Category: Current Awareness

The future of vaccination

Driving the UK’s leadership in vaccine research & innovation

This series of articles brings together experts from the government, the scientific research community, and the life sciences sector to discuss the future of vaccination and how the UK can retain its leading position in vaccine research.

To read the report click here. Or to find out more information click here.

Public Health

Current Awareness

Suicide awareness materials: do they help people with suicidal ideation?
The Mental Elf; 2020.

(Hanzla Amir and Derek Tracy summarise a recent online randomised controlled trial on the effects of suicide awareness materials on people who feel suicidal, which finds that the Papageno effect is real and that stories of hope and recovery can help.)

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.
7 December 2020: Added ‘Engaging NHS system leaders in whole systems approaches to physical activity’.)

Supporting public health: children, young people and families.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Documents to support local authorities and providers in commissioning and delivering maternal and child public health services from preconception up to 24 years. 8 December 2020: Updated to include the 6 maternity high impact area guides.)

How England will end new cases of HIV: final report and recommendations.
HIV Commission; 2020.

(The HIV Commission is an ambitious, independent process to find the path to ending new HIV transmissions and HIV-attributed deaths in England by 2030. Its report sets out 20 achievable and evidence-based actions that need to be taken if this goal is to be met.)

Obesity Profile: December 2020 update.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Obesity Profile online data tool: update with new data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for academic year 2019 to 2020.)

What people are telling us: a summary, July – September 2020 Healthwatch, 2020

(Between July and September 2020, more than 38,082 people shared their experiences of using health and social care with Healthwatch. This briefing is a summary of the key issues that the public are telling us about, including access to NHS dental care; the support provided in care homes; and accessing Covid-19 tests.)

Interventions to prevent intimate partner and sexual violence Public Health England (PHE), 2020

(A guidance resource from PHE to help tackle the root causes of violence and
change behaviours that lead to violence. It includes a summary of research and good practice in bystander interventions.)

Covid 19

Updates on the Covid 19 Pandemic

Update on COVID-19 pandemic.
BMJ Best Practice; 2020.

(Epidemiology: updated data on children and pregnant women; updated risk factors (solid organ transplant). Aetiology: updated data on viral shedding in immunocompromised people. Emerging: WHO Solidarity trial results published; NIH recommends against casirivimab/imdevimab as standard of care for patients with mild to moderate disease; UK trial starts investigating use of colchicine. Prevention: first vaccine authorised for use in the UK; WHO updates guidance on mask use in community settings.)

Mask use in the context of COVID-19.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2020.

(This document provides updated guidance on mask use in health care and community settings, and during home care for COVID-19 cases. It is intended for policy makers, public health and infection prevention and control professionals, health care managers and health workers. Updated 1 December 2020.)

COVID-19: vaccination programme guidance for healthcare practitioners.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Guidance for healthcare practitioners about the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme. 4 December 2020: Update report: details on page 3.)

COVID-19 vaccination: women of childbearing age, currently pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Information for all women of childbearing age, those currently pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding on coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination.)

Covid-19 Insight: issue 5.
Care Quality Commission (CQC); 2020.

(In this month’s report, we build on the learning about good practice in infection prevention and control that we discussed in the last issue by focusing on care homes. We also present the key findings from a survey to understand the experience of inpatients who were discharged from hospital from April to May 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic was at its height.)

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Befriending programmes for people with psychosis can be challenging but beneficial to both parties.
NIHR Evidence; 2020.

(People with psychosis are at a high risk of social isolation, and can take part in befriending programmes. It is understood that these schemes can be mutually beneficial, but there is little research into how befrienders and patients, particularly those with mental health problems, experience such schemes. This is the first study to explore specific challenges, experiences and benefits of befriending in both volunteers and people with psychosis within the same programme.)

Flu vaccine uptake among people aged 65+ on track to be highest on record.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Three-quarters (75%) of those aged 65 and over in England received the free vaccine so far this year – up from 72.4% at the end of the last flu season.)

The Covid-19 long-term care situation in England.
International Long Term Care Policy Network; 2020.

(This report provides an overview of the impact of Covid-19 so far on people who use and provide long-term care in England, and of the policy and practice measures adopted to mitigate its impact. It finds that the initial policy responses did not adequately consider the social care sector and that the pandemic has laid bare longstanding problems in the long-term care system in England.)

Long term care centres: making space for ageing.
Autonomy; 2020.

(By 2030, there will be a 60 per cent increase in the number of individuals with caring responsibilities in the UK. This shift in the kind of work that we will be doing will require not just new funding arrangements but also robust infrastructure and working conditions. This paper proposes a network of long-term care centres that can form a key part of the new ‘caring economy’ that delivers for those who need care and those providing it.)

Learning from Lockdown: 12 Steps to Eliminate Digital Exclusion.
Carnegie UK Trust; 2020.

(The scale of digital exclusion has been highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Impacts on work, income, education and social life have been felt by many people across the UK. This report lays out a series of 12 recommendations calling for ambitious action from policy makers, practitioners, academics and industry to tackle this issue.)

Priority groups for coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination: advice from the JCVI, 2 December 2020 Department of Health and Social Care, December 2020

(This advice is provided to facilitate the development of policy on COVID-19 vaccination in the UK.)

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Public Health

Current Awareness

Total restriction of online advertising for products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) .
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport; 2020.
[Open consultation. They want your views on their proposal for a total online advertising restriction for HFSS products to reduce the amount of HFSS advertising children are exposed to online. This consultation closes at
11:59pm on 22 December 2020.]

Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England April 2019 to March 2020.
NHS Digital; 2020.
[Data show of 221,678 people setting a quit date, 114,153 were successful. Quitting success increased with age; 41% under 18 and up to 56% aged 60 and over. Also 45% of 13,779 pregnant women who set a quit date successfully quit.]

Online bullying in England and Wales: year ending March 2020.
Office for National Statistics (ONS); 2020.
[Estimates of the prevalence and nature of online bullying among children using data from the 10- to 15-year-olds’ Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).]

COVID-19: deaths of people with learning disabilities.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
[Review of available data on the deaths of people identified as having learning disabilities in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.]

COVID-19: mental health and wellbeing surveillance report.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
[This is a routinely updated report about population mental health and wellbeing in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. 12 November 2020: All relevant chapters updated. Academic studies included up to 4 September 2020; weekly data may be more recent.]

People with learning disabilities had higher death rate from COVID-19.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
[England death rate up to 6 times higher from coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic than the general population, Public Health England study finds.]