What providers should do to improve long-term care for frail older people
Report recommends joint personal budgets, speeding up care.data and reviewing workforce capacity and capability.The NHS’s greatest success has become its most daunting challenge: people are living longer but increasingly with one or more conditions, a demographic change that drives up both demand and costs. As a result, the current model of care for our most vulnerable members of society is at a tipping point and is no longer fit for purpose.

£10m boost for maternity services
Maternity services are being given £10m worth of funding in a bid to improve care for women and their babies, the Department of Health has announced.

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An evidence-based framework to measure quality of allied health care – Health Research Policy and Systems There is no standard way of describing the complexities of allied health (AH) care, or its quality. AH is an umbrella term which excludes medicine and nursing, and variably includes disciplines which provide therapy, diagnostic, or scientific services. This paper outlines a framework for a standard approach to evaluate the quality of AH therapy services. This should assist in better evaluation of AH processes and outcomes, costs, and evidence-based engagement of AH providers in healthcare teams.

The future of public health – a horizon scan
Public Health England (PHE) commissioned RAND Europe to undertake a horizon scanning study exploring the future of public health and related scientific services. This work was intended to help inform thinking at the strategic level within PHE, firstly in relation to the wider vision of the Agency and, secondly, in relation to the proposals for the creation of an integrated public health science hub. The report focuses on the different future public health science needs and the extent to which an integrated science hub could serve PHE as it evolves over the next twenty years.

Consultation skills for pharmacy practice: practice standards for England 
This framework aims to help pharmacy professionals to improve their skills in carrying out consultations with patients and in delivering public health messages. It represents a national programme of change in pharmacy and will apply to more than 60,000 pharmacy professionals across England.<

FAQs on the NHS pay award 2014/15 and 2015/16 published
Following the Government’s announcement last week on the NHS pay award for the next two years, NHS Employers have now published a set of frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) to help explain more of the detail.

Evidence Summaries: new medicines
NICE has published two new medicines evidence summaries. ‘Evidence summaries: new medicines’ provide a summary of the published evidence for selected new medicines, or for existing medicines with new indications or formulations, that are considered to be of significance to the NHS. The strengths and weaknesses of the relevant evidence are critically reviewed within the summary, but the summaries are not formal NICE guidance.

• ESNM36 Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis: canakinumab
• ESNM37 Partial seizures in children and young people with epilepsy: zonisamide as adjunctive therapy

Bulletins

• NHS Workforce Bulletin: issue 408