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Following the recent launch of Public Health England’s One You, a campaign to help adults across the country make simple changes to improve their health today and in the future, PHE has launched the 4^th edition of Health matters: midlife approaches to reduce dementia risk.  Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia affect some 850,000 Britons and cost the economy £26bn a year.  If things continue as they are the number affected will rise to 1m by 2025 and 2m by 2050.

This latest edition of Health matters, a resource for health professionals & local government which aims to support commissioning and the delivery of local services, shows that dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing.  What is good for the heart is also good for the brain. Modifying cardiovascular risk factors has contributed to a large decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke over the past 50 years. The same could be the case for dementia.

Using PHE’s Dementia Profile tool, for example, can help to identify local risk factors for dementia such as smoking prevalence or physical inactivity.  This will help to prioritise efforts to reduce such risk factors.  Research has shown that dementia is caused by a complex mix of genetic & lifestyle factors but, by maintaining a balanced diet, exercising regularly, not smoking or drinking to excess, keeping blood pressure and cholesterol in check, the risk of dementia can be lowered in some cases.

DH:  Health matters promotes midlife approaches to reduce dementia risk

Health matters:  midlife approaches to reduce dementia risk

Dementia Profile tool

Trouble is many of us stopped living healthily in middle-age!

‘Frailty’ may be inevitable with age, but its ‘management’ can still allow an ‘active’ lifestyle

An ‘illness’ that impacts on the whole family

‘Reassurance’ is key to their state of mind

Latest research indicates that software and software licences represents an average 30% of an organisation’s total IT budget. Software Asset Management (SAM) best practice, built on a foundation of common sense, is currently delivering much needed savings across the public sector whilst at the same time ensuring all important compliance with regulatory requirements for many organisations.

This brief WiredGov subscriber survey has been designed to measure the current levels and awareness of SAM across the public sector and to determine where improvements (if any) can be made. 

Click here to take the survey and be entered into our prize draw for £100 Amazon Voucher.

Up to 100,000 people in England will be offered places on the world’s first nationwide programme to stop them developing Type 2 diabetes.  Healthier You: the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme will start this year with a first wave of 27 areas covering 26m people, half of the population, and making up to 20,000 places available.  This will roll out to the whole country by 2020 with an expected 100,000 referrals available each year after.

Those referred will get tailored, personalised help to reduce their risk of Type 2 diabetes including education on healthy eating & lifestyle, help to lose weight and bespoke physical exercise programmes, all of which together have been proven to reduce the risk of developing the disease.

There are currently 2.6m people with Type 2 diabetes in England with around 200,000 new diagnoses every year.  While Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented and is not linked to lifestyle, Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable through lifestyle changes.  1 in 6 of all people in hospital have diabetes – while diabetes is often not the reason for admission, they often need a longer stay in hospital, are more likely to be re-admitted and their risk of dying is higher.

NHS England:  Thousands to benefit as first wave of NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme national rollout is announced

We cannot afford more diabetics

Some way to go still

‘Side effects’ of diabetes can be life-threatening

Scotland’s Fiscal Framework – an essential part of the devolution of new tax & welfare powers – was finally agreed one month ago, after many months of tortuous negotiations.  It states that ‘for the first 5 years of devolution the block grant adjustments (BGAs) will first be calculated using the UK government’s Comparable Model but then adjusted to “achieve the outcome delivered by the Indexed Per Capita (IPC) model’.

Under this method, if Scotland’s devolved revenues & welfare spending per person grow at the same percentage rate as those in the rest of the UK (rUK), then ScotGov’s budget will be exactly the same as if devolution had not happened;

This is the approach that the Scottish Government wanted and satisfies its interpretation of the Smith Commission’s principle that there should be ‘no detriment [simply] from the decision to devolve’ a power.  But it does not satisfy the Commission’s ‘taxpayer fairness’ principle, which the UK government placed more weight on.

IFS:  Scotland’s Fiscal Framework does not satisfy Smith’s “Taxpayer fairness” principle

Independence for Scotland just doesn't add up

IPPR Scotland:  Scotland pay packets down 12% in real-terms since 2009

NLGN director comments on Scottish Labour proposals for local taxation

DfT:  3-hour Scotland to London rail journeys on track

Instead of imposing the controversial, noisy & dubiously beneficial HS2 on the Shires, why not start with the ‘urgently needed’ HS3 & other road / rail improvements in the North

An independent Scotland could require more than the ‘benefits of £24bn’ to both pay for the extension of HS2 and the subsidies of the existing railway(s)

UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. The past 5 years have seen government make a priority of getting money through its supply chain into the hands of SMEs, by both setting targets and introducing new procurement mechanisms.

