the wider determinants of health

• People with mental illness and or disability in settled accommodation
• Employment for those with a long term health condition including those with a learning disability / disability or mental illness
• People in prison who have a mental illness or significant mental illness
• Social connectedness

Objective 2 – Health improvement

• Hospital admissions caused by unintentional and deliberate injuries in under 18s
• Hospital admissions as a result of self-harm
• Self-reported well-being

Objective 4 – Healthcare public health and preventing premature mortality

• Mortality from causes considered preventable
• Excess under 75 mortality in adults with serious mental illness
• Suicide
• Emergency admissions within 30 days of discharge from hospital
• Dementia and its impacts

For more information go to: www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/01/future-for-public-health/
For all documents go to: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_132358

"Use public benefit reporting to show your impact", regulator tells charities

Tuesday, 31 January 2012 09:32

New independent research commissioned by the Charity Commission has found that charities need to do more to describe how people benefit from their work. Many charities are missing out on the opportunity to explain, through their reporting on public benefit, how their work has a positive impact on their beneficiaries.

The research, by Sheffield Hallam University, assessed how well registered charities are getting to grips with the new requirement, introduced in 2008, to report on public benefit in their Trustees' Annual Report (TAR).

Put simply, public benefit reporting is about explaining:

• What a charity's aims are and what it has done to carry them out
• Who it seeks to benefit
• How people have benefitted

The research has shown that trustees are generally able to explain their charity's aims and who benefits from its work. However they are less successful in explaining how they have benefitted in practice. Read more

Developing an outcomes-based approach in mental health

Friday, 27 January 2012 11:38

The Department of Health commissioned the Mental Health Network to produce a report which would help set out a direction of travel for developing an outcomes-based approach to improving mental health. The report makes a number of recommendations for Government, the NHS Commissioning Board and emerging clinical commissioning groups.

This Briefing sets out the policy context for outcomes in mental health and summarises the recommendations made in the report, including the need to develop an implementation framework in support of the mental health strategy, 'No health without mental health'.

Views wanted on guidance on joint strategic needs assessments and health and wellbeing strategies

Thursday, 26 January 2012 11:40

Support for health and wellbeing boards and their partners in developing joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) and health and wellbeing strategies has been published in the form of draft statutory guidance.

Views are now being sought on the draft guidance, which:

• lays out the statutory duties that underpin the production of JSNAs and joint health and wellbeing strategies by the NHS and local authorities (as members of their health and wellbeing board)
• describes a framework that will lead to best practice in the preparation of JSNAs and assist with undertaking new joint health and wellbeing strategies 
• explains how JSNAs, joint health and wellbeing strategies and commissioning plans fit together in the new system 
• sets out how the enhanced JSNA process and joint health and wellbeing strategy will enable the NHS and local government, working with their community and partner organisations, to make real improvements to the health and wellbeing of local people

If you are considering holding consultation events the following slides may be helpful and Instructions: Feeding back on draft JSNA and
joint health and wellbeing strategy guidance

Feedback should be sent by Friday 17 February. A short public consultation will be carried out in the spring.

mhhp works with a variety of organisations as part of the DH Third Sector Strategic Partners Programme.

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation is seeking to address the significant concern that existing Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) do not often address lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGB&T) people’s issues, needs and experiences of healthcare in any meaningful way. The Lesbian & Gay Foundation has produced a document which makes the case for the importance of LGB&T evidence, and introduces strategic level health professionals to some of the key health issues facing the LGB&T communities. For more information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 08453 30 303 30.

Charity Commission publishes new Risk Framework

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 11:02

The Charity Commission has published its new Risk Framework together with information on how the framework will be applied.  Read more.

New Health for Work Adviceline

Tuesday, 17 January 2012 09:56

NHS Plus launches an innovative free service for small businesses in England to help them reduce sickness absence and improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce. The new Health for Work Adviceline (the Adviceline) will provide vital help and support to organisations with fewer than 250 employees who often feel the burden of sickness absence the hardest, particularly during this period of relative economic instability. 

