News update

Published: 15 September 2011

Alison Bardsley provides a brief news roundup.

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Continence Care Report: a guide for commissioners written by continence care professionals has just been published.

The APPG was chaired by Baroness Sally Greengross and forum committee member Liz Bonner was part of the working group. The guide illustrates the importance of continence care, setting out how services should be commissioned to deliver quality integrated services to meet patient’s needs while being cost effective. The guide was written and supported by a team of individuals and organisations.

Liz recently attended a champagne tea reception at the House of Commons hosted by Rosie Cooper MP to launch the guidelines. At the launch Dr Harari re-emphasised the poor outcomes of the national audit which identified disparity of service provision, lack of continence polices, lack of continence training,  and significant lack of service provision where continence specialist nurse have been cut. She also identified the missed opportunities for preventing admissions especially for the older population by preventing UTIs and CAUTIs. 

New guide

Thanks for the petunias: a guide to developing and commissioning non-traditional providers to support the self management of people with long term conditions (Department of Health, 2011)

This guide was sponsored by the NHS North East Innovation Fund, developed by Sandra King Associates, and led by a steering group.

The guide overs issues such as non-traditional providers (such as voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises) being important additions to routinely commissioned services.They are often deeply embedded in the communities they serve and can provide more ‘tailor made solutions’ for the needs of people with long term conditions (LTCs) identified through the collaborative care planning process. Engaging with non-traditional providers in an effective way can lead to:

The guide is a product of the Year of Care programme. Year of Care is a successful programme, originally piloted in three diverse health communities in 2007 to 2010

It has two aims:
• to make routine consultations between clinicians and people with LTCs truley collaborative, through care-planning
• to ensure the local services, that people need to support the actions to improve their health and well being, are available.

The guide gives ideas as to how this could work on a practical level. A key element in the guide is commissioning for sustainability, ensuring it becomes embedded in the local health economy, rather than becoming another well intentioned pilot that is cut when funding streams become tight. This is not a definitive guide to commissioning, but an exploration of a possible organisational model that can be adapted according to local circumstance resources and need.

If you would like to get involved with the work of the forum contact myself or Forum Chair Steve Miles for more information via the RCN on community.editor@rcn.org.uk