WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

MSPE:  Do we finally learn who was responsible for Standards and what about complaints since 2009? – Last week, Robert Francis QC, Chairman of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Public Inquiry published his final report following consideration of over 250 witnesses and over 1m pages of documentary evidence.

The Inquiry has been examining the commissioning, supervisory & regulatory bodies in the monitoring of Mid Staffordshire hospital between January 2005 & March 2009.  The Inquiry identifies a story of terrible & unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people who were failed by a system which ignored the warning signs of poor care and put corporate self interest & cost control ahead of patients and their safety.
Press release & links ~ DH: Prime Minister responds ~ Monitor's statement ~ CQC response~ Health Ombudsman, statement ~ NHS Confederation: Briefing for members ~ TKF: Response  ~ NHS leaders pledge to repair public confidence on 'sad and shameful day' ~ Patients Association response ~ CIPD: Lessons businesses & public service providers can learn from Mid Staffs Trust failings ~ TUC statement ~ TKF:  Time for a new model NHS? (6th item) ~ See also item in newsletter published 03/02/2013 - PA:  Is it just a matter of time before a new NHS ‘scandal’ (3rd item) ~ RCN:  Bring back State Enrolled Nurses? ~ CQC:  Another rotten apple in the NHS barrel? ~ Ombudsman publishes consultation report ~ Monitor: Cannock Hospital – Community Asset Transfer Business Case ~ HC/Monitor/DH:  Should Health Management be returned to Clinical Staff? (5th item - 2009) 

TKF:  Even if we get the ‘Care’ right, we still have to address the problem of affordability - Health & social care could account for half of all government spending in 50 years' time, according to a new report published last week by The King's Fund. 

The report, Spending on health & social care over the next 50 years, shows how changes to the population, increases in wealth & medical advances will increase pressures to spend more on health & social care in the future.  The ageing population will also be a factor although – contrary to popular perception – this is likely to drive only a small proportion of the increase.
Press release & links ~ TKF: Failure to address mental health problems in people with long-term conditions costs NHS billions ~ How to deliver high-quality, patient-centred, cost-effective care ~ IFS:  Whatever we are going to do to raise the care funding, we need to start doing it soon (3rd item) ~ DH:  Being flexible could keep the costs down (4th item) ~ PC&PE:  If 80% is avoidable, wouldn’t it pay to avoid most of it? (2nd item) ~ AUK:  What we need to see is a ‘Fall in Falls’ (2nd item) ~ NHS Confed:  Many older people are still taxpayers (6th item)

MoD:  Many parts of NHS are still first class & at the ‘cutting edge’ of healthcare - Eye pupil movement is helping Service personnel fight the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  When Sergeant Steve Johnson was asked if he would like to trial a new treatment for post-traumatic stress he had nothing to lose: “I’d already rehearsed how I would kill myself, what would be the cleanest way, and how it would affect others”.

Lost in mental illness, he became one of the first troops to try out the intriguing & cutting-edge therapy called eye movement desensitisation & reprocessing (EMDR) - a practice which would force him to relive suicidal thoughts, but ultimately go on to help save his life.  The psychotherapy technique is based on the idea that if people think about a traumatic image while watching an object move back & forth, distressing feelings will reduce in intensity.  
Press release & links ~ CQC:  Time for the NHS to be run to DMS standards? (2nd item) ~ MoD: Unless one has faced the dangers of bullets & IEDs, it is difficult to ‘understand’ (2nd item)

FSA:  If ‘We are what we eat’, then we want to know what we are eating - The Food Standards Agency has published the protocol for the UK-wide survey of food authenticity in processed meat products.  The survey will use specialised analytical techniques to provide information about the possible presence of horse or pig DNA in a range of beef products available to UK consumers.  It is anticipated that a full analysis of the results of this survey will be published in April 2013.
Press release ~ Sampling protocol for meat products 2013 ~ Food Law Code of Practice ~ Food Fraud

PX:  Can statistics ever reflect the ‘true’ situation? - A new report by Think Tank Policy Exchange says that nearly 1 in 5 children (2.3m) across the UK are living materially deprived lives and are not included in the government’s headline measure of relative income poverty.  This is despite £170bn of expenditure between 2003 & 2010.  Since 1998/9 the increase in net financial support for the poorest households with children amounts to £4,000 a year above inflation.

