Details of the 2014 NHS Staff Survey – NHS Employers 
The latest details of the NHS Staff Survey 2014 have been announced.

Mutuals in health: pathfinder programme – supporting health and care organisations explore the benefits of mutualisation – Department of Health Chris Ham, Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, recently published an independent review of staff engagement and empowerment in the NHS. The review recommended that government support a pathfinder programme to help NHS trusts and foundation trusts explore the benefits of the mutual model. In response to the review’s recommendation, Department of Health and Cabinet Office launched a joint initiative on 15 July 2014 to support health and care organisations explore the potential advantages of mutualising their services. The Pathfinder Programme is designed to support a small number of pioneering trusts, either individually or in partnership. It is open to all foundation trusts and NHS trusts.

• Application pack
• Expression of interest form
• Report from The King’s Fund
• Department of Health – guidance

Identification of mechanisms enabling integrated care for patients with chronic diseases: a literature review – International Journal Of Integrated Care Article Care for chronically ill patients requires a shift towards care that is well coordinated and focused on prevention and self-care, the concept of integrated care lacks specificity and clarity. This article presents a literature review to identify mechanisms for achieving integrated care objectives. The clarification of mechanisms to achieve objectives of integrated care as presented may be used as starting point for the development and refinement of integrated care programmes, including methodological grounding of their evaluation.

An NHS tax is needed to keep the NHS free to all at the point of need – King’s Fund Blog The NHS is facing a serious funding gap if demand continues to increase and budgets remain frozen – up to £30 billion by 2021 according to NHS England. The independent Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England, set up by The King’s Fund, is a timely contribution to determining how to address the financial challenge. This guest blog post by IPPR’s Nick Pearce discusses how a dedicated NHS tax might work.

Patients to benefit from new NHS England ‘Accessible Information Standard – NHS England From 13 August, NHS England will be consulting on improving access to information formats such as ‘easy read’ and braille and to British Sign Language interpreters. Making sure hospitals, GPs and all NHS and adult social services providers give people information in the best format for their needs is the aim of NHS England’s proposed new ‘Accessible Information Standard’ being consulted on. It means all organisations will need to find out if a patient has extra communication needs because of a disability or sensory loss, and take steps to meet those needs.