DoH publishes report of public consultation on New Horizons

The Department for Health has published New Horizons: report of public consultation. This is the full response to the public consultation which opened in July 2009 and sets out a vision for the future of mental health care in England.

Social Care White Paper: National Care Service launched

The recently launched National Care Service will be based on a principle of shared social insurance and will be funded by contributions from everyone. This follows the biggest ever consultation on care and support. However, the necessary consensus on how people should pay into such a system has not yet been reached. A National Care Service Commission has been established to advise Ministers on the fairest and most sustainable way for people to do so.

NHS Leadership Awards 2010: call for entries

These Awards aim to champion strong and creative leadership focused on improving quality for patients. There are nine categories which aim to celebrate outstanding leaders working at every level in the NHS across England and help foster the leaders of the future from all backgrounds. Nominations close on 28 May 2010.

First ever framework for mental well-being

A framework for developing well-being by adopting a broad-based public health approach to maintaining good mental health has been launched by Care Services Minister Phil Hope. The Confident Communities, Brighter Futures report offers a systematic evidence base from which local authorities and the NHS can act to reduce inequalities and improve mental health in their areas.

Children and young people's continuing care

This National Framework sets out an equitable, transparent and timely process for assessing, deciding and agreeing bespoke packages of continuing care for those children and young people under the age of 18 who have continuing care needs that cannot be met by existing universal and specialist services alone.

Majority of NHS trusts declare same-sex accommodation

Around ninety-five percent of trusts are expected to publish statements to confirm that they have virtually eliminated mixed-sex accommodation from hospitals across England. This follows an intensive government drive and a £100 million ‘Privacy and Dignity Fund’ set up by the Department last January to help trusts improve their hospital environments and patient privacy and dignity.

Reporting and learning from serious incidents requiring investigation

The National Patient Safety Agency, in consultation with key NHS stakeholders, has developed a nationally agreed approach to reporting, managing and learning from serious incidents.

Adult autism strategy – first-year delivery plan

Issued on 2 April, Towards 'fulfilling and rewarding lives’: the first-year delivery plan sets out the governance structure and the actions, with timescales and responsibilities, that will be taken in the first year to support the implementation of 'Fulfilling and rewarding lives', the strategy for adults with autism in England.

Importance of clinical leadership

Effective clinical leadership is crucial to improving services for patients. Issued on 29 March, this Interim Report from the Clinical Leadership workstream of the National Leadership Council (NLC) sets out progress so far and identifies next steps to further enhance leadership capacity and capability.

DOH - Attitudes to Mental Illness 2010

The Department of Health recently published the results of the Attitude to Mental Illness 2010 survey. Key points from the report include:

• People are broadly sympathetic towards people with a mental illness.
• Some attitudes towards people with mental illness are worse compared to when the Department of Health first commissioned the poll in 1994, although a number have improved. Several attitudes that had worsened over the period up until 1997 have since improved.
• On one item though, opinions moved less in favour of integration: ‘Mental hospitals are an outdated means of treating people with mental illness’ – agreement with this statement fell from 37% in 2009 to 33% in 2010.

Health Profile of England 2009

The Health Profile of England provides national and regional data, which local areas can compare against their own Health Profiles. There is a section of international comparisons. The report illustrates various geographical inequalities across England.