The report claims that the Child Poverty target is underestimating the number of children living in poverty in the United Kingdom.  It should be replaced with a new piece of legislation that covers both household income & social poverty factors such as whether a child has been in the care system or lives in poor quality housing.
Press release & links ~ Outcomes, Not Just Incomes: Improving Britain’s understanding and measurement of child poverty ~ IFS: Living Standards, poverty and inequality in the UK - 2012 ~ StC:  Unfortunately what Society may like the State to provide and what it can afford to provide don’t match (3rd item)

Ofsted:  Accurate data is missing from national records - The Chief Inspector of Ofsted has published a new report that highlights the need for urgent action to establish a single register to accurately track the number of children who go missing.  He said that ‘at a time of heightened concern about vulnerable children falling victim to sexual exploitation, it was profoundly worrying there was currently so little reliable data on the issue – including numbers, characteristics & trends’.

He spoke on the day Ofsted published a report, Missing children, which found data sets recorded & held by local authorities & the police were significantly different in most areas - reflecting concerns that data about missing children is flawed at a national level.
Press release ~ Missing children ~ Ofsted:  Why are they running from a ‘Place of Safety’? (3rd item)

LR:  ‘Safe as Houses’ is not always the case - A newly launched property fraud line means that owners who are concerned their property might be subject to a fraudulent sale or mortgage can quickly alert Land Registry and speak to specially trained staff for practical guidance about what to do next. The properties most vulnerable to registration or mortgage fraud are usually empty, tenanted or mortgage-free.  

Additionally, as part of its commitment to a range of counter-fraud measures, Land Registry’s trial of a FREE restriction for absent owners is being continued.  Around 5,000 properties have been protected in this way since the trial began in February 2012.
Press release & links ~ Land Registry launches top tips to help owners protect their property from fraudsters

HO:  There is no justification for this abusive practice - Crime Prevention Minister, Jeremy Browne, has condemned Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as child abuse and urged everyone to confront this 'barbaric practice'.  Speaking last week on the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM he urged professionals not to shy away from the issue because of 'misplaced cultural sensitivities'.
Press release & links ~ International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM ~ HO: New action on female genital mutilation ~ BIG funding supports rights of vulnerable girls ~ HO: Female genital mutilation guidelines ~ EU News:  Time for a ‘barbaric’ custom to be consigned to the ‘dustbin of history’ (3rd item)

Forthcoming event: Gartner Identity & Access Management Summit - 11th-12th March, London - The year's most valuable information update for all matters IAM, the Gartner Identity & Access Management Summit is the premier gathering for IT and business professionals responsible for creating, implementing, and improving IAM programs at their organisations.

With two intensive days of analyst presentations, workshops and peer interaction, you'll have a deeper understanding of the tools and techniques to successfully deliver IAM today. You will experience a deep dive into forward-thinking strategies and investment approaches to meet tomorrow's IAM demands. The approach is pragmatic; the advice unbiased; the experience invaluable.

Click here to find out more and to register. 

Latest Paper: Leveson Compliant Software? Police, Politicians, Government take note(s) - The Leveson enquiry concluded that it should be mandatory for police officers to record all of their contact with the media, and for that record to be available publicly for transparency and audit purposes.

Subsequently, the ‘Plebgate’ enquiry has further underlined that the police, politicians and government organisations clearly need the right systems in place to demonstrate transparency, consistency and accuracy in all their stakeholder engagements. Otherwise they face the wrath of Leveson, who has demanded processes for “…greater transparency about meetings and contacts…not just as a future project but as an immediate need.”

A recent paper explores how ministers, government departments, indeed all public bodies might become ‘Leveson compliant’ and the recent utilisation of software within the Corporate Communications function that facilitates the recording of media and other stakeholder interactions, facilitating a searchable, corporate memory of ‘who met who’, ‘who said what to who’, and ‘who sent what to who’.

Click here below to download your free copy of the paper.


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