Legislation introducing a new registration system for all regulated health and adult social care services in England has now been laid before Parliament. To help social care providers get ready for registration, CQC has published two short guides on its website providing an overview of how it plans to progress registration (for homecare providers between April 2010 – October 2010 [...]

High Quality Care for All and the local visions developed by Strategic Health Authorities that accompanied it set an ambitious goal of putting quality at the heart of the NHS by making it its organising principle. Achieving this goal will require the greatest movement for change in the 60 years since the NHS was created to [...]

Medical recruiters have given a mixed response to a government proposal that by 2013 all new nurses recruited by the NHS will have to have a degree. New courses lasting up to four years will replace the two or three year nursing diploma courses, which are currently the minimum entry level required for those joining [...]

It’s a year since we first started talking to NHS organisations about our ‘customer care in the NHS’ package of research. And I can now tell you that we’ve successfully delivered our very first piece of customer care work – to NHS Sefton. With customer care being a topic of discussion amongst the team for the [...]

The Secretary of State for Health has made it clear that Disability Living Allowance for the Under 65s will not be affected by Government plans to create a National Care Service. Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Harrogate, Andy Burnham MP said: ”I am encouraged by the response to our Big Care [...]

Charity Shop Opening Nugent Care’s first Charity Shop opened its doors for the first time. The shop at 73 Allerton Road in Liverpool stocks fashion, books and bric-a-brac. The opening was conducted by Lord Mayor of Liverpool Councillor Mike Storey and the day was enjoyed by customers, volunteers and Nugent Care staff alike. Since the [...]

Achieving high quality care for all has always been the focus of this site. As we’ve been exploring recently, however, with changing fiscal times must come new strategies for ensuring that Lord Darzi’s vision, around which the whole NHS has now organised, continues to be met. Efficiency must be our new watchword – only by [...]

While we’re on the subject of issues on which we’d like your input, and on which you don’t have much longer to give it, The Big Care Debate has only one more month left to run. You’ll remember that this consultation takes as its basis the Shaping The Future of Care Together Green Paper, and [...]

Kate Bleasdale – Executive Vice Chairman, Healthcare Locums (HCL) The UK’s growing and ageing population is going to have a massive impact on the way healthcare staffing is managed and the issues should be raised sooner rather than later Nineteen years ago I wrote my Master’s thesis on what I and others call the UK’s [...]

Following the transfer, which took place on 1 October, NHS PASA’s professional services, temporary staffing and audit function has been integrated into Buying Solutions’ existing professional services category. To ensure a smooth transition for existing PASA customers and suppliers, a helpdesk has been set up to deal with any enquiries. The number is (0118) 980 [...]

A national initiative, designed to promote best practice and improve quality of life for people living and working in care homes, has been launched with the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust. My Home Life, a charitable venture supported by the recently merged Age Concern and Help the Aged, City University London and Joseph Rowntree Foundation, aims [...]

The government is using face-transforming software to encourage the public to have their say on its proposals for a radical reform of the care system. People using the online software application will be encouraged to comment on the government’s plans for a National Care Service and other changes to the care system. These include changes to [...]

As promised in Building Britain’s Future, this Green Paper sets out the Government’s proposals for ways to reform the care and support system for adults in England. We need to respond to the challenges that it will face in the future, to build a new National Care Service for everybody. During 2008, the Government ran [...]

The Big Care Debate On the subject of social care and providing feedback, the Big Care Debate continues. You can visit their website here, and there’s a new section of the site which enables you to upload a photo and see what you might look like when you get older. The Big Care Debate is, of course, in large [...]

The NHS will need to significantly increase its use of flexible staffing if a public sector spending cut leads to a significant reduction in headcount among permanent frontline staff, according to healthcare recruiter HCL. Consultants McKinsey and Company has advised the Department of Health that the NHS in England would need to cut its workforce by [...]

Our NHS, Our Future Everyone agrees that the NHS is going to have to save money – David Nicholson, for instance, speaks about saving £15-20bn between 2011 and 2014, largely through efficiency measures. The question isn’t about whether we need to make savings then, but how. Quality, of course, is one way to achieve this: [...]

Do people get happier as they age, as one study today suggests, or do happy people just live longer? Speaking from the view of 54, I feel more at peace and, yes, happier, than I did 20 or 30 years ago. I know my kids agonize over small things, and understand most things are small things. Keeping [...]

Today, The Times picks up, on the hundreds of complaints received in the wake of the report yeaterday, Catherine Bleasley writes that whilst Ian Birrell again writes in The Independent about the urgent need for reform. The comments attached to yesterday’s Telegraph story are the spur for another report in the paper today, and make for no happier [...]

If you know anyone who is looking for a full time job; live’s in Southport; is precise; good at admin including Microsoft office; has manners; is magnetic; can speak and think at the same time We need staff in our offices. Get them to call me (Les) on 07739 701 702.

Watchdog warns councils to prepare for long-term impact of downturn on mental health and children’s services Demand for mental health and children’s services will continue to rise as the longer-term effects of the recession and unemployment become evident, the Audit Commission has warned. Around a third of councils in England have already seen higher demand [...]