Developing a new approach to palliative care funding – NHS England
Based on a two year data collection from sites covering both adults’ and children’s services, NHS England has produced a development currency for palliative care which focuses on patient need. The aim of the work is to provide a transparent basis for palliative care commissioning. In October 2014 the NHS England Pricing Team published the first draft of the palliative care currency for discussion. An open consultation was then held via the NHS England website, along with several regional events and webinars, to seek views on our initial proposals, to understand other issues that stakeholders felt might need to be considered or test, and to seek the further involvement of the sector with the ongoing development of the currency. A second draft of the currency was published in December 2014 for further written comment. This document has been updated following these written comments. It is the final development currency and will be used as the basis for further testing in 2015/16.

Safe staffing app to ‘revolutionise’ NHS nursing rotas – Nursing Times 
A mobile “app” is set to revolutionise the collection of safe staffing data by drastically reducing the time taken to record and analyse information, according to nurses behind its development.

Safe nursing staffing guidance
NICE has published new guidance Safe midwifery staffing for maternity settings (NG4). This guideline makes recommendations on safe midwifery staffing requirements for maternity settings. The guideline focuses on the pre-conception, antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care provided by midwives in all maternity settings, including: at home, in the community, in day assessment units, in obstetric units, and in midwifery-led units (both alongside hospitals and free-standing). The guideline identifies organisational and managerial factors that are required to support safe midwifery staffing, and makes recommendations for monitoring and taking action if there are not enough midwives available to meet the midwifery needs of needs of women and babies in the service.

Healthcare reform, quality and safety – Health Services Management Centre (HSMC)
New book offers a global perspective on healthcare reform and its relationship with efforts to improve quality and safety.

NICE guidance
NICE has published Medicines optimisation: the safe and effective use of medicines to enable the best possible outcomes (NG5).   This guideline offers best practice advice on the care of all people who are using medicines and also those who are receiving suboptimal benefit from medicines. It updates and replaces recommendation 1.4.2 in the NICE guideline on medicines adherence.  It also replaces PSG001 Technical patient safety solutions for medicines reconciliation on admission of adults to hospital.

Building the foundations for improvement
The Health Foundation has published a new learning report Building the foundations for improvement: how five UK trusts built quality improvement capability at scale within their organisations.  The report looks at how five UK trusts built quality improvement capability at scale in their organisations. It provides an insight into how and why the trusts embarked on their improvement journeys, the impact they achieved and the challenges they encountered. It draws out some key lessons from the trusts improvement journeys which will be useful for other organisations that are considering building improvement capability at scale. It also provides a useful checklist of points for organisations to consider before planning, designing and delivering an improvement capability building programme.

New patient safety reporting form
A new e-form has been launched by NHS England to enable general practice staff to report patient safety incidents to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) the national patient safety incident database. The e-form, which has been developed in consultation with general practice staff, can be completed in a matter of minutes, with many questions requiring quick and simple answers. Practice staff can use the form to report anything from administration errors to incidents relating to sepsis.  Practices can choose to include their practice code or can submit a report entirely anonymously. Patient identifiable information is also not required.

‘Smarter’ procurement
NHS organisations will now be able to buy supplies more smartly, cheaply and efficiently, and achieve better commercial outcomes, owing to new regulations implementing the EU Directive on Public Procurement in the UK. The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 will broaden the possibilities for NHS bodies to conduct negotiations with bidders during the procurement process and clarify how to conduct market consultations prior to going out to tender.

Social media campaigns in the NHS
NHS Employers have published A Guide to running social media campaigns in the NHS. It aims to help NHS communications team to get the most out of using social media in communications campaigns.  The guide covers three core areas of social media campaigns: alignment with the organisation’s objectives and audiences, content and consistency.

NHS Energy Efficiency
The Department of Health has publishedNHS Energy Efficiency Fund report. Itdetails outcomes from 117 energy efficiency projects delivered through 2013 to 2014 in 48 NHS organisations.  The aim of the NHS Energy Efficiency Fund is to reduce NHS estate operating costs. This is done by investing in selected energy efficiency projects and then reinvesting any savings back into frontline care.   

Allied Health Professionals prescribing plans
Proposals allowing certain health professions to prescribe or supply and administer medicines for patients have been published by NHS England. The proposals would apply across the United Kingdom, and would enable four groups of registered allied health professions (AHPs) radiographers, paramedics, dietitians and orthoptists to prescribe or supply and administer medicines, giving patients responsive access to treatment. For many patients an AHP is their lead clinician, yet they often do not have access to the appropriate prescribing or supply and administration of medicines mechanisms. This means the patient may have to make an additional appointment with their GP or doctor to get the medicines they need.

Leadership and leadership development in health care
The Kings Fund, Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management and Center for Creative Leadership have published Leadership and leadership development in health care: the evidence base.  This document summarises the evidence emerging from a review of the evidence-base around approaches to developing leadership.  The summary describes key messages from the review in relation to leadership at different levels of analysis.  It includes a description of the leadership task and the most effective leadership behaviours at individual, team, board and national levels.

Statistics

• Clostridium difficile infection: monthly data by attributed clinical commissioning group– January 2014 – January 2015
• Clostridium difficile infection: monthly data by NHS acute trust – January 2014 – January 2015
• MSSA bacteraemia: monthly data by attributed clinical commissioning group  – January 2014 – January 2015
• MSSA bacteraemia: monthly data by NHS acute trust – January 2014 – January 2015
• Escherichia coli (E.coli) bacteraemia: monthly data by attributed clinical commissioning group  – January 2014 – January 2015
• Escherichia coli (E.coli) bacteraemia: monthly data by NHS acute trust – January 2014 – January 2015
• MRSA bacteraemia: monthly data by post infection review assignment – January 2014 – January 2015
• MRSA bacteraemia: monthly data by attributed clinical commissioning group – January 2014 – January 2015
• Female Genital Mutilation – January 2015, Experimental Statistics

• Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England – November 2014, by provider
• Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency data – April 2014 – November 2014
• Delayed Transfers of Care – monthly situation reports, January 2015
• NHS inpatient elective admission events and outpatient referrals and attendances – Q3 2014-15