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A project to improve care for older people in Wakefield has led to significant reductions in hospital admissions, attendances in A&E and ambulance call outs.  Wakefield Care Homes vanguard, sponsored by NICE, has improved the quality of care of its residents by bringing services together, and making them more personal for older people in supported housing & care homes.

Wakefield care homes vanguard is a project that aims to tackle loneliness & fragmented care by joining up services for older people in supported housing & care homes.  Until recently, those living in their own homes did not receive the same level of care as those in residential care settings.  Health & care services were also not coordinated, resulting in people seeing a number of different health and social care professionals.

Consequently the project has been trialling new ways of working.  It has established an enhanced primary care service, providing a named primary care professional to care home managers.  It also created a multidisciplinary care home and extra care living scheme support team including therapists & nurses.  The team works closely with a community geriatrician and pharmacists, and carries out comprehensive assessments of residents. 

In addition, the project has developed a number of tools to help put individuals in charge of shaping their own care.  These include ‘Pull up a chair’, which are video diaries the team shoots with residents of care homes and tenants in Assisted Living facilities.  Developed in collaboration with Age UK Wakefield District, the videos are filmed before residents move into new homes, and once they have settled in.

The guideline recommends improving & maintaining residents’ day-to-day oral healthcare, ensuring staff are properly trained to confidently look after the oral health needs of residents, and that there is adequate access to dental services when needed.

Improving & integrating care the NICE way

Healthcare models of the future NHS

More imagination needed in the health system says NHS England Director

NHS England takes action to ease pressures on general practice and provide joined-up care

CQC is supporting new care models

LGA response to Care Quality Commission report on integration

The King’s Fund calls for NHS commitment to a new partnership with patients

Putting patients in control of their care – Andrew Carter

Building carer friendly communities – Dr Neil Churchill

Patients hold key to making services better – Anu Singh

The issue gets more urgent (& costly) every year

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

When it’s your own care it gets very personal

‘Care on the cheap’ risks failing both carers & clients

The Care Quality Commission has launched their review exploring the quality of care for people with diabetes in England.  My diabetes, my care highlights that – while there are many examples of where diabetes care is working well – people are not always supported to self-manage their condition in a way that is suited to them as an individual.

The review discovered that people at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes were not always identified early enough and supported to become healthier.  Some people also felt they were not receiving enough emotional support, including those with Type 2 diabetes, where the need for this kind of support might be more than expected.

Our findings also demonstrate that people who attend structured education courses feel this improves their ability & confidence to manage their diabetes.  But it was evident that the courses were not able to meet everyone’s needs.

CQC:  My diabetes, my care: diabetes care review launched

Proactive healthcare in the community is cheaper than surgery

My diabetes, my care: Community diabetes care review

The law that governs misconduct in public office is unclear, ambiguous and in need of reform, according to the Law Commission, independent law reform adviser to the Government.

More people than ever before are being accused of misconduct in public office, and recent years have seen a number of high-profile allegations, investigations & prosecutions of the offence.  But the existing law does not clearly define either what is meant by “misconduct” or who holds “public office”.

In a recently launched consultation, the Law Commission suggests that a new, clear statutory offence would remove ambiguity.  It proposes two forms such an offence might take and asks consultees whether either or both should be taken forward into legislation. They are:

•a breach of duty model, where the breach must lead to a risk of serious harm, and

•a corruption-based model, including the abuse of a position for personal advantage or to cause harm to another

The breach of duty offence would apply to public office holders whose positions carry powers of physical coercion such as arrest, detention or imprisonment, or have functions specifically relating to protecting vulnerable people from harm. The corruption-based model offence would apply to all holders of public office.  The consultation closes on 30 November 2016.

LC: Reforming the offence of misconduct in public office

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. 

An online app that lets children report bullying using screenshots of social media will be rolled out to hundreds of schools thanks to a £4.4m government fund.  ‘Tootoot’ is an online platform providing 24-hour support to young people who are victims of bullying or online abuse. 

Cyber bullying gives bullies the cover of anonymity but the app counteracts this by allowing children to report bullying incidents anonymously themselves.  They can screenshot abusive messages or even take photographs of bullies in action, then send them via the app.  The reports will then be read by staff at the child’s school, but no one else.

