Leadership in today’s NHS
The King’s Fund has published Leadership in today’s NHS: delivering the impossible.  This report on leadership vacancies presents an analysis of data from a recent NHS Providers survey of leadership vacancies in NHS trusts and foundation trusts, and the results of qualitative interviews and a roundtable The King’s Fund conducted with frontline leaders and national stakeholders.  The survey showed that leadership vacancies are widespread, with director of operations, finance and strategy roles having particularly high vacancy rate and short tenures.

Learning disabilities and CQC inspection reports
Public Health England has published Learning disabilities and CQC inspection reports.  This report investigates the extent to which health care for people with learning disabilities is mentioned within CQC inspection reports of 30 general acute hospitals trusts conducted in 2016 using the specific learning disability questions.  It also investigates the extent to which these CQC inspection reports mentioned mental capacity or the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) in relation to any group of patients.

Elective care resources
NHS Improvement has added How to write and review an access policy in line with best practice for referral to treatment and cancer pathways (pdf) to its elective care model access policy resources.  NHS Improvement has also published Elective care pathway analyser for referral to treatment.  This tool is intended to identify the main reasons for delays in referral to treatment and help operational teams to focus on interventions that will have the biggest impact on reducing waiting times.

NICE guideline

Technology appraisal guidance

Fiscal sustainability report – Office for Budget Responsibility 
This report sets out long-term projections for spending, revenue and financial transactions, and assesses whether they imply a sustainable path for public sector debt. It warns that the extra £20bn promised to the health budget and an ageing population will add to the burden of spending over the next 50 years.

Each baby counts: themed report on anaesthetic care, including lessons identified from Each Baby Counts babies born 2015 to 2017 – Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Launched in 2014, the Each Baby Counts programme aims to reduce the number of babies who die or are left severely disabled as a result of incidents occurring during term labour by 50 per cent by 2020. In 2017, the College published a landmark report based on the care of 1,136 babies born in the UK in 2015 and found that 76 per cent of these babies might have had a different outcome with different care. It also included recommendations highlighting critical factors in the care of the many of these babies that may prevent these incidents in the future. Detailed further analysis of the Each Baby Counts data has now been conducted into the anaesthetic care given to the mothers of 49 babies reported to Each Baby Counts between 2015 and 2017. This special report will form part of a wider set of findings and recommendations from the Each Baby Counts programme, to be published in autumn 2018.

NHSI Lean programme: Making common sense common practice – NHE | NEWS
Common-sense changes – such as Vital Signs, an improvement practice for the NHS – have the potential to drive improvements across the health service, writes Alan Martyn, national director of lean transformation at NHS Improvement (NHSI). What would the NHS look like if we implemented a daily improvement practice? More than 1.5…

Work & Health Challenge Fund
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions has set up a Work and Health Challenge Fund to test new approaches to help people experiencing mental health and/or musculoskeletal issues stay in work. Applications for the £4.2million fund are welcome from organisations in any sector and close on 17 August 2018.

NICE Shared Learning

• The Respiratory Infections Team – a novel paradigm in the management of community-acquired pneumonia – Derby Teaching Hospitals
• ”Get up, Get Dressed” – Frailty Care on a Surgical Ward – Ipswich Hospital

Statistics

• Birth summary tables in England and Wales: 2017
• Death registrations in England and Wales, summary tables: 2017
• Influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) in adults and children in primary care in the United Kingdom (UK): provisional end-of-season results 2017-18