Delivering for Patients: NHS TDA publishes its 2014/15 Accountability Framework for trust boards
The NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) has published Delivering for Patients: the 2014/15 Accountability Framework for NHS trust boards, which sets out how the TDA will work alongside trusts to support the delivery of high quality, sustainable services for patients. The Framework sits alongside our planning guidance and covers our approach to measuring and overseeing NHS trusts; to escalation and intervention; to the provision of support for improvement; and to the way we move NHS trusts towards a sustainable future.

Putting patients first: business plan 2014-15 to 2016-17 – Kings Fund Health Management and Policy Alert (NHS England)
This is the refreshed business plan for NHS England and it describes the role of the organisation, both as a direct commissioner and as a leader, partner and enabler of the NHS commissioning system. It reaffirms NHS England’s commitment to improving the quality of care, improving equality and reducing health inequalities and ensuring that patients and the public are continually involved in decisions about their care and the future of the NHS.

• Business plan

Unnecessary jobs in the NHS – The Tax Payers’ Alliance 
This briefing is the result of Freedom of Information requests submitted to NHS organisations regarding non-clinical NHS staff roles.

• Briefing
• Data by region and highest pay
• The Tax Payers’ Alliance – news

How to ensure the right people, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time. (NHS England)
This guidance has been jointly issued by NHS England and the Care Quality Commission in order to help deliver on the commitments associated with publishing staffing data regarding nursing, midwifery and care staff levels.

• Guidance
• Staffing letter
• Table of actions
• Frequently asked questions
• NHS England – news

Delivering A Better Life for older people with high support needs in Scotland
Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) 
A Better Life was a major five year programme of work developed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which explored how to achieve a good quality of life for older people with high support needs. This briefing has been produced by IRISS to ensure that the messages and challenges of A Better Life are understood in the context of the current policy drivers in Scotland and are translated into practice across the country.

Minimising excess mortality associated with weekend admission
“Recognising these different patterns should help identify at-risk diagnoses where quality of care can be improved in order to minimise the excess mortality associated with weekend admission.”
Do variations in hospital mortality patterns after weekend admission reflect reduced quality of care or different patient cohorts? A population-based study
O Perez Concha, B Gallego, K Hillman, GP Delaney, E Coiera,
BMJ Quality & Safety, 2014, 23:215-222

Read more here.

This document outlines the registration fees that health and social care services will be charged by CQC from 1st April 2014. As the regulation of services is undergoing changes this year, there will only be minimal changes to fees this year.

• Fees scheme 2014/15
• Regulatory impact assessment
• Summary of responses to the fees consultation
• Consultation analysis report
• Guidance for providers
• CQC – news

Policy paper: NHS Choice framework
The framework brings together information about patients’ rights to choice about their health care, where to get more information to help make a choice, and how they can complain if they have not been offered choice. The 2014 to 2015 version reflects changes to expansions of patients’ rights to choice in the areas of: