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Have you used the Global Cyber Alliance Cybersecurity (GCA) Toolkit for Small Business yet?

As the name suggests, the GCA Toolkit for Small Business is specifically designed for small & medium businesses to reduce the cyber risks they face on a daily basis.

The FREE online resource is available worldwide and offers actionable guidance & tools with clear directions to combat the increasing volume of cyberattacks.  The Toolkit arms small business owners with basic security controls & guidance, including:

*Operational tools that help them take inventory of their cyber-related assets, create & maintain strong passwords, use multi-factor authentication, perform backups of critical data, prevent phishing & viruses, and more.

*How-to materials, such as template policies & forms, training videos, and other foundational documents they can customize for their organizations.

NHS confirms integrated care systems to serve more than 20m.

One in three people in England are set to further benefit from improved health & care, as 3 new areas have been announced as ‘integrated care systems‘ (ICS).  The North East and North Cumbria will become the country’s largest ICS, serving more than 3m people alone.

South East London becomes the first ICS in the capital while Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West makes up the third new area where different health & care organisations work together to plan and join up services.  They follow in the footsteps of the 12 earliest integrated care systems announced in 2018, plus two devolved health systems in Greater Manchester and Surrey.

ICSs are already helping people to stay healthy & independent for longer, giving more care closer to where they live & work, and improving response times & performance in areas such as cancer and A&E.

Successes to date include:

• 100,000 more general practice appointments available for patients in Gloucestershire backed up by extra home visits from paramedics & physiotherapists, and medication advice from clinical pharmacists based in GPs’ surgeries
• Best practice care for people with atrial fibrillation is being expanded to every GP practice in West Yorkshire and Harrogate. This will prevent nearly 200 strokes to 2021, saving £2.5m in costs that the NHS will reinvest elsewhere.
• a single care record for each of Dorset’s 800,000 residents, allowing health & care professionals across the county to see the same information in real time. Joining up information in this way means patients no longer need to repeat their story to different teams and improves care because their full needs are better understood.
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As Loneliness Awareness Week began last week, a new campaign launched by Loneliness Minister Mims Davies is helping to tackle the stigma of loneliness and encourage people to speak out.

‘Let’s Talk Loneliness’ brings together charities, organisations and businesses including The Marmalade Trust, the Co-op Foundation, the British Red Cross, the Campaign to End Loneliness, Mind, Public Health England and the Jo Cox Foundation to help people talk about their feelings.

It comes as a new poll shows that not wanting to burden others is the main barrier to people talking about their feelings of loneliness.  The survey also showed that young people aged 18-24 are most likely to say they have felt lonely (75%). In contrast, 63% of people aged 55 and over said they never feel lonely.

As part of Loneliness Awareness Week, the government has also announced it is partnering with the Co-op Foundation to match-fund a new £1.6m initiative that supports activity in community spaces to promote social connections.

The government is also investing £1m in a Tech to Connect Challenge Prize.  Applications are open from the 26th June 2019 to the 7th August 2019. The Prize, which will be designed & delivered by charitable foundation Nesta, aims to find tech solutions to the problem of social isolation. Charities and social enterprises are urged to apply as up to £500,000 will be up for grabs to incentivise social tech innovation.