Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
DWP: The Government has launched a booklet for pensioners & those over 60 that pulls together all the help that it available to them in one place. The 40-page booklet - Real Help Now for over 60s - provides information on everything you need to know about claiming Pension Credit, getting help with your fuel bills, or even information on that course on IT you’ve always wanted to take.
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on cetuximab for the treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic (where the cancer has spread) squamous cell cancer of the head & neck. The guidance does not recommend cetuximab in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy as a treatment option for patients with this type of head and neck cancer.
DH: An event was held recently to raise awareness of the Department of Health’s prevention strategy for VTE. The DH is committed to reducing the number of people who develop blood clots by encouraging staff to follow national policy, which states that all adult patients in England receive a VTE risk assessment on admission to hospital.
A new online educational resource (e-learning)to inform clinicians & help them to assess a patient’s risk of VTE and take appropriate preventative measures was also launched. NICE VTE clinical guideline for all hospitalised patients is expected in early 2010.
Press release ~ e-VTE course ~ Venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment ~ The VTE Implementation Working Group
NAO: New practical guidance published by the National Audit Office will save charities and other voluntary & community organisations time & money by reducing the paperwork they are currently required to collect when providing public sector-commissioned services.
The guidance, published by the NAO along with the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, will help government cut paperwork while still enabling it to monitor the £12bn it gives to charities and other voluntary & community organisations each year. OTS has also unveiled principles for the monitoring of funding for the third sector.
Charities that receive public funding have to account to government funders for how they have spent this money and should show the impact they have achieved with it. The cost of producing this information, however, must be proportionate to the risks & benefits involved. The term for achieving this balance and avoiding poor practice is ‘intelligent monitoring’.
Press release ~ Full guidance - Intelligent Monitoring ~ Office of the Third Sector (OTS) - Principles of Proportionate Monitoring ~ Mutual Action, Common Purpose: Empowering the Third Sector ~ PASC report Public Services and the Third Sector: Rhetoric and Reality (Volume 1) ~ Volume 2 ~ Government's response ~ Partnership in public services action plan: Two years on ~ Working in a consortium: A guide for third sector organisations involved in public service delivery ~ Social Clauses Project Report
