Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

DH: Care Services Minister, Ivan Lewis, has announced a new self-assessment tool for commissioners of children's & young people's health services that is intended to help commissioners, such as PCTs, to assess their capability to deliver high quality, accessible, children and family focused services.


The tool will allow commissioners and their partners to:

Press release ~ Improving the quality and outcomes for services to children and young people through effective commissioning - A self-assessment tool for commissioners ~ Children's National Service Framework ~ Every Child Matters ~ DH - Children's services ~ Improvement review into services for children in hospital

DH: As a precautionary measure the Chief Dental Officer, Dr Barry Cockcroft has issued new guidance to all dentists in England regarding single use of reamers & files, instruments used only in the root filling of teeth.

The guidance to dentists (which applies to all primary and secondary care dentists in England) follows on from precautionary advice from the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and early results from ongoing research conducted by the Health Protection Agency, indicating a potential risk of vCJD associated with endodontic procedures.  

Endodontics relate to treatment to the dental pulp of a tooth.  A major part of this is root canal work.  No other aspect of dental work is affected by this precautionary advice.
Press release ~ Advice Letter ~ Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee ~ Health Protection Agency ~ Guidance on local reporting by clinicians

Spotlight on women at Serco – Anita’s story