Reimagining community services
The King’s Fund has published Reimagining community services: making the most of our assets.  This report looks at the current state of community services and explores how the health and care system needs to change to enable these services to meet the needs of the population now and in the future.  It proposes ten design principles that should inform the future planning and provision of care.

State of Child Health
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has published State of Child Health: one year on.  These scorecards describe progress against recommendations made a year ago in the RCPCH’s State of Child Health report.  The England scorecard reveals progress in some areas but no improvement in several fundamental areas. In particular, public health spending cuts are disproportionately affecting children’s services. 

Data security and protection
The Department of Health and Social Care has updated 2017/18 data security and protection requirements.  This document outlines actions to implement recommendations by the National Data Guardian and has been updated to include additional information for general practices, local authorities and social care providers.

Storing NHS and social care data
NHS Digital, Department of Health & Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement have published NHS and social care data: off-shoring and the use of public cloud services.  This guidance explains the safeguards that must be put in place so health and social care organisations can safely locate health and social care data, including confidential patient information in the public cloud including solutions that make use of data off-shoring.

Pressure ulcers
The Department of Health and Social Care has published Safeguarding adults protocol: pressure ulcers and the interface with a safeguarding enquiry.  This guidance helps practitioners and managers across health and care organisations to provide caring and quick responses to people at risk of developing pressure ulcers.  It also offers a process for the clinical management of harm removal and reduction where ulcers occur, considering if an adult safeguarding response is necessary.

Ambulance and A&E arrivals
The NHS Confederation has produced their first briefing using weekly sitrep data from NHS England relating to ambulance and A&E performance.  Winter statistics: ambulance and A&E indicates that the number of people arriving at A&E departments by ambulance remained steady throughout the period 20 November 2017 to 14 January 2018, with the exception of a spike in activity on 1 and 2 January 2018.  The delays of both 30 to 60 minutes and over 60 minutes fluctuated considerably over this period.

NICE guidance
NICE guideline

NICE Shared Learning

• Stroke care pathway from the emergency department to CT and the improvement of patient time from CT scan to thrombolysis – Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
• A collaborative approach using remote web-based technology to improve major haemorrhage management and transfusion practice at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia
• Innovative use of published NICE guidance to inform policy development and widen understanding – Quality Compliance Systems
• The Moth TalkCPR Art in Medicine Project – Velindre NHS Trust 

Statistics

• NHS vacancy statistics – February 2015 – September 2017, provisional
• NHS sickness absence rates – September 2017, provisional statistics
• NHS workforce statistics – October 2017
• Deaths registered by area in England and Wales, provisional – December 2017