Against this backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers.

Click here to find out more and view this week’s new arrivals to the SME Supplier Locator service. 

Scotland’s NHS has published refreshed & extended nutritional guidelines for hospital food to ensure all patients get the best possible nourishment.  A consultation has also been launched on whether these guidelines should be made legally binding – a move which would be a first for the UK.

Food in Hospitals 2016, published by NHS Health Facilities Scotland, is a revision of previous guidelines from 2008.  It sets out nutrition and catering criteria for patients in hospitals.  It also gives information on how the guidelines can be met, through assessments of the patients’ dietary needs menu planning & practical suggestions on food choices suitable for different dietary needs.

ScotGov:  Hospital food

We already know to do it and it doesn’t require more money, just Hospital Management priority support

New hospital food standards

Cooking up a treat for the NHS

Scottish Inpatient Experience Survey 2012

New guidance to raise awareness of the importance of good nutritional care

NHS England supports national Nutrition and Hydration Week

Evidence of Major Improvements in Patient Care Across Wales

Older people’s care inspection report

NHS spends more on hospital food but significant variation remains

NHS Confederation comments on CQC's review of privacy, dignity and nutrition ~ Consultation closes on 13 June 2016)

LGA Responds to Education White Paper

IPPR:  New schools whitepaper could cause chaotic reorganisation of schools

LGA:  2,500 academies yet to sign up to healthy school meal standards

NAO:  The impact of state pension reforms on people with Guaranteed Minimum Pensions

CQC:  GP complaint handling – An opportunity to improve

Is the NHS just too big to improve?

Can standards be maintained?

Out-of-hours GP services in England: report published

Workers are urged to take simple steps to make sure they receive the government’s new National Living Wage next month (April 2016), after research reveals nearly one third of people never check their payslips:

*£7.20 rate to be introduced for workers aged 25 years and over on 1 April 2016

BIS:  Workers advised to make sure they are getting new National Living Wage as government survey reveals almost a third of staff never check their payslips

RoSPA:  It’s time to address the problem of time – experiment needed on daylight savings

Whatever happened to Double Summer Time? - The Guardian

DCMS:  Culture at the heart of our communities

Ed Vaizey Culture White Paper launch

£4m of new funding for English museums & galleries

LGA responds to Government's Culture White Paper

Cabinet Office:  New partnership with Oxford University to revolutionise delivery of public services

Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

 More contributions to the EU Referendum

More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims;

EU News:  EC makes proposal to implement EU-Turkey agreement: 54,000 places allocated for resettlement

10DS:  PM Commons statement on European Council meeting on migration: 21 March 2016

Chatham House:  The refugee crisis - A European call for action

Cabinet Office:  EU Referendum: Counting Officers' Regulations

Charity Commission:  Commission provides further clarity to EU referendum guidance

10DS:  600,000 jobs in UK drinks industry safer in reformed EU

 More contributions to the UK constitutional debate

More news, opinions, documents, claims & counter-claims;

IFS:  Scotland’s Fiscal Framework does not satisfy Smith’s “Taxpayer fairness” principle

NLGN director comments on Scottish Labour proposals for local taxation

The childhood trauma of test scores, school reports and sports days is perhaps why so many people hate the annual appraisal ritual so much. In the civil service, however, it's also because the process is toothless, demotivating, time-consuming and forces staff to conform to a framework. Former civil servant Andrew Greenway offers four solutions on the network last week.
Meanwhile, in her weekly column about the cost of cuts, Mary O'Hara explains why George Osborne's reform of business rates will undermine his northern powerhouse.

Bin the paper, kill off tick boxes – how to fix civil service appraisals
Performance management is unpopular, especially the toothless and demotivating Whitehall model

End the costly, energy-sapping political games over Whitehall procurement
Central government has made big strides in making its £13bn procurement spend more effective

I take your 999 calls, but I don't know where you are
So much of a fire control operator's job is based on local knowledge. Taking calls from other counties, I fear for your safety

Osborne's business rate changes undermine his northern powerhouse
This unexpected manoeuvre could remove a sizeable chunk of tax receipts from local government coffers

George Osborne's 'IOU' cuts leave public sector guessing until 2018
The chancellor has in effect admitted that more cuts will be needed in 2018 – but he won’t say where