Guidance: Health economics: a guide for public health teams

Public Health England has developed resources to help local commissioners achieve value for money by estimating the return on investment (ROI) and cost-effectiveness of public health programmes. Find out more here.

Understanding quality in district nursing services

"This report investigates what ‘good’ district nursing care looks like from the perspective of people receiving this care, unpaid carers and district nursing staff and puts forward a framework for understanding the components involved. It also looks at the growing demand–capacity gap in district nursing and the worrying impact that this is having on services, the workforce and the quality and safety of patient care. The report makes recommendations to policy-makers, regulators, commissioners and provider organisations as to how to start to address these pressures."

Understanding quality in district nursing services: Learning from patients, carers and staff
J Maybin, A Charles, M Honeyman
The King's Fund
September 2016

Read more here.

The accompanying quality framework for district nursing is available here.

Commissioning person centred care for people affected by cancer

"This guidance is intended to support commissioners and strategic clinical networks to take the actions necessary to drive improved outcomes for person centred care through cancer commissioning. It describes tested interventions that NHS England expects to be in place to meet the needs of people affected by cancer."

Commissioning person centred care for people affected by cancer
NHS England
April 2016

Read more here.

Achieving change in primary care—causes of the evidence to practice gap

"This comprehensive review of reviews summarises current knowledge on the barriers and facilitators to implementation of diverse complex interventions in primary care."

Achieving change in primary care—causes of the evidence to practice gap: systematic reviews of reviews
R Lau, et al.
Implementation Science, 016, 11:40

Read more here.

Implementing the Forward View: Supporting providers to deliver

"This document is designed for NHS provider organisations. It is part of a series of roadmaps that draw on messages from the NHS Planning Guidance and set out the key priorities for specific audiences that are responsible for delivering high quality health and care this year and beyond."

Implementing the Forward View: Supporting providers to deliver
NHS Improvement in collaboration with a range of provider leaders, NHS Providers, NHS Confederation, NHS Clinical Commissioners, NHS Partners and the Local Government Association.
February 2016

Read more here.

Quality standard for people with sight loss and dementia

"Patients with dementia can benefit from being identified in advance of attending their appointment; staff who have specific training around dementia; and, being provided with support to participate in decisions about care."

Quality standard for people with sight loss and dementia in an ophthalmology department
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists
December 2015

Read more here.

Using data to improve dementia care in England

Public Health England has published a new Dementia Profile, providing access to local authority and CCG level data across the whole dementia care pathway.

Using data to improve dementia care in England
Public Health England
12 January 2016

Read more here.

Improving outcomes for patients with sepsis

"Earlier this year, NHS England convened a group of experts from across the health and care landscape, the UK Sepsis Trust, Royal Colleges, patients and expert clinicians to advise on those actions needed to drive improvement in the identification and treatment of sepsis. Through their deliberations, the group agreed on the need to:

1. Prevent avoidable cases of sepsis.
2. Increase awareness of sepsis amongst professionals and the public.
3. Improve the identification and treatment of sepsis across the whole patient pathway.
4. Improve consistency of standards and reporting.
5. Underpin all actions with the principles of appropriate antibiotic use and antimicrobial stewardship.

This document is intended for those working across the health and social care landscape – including provider organisations, commissioners, and healthcare professionals. We hope that it will also be helpful to the public in understanding what the health system is doing to address a major cause of death and lasting ill health."

Improving outcomes for patients with sepsis: A cross-system action plan
NHS England
December 2015

Read more here.

Developing an ambulance commissioning strategy

"The ambulance service should develop into a mobile health provider working in multidisciplinary teams."

Developing an ambulance commissioning strategy: Five Year Forward View and beyond
NHS Clinical Commissioners
November 2015

Read more here.

Growing healthy communities: The Health and Wellbeing Index

"The purpose of this report is to help stakeholders – NHS providers and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local authorities, health and social care providers, housing associations, fire authorities and the police – to improve collaboration through a better understanding of the correlation between the economic, social and environmental health determinants and health outcomes within their locality."

Growing healthy communities: The Health and Wellbeing Index
Grant Thornton
October 2015

Read more here.

Place-based systems: A way forward for the NHS in England

"This paper argues that providers of services should establish place-based ‘systems of care’ in which they work together to improve health and care for the populations they serve. This means organisations collaborating to manage the common resources available to them."

