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The assistant practitioner role
This document considers some of the key policy issues regarding the emergence of the role of the assistant practitioner in health care. They are: the remit and purpose of the role; reasons for the introduction of this role; the role in the wider health care workforce context including workforce numbers, nursing workload and the deployment of registered nurses. The nursing profession must hold a robust debate on all the above because the assistant practitioner role must be linked to a vision for both the future configuration of the nursing workforce, and the future function and contribution of nursing to health care within that.
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NHS expenditure on external consultants
In the budget for 2009, it was announced that the Department of Health will be contributing £2.3 billion in additional savings to the overall reduction in Government expenditure and borrowing. Health Secretary at the time, Alan Johnson, said:"Better quality, safe health care goes hand in hand with better value for money" and NHS Chief Executive David Nicholls has written to the NHS stating that "the value-for-money challenge will be met through delivering on our quality agenda, not instead of it." However, several reports are already suggesting that there will inevitably be cuts in frontline services, training budgets, and investment in new facilities. The RCN is constantly alerted to the impact of external financial factors on patient care in the NHS. In order to better understand how the NHS was using its resources in these uncertain economic times, the RCN wrote to over 550 NHS organisations across the UK under the Freedom of Information Act and asked for a breakdown of their expenditure on external consultants.
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Looking back to look forward
This briefing provides a rapid review of the lessons from published reports on health and social care system regulation. The aim is to summarise the key lessons, particularly relevant as a new integrated regulator begins its work on 1 April 2009, replacing the previous commissions. It also sets out what the RCN view is on system regulation, and what the RCN wishes to see as key priorities for the coming years. The RCN recognises that 2009-10 is a year of unprecedented change, but from 2010-11 onwards believes that there is a real opportunity to learn from the change experience to improve health and social care for the benefit of patients, carers, staff and the public at large.
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eHealth and nursing practice – Abbreviations
eHealth and nursing practice: Abbreviations and other short forms in patient/client records.
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The piloting of Personal Health Budgets in England
This briefing provides a short introduction to the possible role of personal health budgets within health care. The Department of Health in England is planning to begin a pilot programme on personal health budgets in early 2010. This follows on from the NHS Next Stage Review which pledged to pilot personal health budgets in selected areas as a way of giving patients greater control over the services they receive. The briefing, prepared jointly by the RCN's Employment Relations Department and the Policy Unit, is intended to provide an overview of the implications for this system of healthcare funding, outline the timetable for the pilot programme and summarise the current RCN position on personal health budgets.
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Social enterprise in 2009
This briefing provides a background to social enterprise and an overview of the right to request policy.
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The regulatory landscape in health and social care in England in 2009
This briefing sets out the range and scope of 'regulators' in the health and social care sector in England. Its aim is to outline who does what in regulating, inspecting, auditing and contributing to setting standards in health and social care in the new regulatory landscape.
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Nursing and Payment by Results
NHS England has been reimbursing providers for acute care using an activity based casemix payment system called Payment by Results (PbR) since 2003. PbR uses Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs) as a means of classifying patients' treatment episodes for reimbursement. They are developed by clinical working groups from national data and are designed to group together episodes that are clinically coherent and consume similar amounts of resource.
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Shaping the future of care together
RCN members are being encouraged to complete a short online survey to share their views on the future of social care in England. This will ensure that The RCN is responding to the Government Green Paper Shaping the Future of Care Together, which calls for a care debate and includes the idea of setting up a 'National Care Service'. The Government has ruled out paying for a new system through increasing taxes but has proposed three options for funding. The RCN has prepared a RCN Policy Briefing 12/2009: 'Shaping the future of care together' to explain the key issues and assist RCN members with formulating their response. The RCN ran a survey to gather views in order to shape its response and this consultation closed on 31 October 2009.
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Nursing and the Economic Downturn
A roundtable discussion on Nursing and the economic downturn was held on 25 August 2009 at RCN headquarters in London. An invitation only meeting, it brought together prominent figures in nursing together with leading external thinkers and influencers who ordinarily have relatively little direct involvement in developing nursing policy. The roundtable was held in order to explore issues further regarding the creation of a Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England, which was announced on 17 March by the Prime Minister.
