Category: Current Awareness

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Impacts of outlets selling alcohol on drinking levels or alcohol related harm.
Carried out by Frankie Marcelline from Brighton and Sussex on 2/12/2020
https://www.knowledgeshare.nhs.uk/index.php?PageID=literature_search_request_download&RequestID=26501
(This evidence report is a very brief evidence search on the effect of reducing or increasing density of outlets selling alcohol on impacts of drinking levels or alcohol related harm. Most of the results are set in the UK.)

Mass asymptomatic testing: schools and colleges.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2020.
(Find out how to administer testing which will begin in January 2021.)

Vitamin D for vulnerable groups.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2020.
(This guidance accompanies the Department of Health and Social Care’s initiative to offer a free 4-month supply of vitamin D supplements to support general health, and in particular bone and muscle health. The guidance is for anyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable and has been offered a free supply of vitamin D supplements in England from January 2021.)

The safety of COVID-19 vaccines when given in pregnancy.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safety-of-covid-19-vaccines-when-given-in-pregnancy/the-safety-of-covid-19-vaccines-when-given-in-pregnancy

National lockdown: Stay at Home.
Cabinet Office; 2021.
(Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly across the country. Find out what you can and cannot do.)

A qualitative exploration of 14 to 17-year old adolescents’ views of early and preventative mental health support in schools.
Journal of Public Health; 2020.
(Preventative interventions may be effective in reducing and preventing symptoms of mental ill health in children and young people. However, there is a paucity of research in this area that explores the views of young people. This paper reports on a qualitative study to inform the future development of attractive and appropriate early and preventative school-based mental health interventions.)

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

COVID-19: guidance on shielding and protecting people defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2020.
(Information for shielding and protecting people defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable from COVID-19. Updated 31 December: Added new shielding advice for the clinically extremely vulnerable in Tier 4.)

COVID-19 vaccination programme 2020/21: COVID-19 Enhanced Service Vaccination Collaboration Agreement.
NHS England; 2020.
(The purpose of this COVID-19 ES Vaccination Collaboration Agreements to support the delivery of the individual and collective responsibilities of the Collaborating Practices as part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme as set out in COVID-19 vaccination programme 2020/21 Enhanced Service Specification.)

New SARS-CoV-2 variant.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
(Information on the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.)

Rapid evaluation confirms lateral flow devices effective in detecting new COVID-19 variant.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
(Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed that lateral flow devices (LFDs) used in mass testing can detect the new COVID-19 variant.)

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 variant from South Africa identified in UK.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
(Two cases of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, which originated in South Africa, have been identified in the UK.)

Persistent symptoms after Covid-19: qualitative study of 114 “long Covid” patients and draft quality principles for services.[Abstract]
Ladds E. BMC Health Services Research 2020;20(1):1144.
Full-text availability
(Suggested quality principles for a long Covid service include ensuring access to care, reducing burden of illness, taking clinical responsibility and providing continuity of care, multi-disciplinary rehabilitation, evidence-based investigation and management, and further development of the knowledge base and clinical services.)

Covid-19 Insight: issue 6.
Care Quality Commission (CQC); 2020.
(In this month’s report, we share regional data on the designated settings that allow people with a COVID-positive test result to be discharged safely from hospital, and also the latest data on registered care home provision. We also look at how providers have collaborated to provide urgent and emergency care during the pandemic.)

Coronavirus data dashboard
UK Government; 2020.
(The official UK Government website for data and insights on Coronavirus (COVID-19))

Healthy Eating in January

Now more than ever it is important to keep our bodies and minds healthy, so in the library this month we are promoting healthy eating

If you are visiting the library please have a look at our display of healthy eating books and help yourself to one of our healthy eating recipe cards. If you are interested in borrowing any of the books on display these can be checked out in the library using the self issue machine. Alternatively if you would like us to post a book out to you please email the library team: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

We will be featuring the recipes throughout the month on Twitter, please follow us @LscftL and share your own healthy food creations!

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Hepatitis C in England and the UK.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

[Latest PHE hepatitis C virus (HCV) reports and supporting documents, for England and the UK. 14 December 2020: Added Hepatitis C in the UK: 2020 report and accompanying slide set and infographic.]

Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2020.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2020.

[This publication reports on trends in drug use across England and Wales for the year ending March 2020. This publication is largely unaffected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as it mainly relates to the period prior to the lockdown. Overall drug use continued to remain stable, with around 1 in 11 adults aged 16 to 59 years having taken a drug in the past year.]

Whole systems approach to obesity.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

[A guide and set of resources to support local authorities with implementing a whole systems approach to address obesity and promote a healthy weight.
14 December 2020: Added ‘Opportunities to strengthen place-based systems approaches’ report and annexes.]


Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: 11 December 2020.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2020.

[One in five adults in Great Britain experienced some form of depression in November. This is similar to levels reported earlier in the year, but double that reported before the pandemic. Since late October, more adults say they believe life will return to normal within six months. However, a lower proportion of adults experiencing some form of anxiety and/or depression felt this was the case.]

The government’s approach to test and trace in England – interim report.
National Audit Office (NAO); 2020.

[This interim report provides an overview of test and trace services for addressing COVID-19 in England, including how the government’s approach has developed, and how it managed performance and capacity in the period from May to October 2020.]

A ‘new normal’? How people spent their time after the March 2020 coronavirus lockdown.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2020.

[During the first national coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, many people in Great Britain were forced to make changes to their lifestyles. But it appears that some of those changes may not have lasted long. On the whole, people returned to pre-lockdown behaviour in September to October 2020.]


Sexual and Reproductive Health Services, England (Contraception) 2019/20.
NHS Digital; 2020.

[This publication primarily covers contraceptive activity taking place at dedicated Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services in England, as recorded in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Activity Dataset (SRHAD), a mandated collection for all providers of NHS SRH services. People attend SRH services for a variety of reasons, but the main focus of this report is contraception.]

National Diabetes Audit – Report 1 Care Processes and Treatment Targets 2018-19, Full Report.
NHS Digital; 2020.

[This report details the findings and recommendations relating to diabetes care process completion, treatment target achievement and structured education for the 2018-19 audit.]


Statistics on Smoking, England 2020.
NHS Digital; 2020.

[This report presents newly published information on smoking including:
Smoking-related hospital admissions from NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).Smoking-related deaths from Office for National Statistics (ONS) mortality statistics. Prescription items used to help people stop smoking from prescribing data held by NHS Prescription Services. Affordability of tobacco and expenditure on tobacco using ONS economic data.]

Digital mental health

Current Awareness Bulletin

The December edition of digital mental health, produced by Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust, is now available to view or download.

Digital-Mental-Health-bulletin-Dec_20Download