WIREDGOV

The DCMS has launched a consultation to seek views on the way the new Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) will operate and what its priority areas of work should be.

The consultation was launched on the day that Roger Taylor was announced as the new Chair of the Centre. Key questions are raised to gather input how the Centre and its work should begin to take shape.  The questions being asked cover issues that include:

• What activities should the Centre undertake and priority issues?
• Are the proposed areas of work and themes where the Centre can add most value?
• How should the Centre work with other institutions?
• How should the Centre effectively engage stakeholders, experts and the public?

The CQC findings from a local system review of Sheffield - 1 of 20 reviews of LA areas looking at how people move through the health & social care system, with a focus on how services work together.

The reviews look at how hospitals, community health services, GP practices, care homes & homecare agencies work together to provide seamless care for older people living in a local area.

The CEs of NHS England & NHS Improvement have set out the plans which will help to free up thousands of hospital beds and ease pressures next winter.

Shorter stays will benefit patients who would otherwise be stuck in hospital when they are well enough to leave as well as freeing up beds for those who are sicker.  Many older people, particularly those who are frail and may have dementia, actually deteriorate while in hospital – a stay of more than 10 days leads to 10 years’ muscle ageing for people most at risk.

Nearly 350,000 patients spend more than 3 weeks in a hospital each year.  That is around a fifth of beds, or the equivalent of 36 hospitals. Some patients need to be there for medical reasons but many do not.  The NHS, working with local authorities, aims to reduce the number of long staying patients by around a quarter, freeing up more than 4,000 beds in time for the winter surge.

The system of post-school education in England is not a system.  It is unbalanced in favour of F/T university degrees, and, as a result, offers poor value for money to individuals, taxpayers & the economy.

The 2012 reforms to university financing have failed to create an effective market allowing undergraduate degrees to dominate when this might not be in the student or the country’s best interest.  The low quality & inconsistent availability of options, caused in part by a lack of funding, have made the problem worse.

The Committee has found that the decision to switch almost all higher education funding to tuition fees financed by student loans has hidden the true cost of public spending on higher education.  They have also led to a collapse in flexible & part-time learning, with student numbers decreasing over the last 6 years by 60%.