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More people than ever receiving psychological therapies and recovering – NHS England
More people than ever are receiving psychological therapies and April saw the highest recovery rates so far in the history of the programme, end of year data has shown. The number of people referred for treatment from January to March (Q4) increased to 367,689 by around 17,000 from 350,505 in Q3.

Behan would increase waiting times rather than sacrifice quality – Health Service Journal
The chief executive of the Care Quality Commission has said he would choose to ramp up waiting times rather than see a drop in care quality if he was in charge of a trust, following last week’s NHS “reset”.

The state of maternity services in England –  Picker Institute Europe
This policy briefing focuses on the meaning of maternity care and analyses the main characteristics of maternity services in England. It outlines the broader implications of changing quality in maternity care settings and includes suggestions for further actions and policy measures needed to improve the quality of care in English maternity services.

Independent provider bulletin: July 2016
Information and events for independent providers of NHS services.
In this edition:

• Safe staffing improvement resource 
• Our business plan and objectives 
• New resources to support safer care of deteriorating patients 
• NMC amendment to English language test requirements 
• Health and Care Innovation Expo
• 2014/15 patient-level cost collection findings
• Other healthcare updates

Health and wellbeing leads network meetings – NHS Employers
Find out what happened at our last network meeting and access more resources to help you support your staff.

NHS England set to overspend budget for the first time – Health Service Journal
The overall NHS England budget is forecast to be overspent for the first time in 2016-17 and 45 clinical commissioning groups are already performing worse than planned.

Healthcare assistants overtake ambulance staff for highest rate of sickness absences – NHE
Healthcare assistants and support staff now have the highest rate of absence due to sickness in the NHS. The sickness absence figures for 2015-16, published today by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, show that the sickness rate for healthcare assistants in January-March 2016 was 6.5%. Ambulance staff, who had the highest…

Short-term RTT fix unlikely as nearly 1,000 patients wait over a year for referral – NHE NHS waiting times for referral to treatment (RTT) are growing and are unlikely to improve in the short term, according to the latest report to NHS Improvement (NHSI). Papers published ahead of the regulator’s board meeting tomorrow show that 996 patients had been waiting over a year for referral in May 2016, a significant increase…

NHS to trial specialised commissioning with four STPs – NHE
NHS England is trialling measures to ensure specialised services are delivered at a local level, according to a new report from its specialised services commissioning committee. In the report, published ahead of NHS England’s board meeting tomorrow, the committee says that it is currently working to align development of its 2017-18…

‘Standardised’ contract needed to stop consultant overspend – NHE
Revelations about the high rates some NHS trusts are spending to get consultants to cover shifts show the need for contract reform, the chief executive of NHS Employers has said. Freedom of Information requests from the BBC to 114 NHS trusts found that spending on high-cost overtime has risen from £125m in 2013-14 to £168m in…

Achieving a sustainable health service
The independent think-tank Localis has published Local empowerment: how to achieve a sustainable health service.  This report makes the case for a devolution revolution in the NHS and recommends that local areas should negotiate health devolution deals directly with the Government. These deals should give them new powers and freedoms to enable more integrated planning and delivery between health and social care

NICE Bites: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
The June/July 2016 NICE Bites bulletin from the North West Medicines Information Service coversNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  The aim of this publication is to provide healthcare professionals with a clear and succinct summary of key prescribing points taken from the NICE guidance, NG49.  This guideline covers Identifying, assessing, and managing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children, young people and adults.

Maternity pressure ulcers legal leaflet
As part of a series of leaflets aimed at reducing preventable injuries, the NHS Litigation Authority has published Did you know? Maternity pressure ulcers.  Maternity pressure ulcers have resulted in 39 claims from women in the five years from April 2009.  The leaflet pinpoints factors that were common to the care the women received and highlights the cost of compensating patients affected by poor care.

NICE
Interventional procedure guidance
IPG563  Percutaneous endoscopic laser balloon pulmonary vein isolation for atrial fibrillation

Quality Standard
QS126    Motor neurone disease

Technology appraisal guidance
TA398    Lumacaftor–ivacaftor for treating cystic fibrosis homozygous for the F508del mutation
TA399    Azacitidine for treating acute myeloid leukaemia with more than 30% bone marrow blasts
TA400    Nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab for treating advanced melanoma

Public Health Outcomes Framework update
Public Health England has published Public Health Outcomes Framework: indicator updates, August 2016. The Public Health Outcomes Framework was refreshed in May 2016. This update is the first publication of data on the new framework. Additional indicators will be added as they become available.