The launch follows the publication in November 2011 of the Government’s independent review of sickness absence (the Review) undertaken by health and business experts Dame Carol Black (expert adviser on health and work to the Department of Health) and David Frost (former Director General, British Chambers of Commerce).  The Review found that all too often the sickness absence system pushes people away from work and that employers, especially those who do not have their own occupational health services, find it very hard to get independent, bespoke advice for more complex sickness cases.  

Each year around 11 million employees in the UK take sick leave and, while most people return to work, around 300,000 people go on to claim health-related benefits. This costs the taxpayer £13bn a year and causes the country as a whole to miss out on £15bn in economic output. Overall, working-age ill health and sickness absence cost the UK economy more than £100 billion each year.  The impact is particularly significant for small businesses for whom the cost of sickness absence is around £700 per employee per year (CIPD, 2010) – a substantial cost for small businesses to cover.

Building on the success of a pilot service, which provided over 2,000 one-to-one advice sessions and achieved a 98% satisfaction rate and over 4,000 website visits per month, the new Adviceline provides swift access to individually-tailored and free professional advice and guidance that aims to enhance business performance, increase productivity and improve staff morale. With this new service, managers in small businesses based in England can now access precisely the type of advice and support they told the Review they needed by getting help:

• finding the information and support they need to help an employee experiencing ill health;
• developing a plan to deal effectively and sympathetically with employee sickness absence;
• establishing how to manage similar problems in the future, should they occur;
• thinking differently about their business and the returns they will get from investment made in maintaining a healthy workplace.

The Adviceline offers advice in three ways:

• Free telephone advice for employers on Freephone 0800 0 77 88 44.
• Self-service information through access to an extensive, intelligent, on-line knowledge base (www.health4work.nhs.uk).
• On-line communication with a contact centre by submitting a question to the support team, or ‘chatting’ directly with a member of the team (a form of instant messaging).

Through managing sickness absence more effectively at an organisational level and improving the health and wellbeing of employees, SMEs will also make a significant contribution to the health and wellbeing of the economy at a time when it is most needed. 

The Health for Work Adviceline provides managers in small and medium-sized businesses with access to high quality professional occupational health advice, getting employees back to health and back to work. 

Dame Carol Black (expert adviser on health and work to the Department of Health)

The Health for Work Adviceline is a significant element of the Government’s plan to create healthier workplaces. It gives small and medium sized businesses access to professional and tailored occupational health information, advice and guidance. This means that employers can support the health of their employees to reduce incidents of sickness absence, help their timely return to work following mental or physical ill health absence, and help to reduce the numbers claiming sickness benefits.

Lord Freud (Work and Pensions Minister)

A healthy workforce is key to a successful, healthy business and this free Adviceline is good news for small businesses... Employers can now receive professional advice that is tailored to their needs, helping them to retain an employee’s services or assist them back to work sooner after a period of sickness absence.

Sayeed Khan (Chief Medical Advisor for EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation)

For more information, visit www.health4work.nhs.uk  or find us on:
• www.facebook.com/health4work.
• www.twitter.com/health4work.
• www.linkedin.com (Health for Work Adviceline group). 

Funding guide for workforce development

Monday, 16 January 2012 11:23

The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) has published ‘Funding guide for workforce development’. The guide is free to download and is aimed at employers, training providers and learners who work with children, young people and families in the voluntary and community sector.

The guide has the following sections:
• Charitable funding for organisations
• Public sector funding for organisations
• Low and no-cost alternatives to support learning and development
• Funding schemes for training providers
• Funding for learners
• Future funding and developments.

£150million Big Society ‘endowment for the nation’ launched

Friday, 13 January 2012 11:45

The new Community First endowment, which aims to raise £150million to be invested to secure the future of local community projects in England, has been launched by Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society today.

The Government will give 50p for every £1 raised from individual, corporate and philanthropic donors – pledging up to £50 million in total.

This combined with Gift Aid tax relief will create a pot worth in excess of £150 million.

The money will be invested and the return, expected to be up to £12 million per year, will be used to provide grants to local community and social action projects from 2015 onwards.

Read more