How should the extra NHS funding be spent?
The King’s Fund has published a ‘long-read’ The NHS 10-year plan: how should the extra funding be spent?  Following the announcement of additional NHS funding, this article discusses the opportunities to tackle the issues that matter most to patients and communities and to improve health and care.  It covers learning from the past, improving productivity, priorities for a 10 year plan, improving population health, a new deal with the public, funding and reform of social care, and securing the future workforce. Additional link: King’s Fund blog

Emergency Care Workforce Programme – NHS Improvement
Updated: Together with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), NHS England and Health Education England we’ve developed a plan to ensure we have sustainable staffing in our emergency departments.

Nursing case studies
NHS England has published the following case studies:

• An urgent call communication checklist and training package for care homes – South Norfolk CCG
• Reducing hidden waits and improving patient flow – University Hospitals Leicester
• Improving vaccination uptake by changing the way pregnant women were offered and accessed services – James Paget University Hospital
• A new integrated care pathway for faecal incontinence – Sandwell and West Birmingham
• Preventing and managing skin tears in residential homes – Norfolk and Waveney
• Demonstrating a commitment to carers – Lister Hospital
• Introducing a dementia support service – Somerset Partnership FT
• Increasing neonatal palliative care support – Rainbows Hospice, East Midlands
• Creating holistic workers across disciplines – Nottinghamshire CityCare Partnership
• The Hot Potato project – Child and adolescent mental health project, Carlisle

NHS Digital annual report
NHS Digital has published 2017-18 annual report and accounts.  The report covers NHS Digital’s achievements over the past financial year including improving the reliability, resilience and performance of core national IT and data services and progress in creating the new digital and data services.  Included in the report are five case studies that explore how this work is making a difference for the public and health and care professionals.

How to ensure your organisation gets value for money from the NHS pension scheme – NHS Employers 
This guide is aimed at NHS board members and it promotes the value of the NHS pension scheme. It aims to help NHS organisations to think strategically and includes tips on staff engagement as well as how to encourage membership and staff wellbeing.

Prevention is better than the cure – NHS Employers 
In the first of our case study mini series, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust shares how it reduced sickness absence and presenteeism at work. The trust placed staff health and wellbeing at the centre of its strategy by implementing core services and additional interventions staff can call upon. The trust believes that by helping staff identify stressors and giving them access to immediate and appropriate support helps reduce the amount of absence days. Over two years the new service helped 1,500 staff and made a potential saving of over £906,000 – the equivalent of 10,441 absence days avoided.

Why the board should support reward- NHS Employers 
Download and share with your board our new resource which outlines the benefits of using reward strategically within your organisation. A robust reward strategy that is supported and well-communicated by the board ensures managers have access to the right resources, tools and training to engage with staff and ensure that the employee proposition is understood. Your reward package can be key to attracting and retaining high-calibre people, enhancing the organisation’s reputations as an employer of choice and help employees identify with and support business aims.

You can visit reward resources webpages for further tools and resources to help you develop a reward strategy and communications plan.

Training pathways 2: why do doctors take breaks from their training? – General Medical Council (GMC)
This report is the second in a series of reports into doctors’ training pathways and it looks at the reasons, motivations and experiences of doctors who choose to take a break during their training. It found the three main reasons for taking a break in training were the doctors’ health and wellbeing – including their work-life balance – uncertainty about their choice of specialty and career direction, and dissatisfaction with their training environment.

National training surveys 2018: initial findings report – General Medical Council (GMC)
This report outlines the initial findings from the GMC’s annual national training survey, a detailed UK-wide poll of more than 70,000 doctors in training and doctors who act as trainers. The survey found that nearly a quarter of trainee doctors say their work makes them feel ‘burnt out’, and almost one in three say they are often ‘exhausted’ in the morning at the thought of another shift. Trainers also reported heavy workloads, with a third of them saying it was hard to find the time they need to fulfil their educational roles.

Health policy briefings
The following briefing papers have been published on the Parliament website:

• Accountable Care Organisations (updated)
• Learning disability – policies and issues
• Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
• Dementia: policy, services and statistics overview
• Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill [HL]: Briefing for Lords Stages

Statistics

• Community Services Statistics for Children, Young People and Adults – March 2018
• Psychological Therapies: reports on the use of IAPT services, England – April 2018 final, including reports on the IAPT pilots
• NICE Technology Appraisals in the NHS in England (Innovation Scorecard) – to December 2017
• Out of Area Placements in Mental Health Services – April 2018
• Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England – April 2018, by provider
• Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England – May 2018, by provider
• Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency data – April 2018 – May 2018
• Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics: Final April – Provisional May 2018
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman: Performance against our Service Charter 2017/18 – January to March 2018