Place-based systems: A way forward for the NHS in England
C Ham, H Alderwick
The King's Fund
November 2015

Read more here.

Better use of care at home

"This quick guide provides case studies, ideas and practical tips to commissioners, health professionals and care providers on how to improve the relationships, processes and use of homecare and housing support to help people home from hospital."

Quick guide: Better use of care at home: Transforming urgent and emergency care in England
NHS England
November 2015

Read more here.

Do NHS healthcare commissioners produce the outcomes they hope to achieve?

"Commissioners made marginal investments in specific health conditions and services with the aim of improving a wide range of outcomes. There was little evidence of impact on the limited number of outcomes measured."

Do marginal investments made by NHS healthcare commissioners in the UK produce the outcomes they hope to achieve? Observational study
A O'Cathain, F Sampson, M Strong, M Pickin, E Goyder, S Dixon
BMJ Open, 2014, 5:e009336

Read more here.

Commissioning excellent nutrition and hydration 2015 – 2018

This document provides examples of commissioning approaches that can be adopted locally to improve the nutrition and hydration care of the population. A resources repository is available to support commissioners. It can be accessed here.

Commissioning excellent nutrition and hydration 2015 – 2018
NHS England
October 2015

Read more here.

Tools to help provide care and support at home

"These pages provide useful tools, resources and examples of innovative approaches to enabling older people and people with disabilities to live well and independently in their own homes. They provide specific information across 8 key areas for adult social care commissioners, housing and care providers, primary care services and NHS hospital trusts on shaping, commissioning, funding, and delivering a range of care and support solutions for people living in their own homes."

Find out more here.

Helping NHS providers improve productivity in elective care

"Improving productivity does not mean simple cost cutting: it means increasing the efficiency of elective care while at the same time improving or maintaining its quality."

Helping NHS providers improve productivity in elective care
Monitor
October 2015

Read more here.

Shared principles for redesigning the local health and care landscape

"This document builds on previous work by NHS England’s Planning and Delivering Service Changes for Patients which offered good practice guidance to health commissioners on developing proposals for major service changes and configuration. Our five key principles are for use by the whole system. It aims to provide local system leaders – local authorities, health and wellbeing boards, clinical commissioning groups, NHS and care providers and patients and the public – with shared principles to ensure that service redesign meet a number of fundamental requirements to assure themselves, their partners and their communities that proposals are focused on improving services and health and wellbeing outcomes."

Shared principles for redesigning the local health and care landscape
Local Government Association
September 2015

Read more here.

Indicators of quality of care in general practices in England

"The review makes a series of recommendations to government, including:

• developing a small set of indicators that show information about what matters most to the public, health care professionals and those accountable for the quality of general practice
• consolidating the multiple existing websites currently sharing information about general practice quality, with information selected and presented to meet the differing needs of health care professionals and the public
• developing a national strategy for improving the quality of general practice and primary care that guides indicator development, with progress assessed through the Secretary of State’s annual report
• providing support to those working in general practice about how to understand and use information to improve patient care."

Indicators of quality of care in general practices in England: An independent review for the Secretary of State for Health
J Dixon, E Spencelayh, A Howells, A Mandel, F Gille
The Health Foundation
October 2015

Read more here.

Integration and continuity of primary care: polyclinics and alternatives

"In recent years the NHS has introduced new organisations and ways of working in order to improve the care of people with complex health needs. These approaches include general practitioner-led health centres, ‘case management’ (where a community matron or similar co-ordinates patients’ care) and (especially in London) ‘polyclinics’. We wanted to find out how these approaches compare in terms of improving the co-ordination of patient care across the range of services."

Integration and continuity of primary care: polyclinics and alternatives – a patient-centred analysis of how organisation constrains care co-ordination
R Sheaff, J Halliday, J Ovretveit, R Byng, M Exworthy, S Peckham, S Asthana
Health Services and Delivery Research, 2015, 3(35)

Read more here.

Universal health visitor reviews

"This document is primarily intended for those in LAs responsible for the commissioning of 0 to 5 public health services and for providers of those services. Its purpose is to help explain and provide the context of Regulations relating to the mandatory delivery of five key child development reviews as set out in the Healthy Child Programme (HCP)."

Read more here.