Health-geekery November/December 2016

Another ever-growing, pulsating list of health and social care links ruling from the centre of the Ultraworld and being compiled here between now and the end of the year.

As usual, inclusion doesn't necessarily mean full agreement. And apologies for the alternately grey and blue hyperlinks, which for some reason I can't fix in the mix html.

More STP analysis

King's Fund weighs in with a look at STP's through interviews with insiders in health and local government (and an assessment of draft plans)

More STP proposals now released in the area I cover for your reading pleasure(?):

Birmingham and Solihull
Black Country
Cheshire and Merseyside
Coventry and Warwickshire
Herefordshire and Worcestershire
Shropshire and Telford
Staffordshire

Thanks to Health Campaigns Together, who are doing a good job of collating these across the country.

And the (internal) December 2016 NHS England Corporate and NHS Performance Report, while not referencing the STP's directly, provides a useful assessment of the the state of the NHS from the top, as Roy Lilley has pointed out.

Continuing Healthcare

A new report by the Continuing Healthcare Alliance, which the Association is a member of, has found that the CHC system in England is failing people with MND and other conditions.

Autumn Statement reportage and responses

Public Sector Executive - Councils and NHS bemoan 'missed opportunity' to fix adult social care
MND Association
MS Society 
New Economics Foundation - No relief for struggling households
Carers UK
United Response
Royal College Of Nurses
National Voices
Care And Support Alliance

Patient and citizen involvement in health

Reports and resources from NESTA and the Health Foundation enabling people to take an active role in their own health and care, in support of the NHS Five Year Forward View vision to develop a new relationship with people and communities.

Plus six principles from National Voices for engaging people and communities, intended to link up with NHS vanguard work and create a series of high-impact interventions.

Kings Fund research on the power and efficacy of different approaches to feedback.

MND-specific

The Association's evaluation of its volunteer Visitor role - around 9/10 of people living with MND and their carers think it's effective, which is pretty darn good I'd say.

Neurology

Summary briefing by Neurological Alliance on National Audit Office review of progress in neurology since 2012 (September 2015 but worth reiterating here as it's still a very useful snapshot)

The MS Society published the results of its 2016 survey of people with MS under the heading 'Is access to treatment still a lottery?' Interestingly, 83% of English respondents had not been offered a care plan or care plan review for their health care.

And otherwise on the NHS

Feeling The Crunch: the Nuffield Trust asks what it would take for the NHS to find planned savings of around 22 billion by 2020 (and then does so interactively)

A range of views on how much money the Government is putting into the NHS (Grauniad)
Interactive data on Northern Ireland hospital waiting times, including neurology inpatient and outpatient appointments (NICVA / Detail Data / ODI Belfast)

Following a previous survey, NHS Providers report on (write about what you know, yeah?) the state of the NHS Provider Sector. The accompanying press release has some quite stark statistics about trusts and other providers' lack of confidence in long-term financial situation.

NHS Confederation mythbusting statements on primary care, NHS managers and competition.

Dementia atlas for England - a nice geographic representation of dementia services including data like the proportion of emergency admissions. 

Social care

Four in five councils struggle to provide older people's care (Grauniad again) 
Age UK - 1.2 million in England struggle to get the social care they need.
Care Quality Commission annual state of care report
Why one company is handing back social care contracts to council (Grauniad)
The Generation Game: spending priorities for an ageing society (Fabian Society, Bright Blue and CentreForum from back in 2015)

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) are currently doing a lot of work around the future of care, billed as the equivalent of the NHS's Five Year Forward View.

Benefits

Work, Health and Disability Green Paper (more on this in future updates no doubt)

Bedroom tax

Success and failure at the Supreme Court (Equality And Human Rights Commission and Disability Rights UK)

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland voluntary sector worried about the implications of Brexit on funding and the economy (NICVA)

Wales

Chief Medical Officer For Wales annual reports
The Welsh Government's well-being objectives
Briefing by Professor Luke Clements on the Social Services And Wellbeing Act (Wales) 2014
Statement from the Welsh Government on the domiciliary care workforce
2015 UK Government response to Commons Welsh Affairs Committee on cross-border arrangements for health (a bit retro but useful)
Plans for primary care services in Wales up to March 2018 - including clusters and more.
Carer's Trust guidance on commissioning services for carers - with interesting case studies and a no-brainer guide on why looking after carers washes its face ethically and economically.

A sobering final link

Report from Joseph Rowntree Foundation finding that 50% of people in poverty are either themselves disabled or live with a disabled person