DfE:  Thousands more children to benefit from anti-bullying app

Tackling the ‘Dark Side’ of social media in schools

New measures to keep children safe online at school and at home

Hundreds of schools sign up for first ever national safety tool

Current laws sufficient to cover social media offences

The National Library of Wales and the Welsh Government are looking for new people to join the National Library’s Board of Trustees and ensure that the wide range of cultural treasures which it cares for can be appreciated and enjoyed by all.

As 1 of 6 Legal Deposit Libraries in the UK and Ireland, the National Library cares for an incredible collection of cultural treasures from paintings and photographs to archives, much loved books, stories and audio-visual materials which record the cultural memory of our nation. Based in Aberystwyth, the National Library currently houses more than 6 million books, 1.5m maps, 950,000 photos and 50,000 works of art.

There are currently one Vice-President and three Trustee vacancies available on the Board of Trustees at the National Library and the Welsh Government and the National Library are keen to appoint four highly committed, enthusiastic & motivated people to these positions.

WAG:  Do YOU have the enthusiasm, the interest and the skills to encourage more & more people to enjoy our cultural treasures?

DCMS:  Great Exhibition of the North

Electoral Commission highlights concerns about risks of combined polls in 2020

BHF:  New report claims First Aid skills could prevent 59% of deaths from injury

Firstly all MPs & peers should vacate both Houses of Parliament for 6 years for urgent repairs, a senior parliamentary committee has recommended and it wants the Department of Health's headquarters to host MPs, with Lords moving to the QEII conference centre.

One wonders what Black Rod will do for the State Opening of Parliament – march down the road to the Department of Health to summon MPs (which door will he ‘Bang’ on?) before leading all 650 odd back to the QEII conference centre?

Secondly, do people realise that, if a new EU referendum is held with a 66% majority required, then those wanting to overturn the new current UK status quo (i.e. Brexit - the only uncertainty being the timing) will have to achieve a 66% majority of the votes (plus achieving a minimum turnout) voting to ‘remain’ in order to avoid a ‘Neverendum’ situation.  52% to 48% won’t win it for staying in the EU!

 More contributions following EU Referendum

Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’:

OE: Getting out quick and playing the long game

OE: As the UK searches for a post-Brexit plan, is the EEA a viable option?

Department for International Trade:  Establishment of Australia-UK trade working group

Wales Office:  Wales: an "open, dynamic trading nation" ready for a post-Brexit world

ScotGov:  FM updates parliament on EU

10DS:  PM meeting with Donald Tusk: 8 September 2016

WAG:  FM sets out his vision for post-Brexit Wales

Department for Exiting the European Union:  Strengthening UK-Ireland relations ahead of EU exit negotiations

Scotland Office:  Scottish Secretary Meets Highland Businesses Ahead of Brexit

DEEU:  David Davis visits Ireland to strengthen commercial ties ahead of EU exit negotiations

TUC: Unions want to play a full part in Brexit talks

Parliament appoints Guy Verhofstadt as representative on Brexit matters

With the civil service fast stream about to open, we asked those of you who have successfully applied in the past to tell us what it's like and what you enjoyed best and least about working in Whitehall. You can read a summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly here.
Meanwhile Wednesday saw the inaugural Dudman Dispatch, a weekly look at what's making the news in public service, written by Public Leaders editor Jane Dudman. On the agenda this week was the collapse of children’s charity 4Children, and Dame Margaret Anstee, the former UN and Foreign Office diplomat, who died at the end of August. "Every so often, a woman heaves into view with such elan, one can merely gasp in admiration even if, as is the case with Dame Margaret Anstee, that admiration is posthumous," writes Dudman.
And finally, join us at The Depot in Cardiff on Wednesday 28 September, when The Guardian Public Leaders Network, supported by Eversheds and Public-i, will be hosting an interactive event to showcase some of the brightest and best approaches to public service delivery in a digital age. Please email Stacey-Rebekka Karlsson for more details.

'People are nicer to each other when they move more slowly': how to create happier cities
Urban spaces can be designed to make people feel happier, behave better and be kinder – and there are financial benefits

How former UN diplomat Dame Margaret Anstee is an inspiring role model
Formidable women, commissioning better for young people and a handy guide to autumn policy: our new dispatch on public services

I want to help you get the right benefits, but your landlord is taking up all my time
Council benefits officers like me want to have a clear way to avoid endless miscalculations. But much of our time is being wasted by private landlords