Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
NICE: A treatment for severe asthma that applies heat to the walls of the airway could reduce symptoms and improve quality of life, says draft guidance from NICE. Current treatments range from taking inhaled therapies to using oral corticosteroids (tablets used to reduce inflammation in the whole body).
NICE has published draft guidance on bronchial thermoplasty. This procedure aims to remove some of the smooth muscle in the airway, consequently decreasing the ability of the airways to constrict, and lowering the severity of asthma symptoms and the amount of medication requirements.
Press release & links
CBI: The CBI recently welcomed a new voluntary code of conduct for executive search firms to help improve gender diversity in boardrooms (Room at the Top).
Press release & links
NO: Using insight from complaints effectively can support wider learning in councils and help drive service improvement, says a new publication from the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS). ‘Aiming for the best: Using lessons from complaints to improve public services’ provides guidance for councils focusing on the role of overview & scrutiny committees.
The guide has been produced jointly by the LGO and CfPS to help develop understanding about gaining customer insight from complaints to improve the planning and delivery of individual services or contribute to corporate learning & improvement. It is aimed at councillors and officers supporting overview and scrutiny committees, by reinforcing the active role they can play in this.
Press release & links
ScotGov: Scotland's farmers are being urged to double check that they have only claimed eligible land for support on their Single Application Form (SAF) 2011. Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead, reminded farmers that it was their responsibility to ensure that claims were only submitted for eligible land. He suggested they should pay particular attention where there had been a change of use of the permanent or seasonal land they had claimed.
Press release & links
CLG: The Government will allow councils to apply to borrow & sell against their assets to help councils tackle historic pay inequalities while protecting frontline services, Local Government Minister Bob Neill has announced.
Guidance for how councils should apply has been issued. The deadline for applications is 16 September 2011. Last October the Government announced 21 councils had the go-ahead to borrow against or sell assets up to £250m to meet & manage one-off costs of equal pay compensation.
Press release & links
NICE: Patients with kidney failure should be given balanced advice ‘so that they can make informed decisions about their choice of dialysis treatment’, says NICE. Guidance published last week by NICE is the first in &
Press release & links
NICE: NICE has published a new quality standard for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Developed from the best available evidence, (usually NICE guidance or NHS Evidence-accredited sources), this new quality standard add to the library of standards already published.
Press release & links
TSA: Guidance has been published which provides information on the requirements for delivery of new Affordable Rent homes, where those are not in receipt of funding from the HCA under the Affordable Homes Programme.
Press release & links
NICE: A recently licensed drug that helps control seizures in adults who have epilepsy has been recommended for use in the NHS. Final guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) advises that retigabine (also called Trobalt, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline) should be prescribed as an add-on treatment option if other medicines have been ineffective or produced unmanageable side effects.
Press release & links
LR: Land Registry has updated its guide on land banking to warn the public about the risks involved in buying land forming part of a land banking scheme. These are schemes where it is claimed that the plots of land have good investment value in the expectation of future development but where there is little or no chance of land ever being developed. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) recently estimated that land banking schemes have cost investors as much as £200m.
