Month: November 2015

CQC opened a consultation on revisions to its Code of Practice on confidential personal information today. The first version of the Code was published in December 2010 and set out the principles by which CQC would interact with confidential personal information through the course of its daily duties. CQC are seeking opinions on its Code …

CQC consults on use of confidential information Read More »

Ofsted has recently launched its consultation on the new inspection framework for children’s homes.  The consultation proposes tougher measures and extends the evaluation criteria that inspectors will be looking at during inspections. As part of the changes Ofsted have proposed that ‘Good’ will be considered the minimum standard that children and young people should expect …

Ofsted consults on tougher standards for children’s homes Read More »

The cap on spending on Agency staff within the NHS comes into force today with the ambition of saving the NHS £1bn over the next three years. The cap is a limit on paying agency staff excessively over that which an equivalent permanent member of staff would be paid. There is a sliding scale on …

Cap on NHS spending on Agency staff Read More »

Monitor has released figures for NHS England’s spending over the first half of this year. The figures reveal that the NHS is running a deficit of £1.6bn which was ahead of forecasted spending by almost £400 million. The predictions for the deficit for the whole year now stand at £2.2bn. Some have suggested the main …

NHS overspending the biggest on record Read More »

A meeting will take place today between care home owners, councils and related charities to discuss how best to avoid the crisis that will be caused if many care home operators are forced out of the sector. A Local Government Association representative, Councillor Izzi Seccombe said of the crisis: – “There is already evidence that …

Councils and Care Home Owners to meet to discuss the way forward Read More »

In a time of ever-tightening budgets CQC’s spending on travel, food and accommodation has recently come under scrutiny. The CQC’s Hospital inspection team were given a budget of £1.1 million for the year to April 2015 but spent £4.4 million. The figures appear alarming at first but one should note that inspections of hospitals can …

CQC Inspectors blow their budget Read More »

According to research conducted by ResPublica in association with Four Seasons Health Care, HC-One and GMB by 2020/21 there will be a gap in funding of elderly residential care of £1 billion which is equivalent to the loss of 37,000 privately provided residential care beds. The anticipated shortfall in the number of care home beds …

Financial viability of residential care sector under increasing pressure Read More »

Acute trusts have reported 92% of trusts have failed to meet their own staffing levels in the day with 81% of trusts failing to meet their own staffing levels in the night. Set against the backdrop of the low availability of nurses and expensive agency nursing staff these figures paint a picture of hospitals in …

Nurse staffing levels fall short of hospital’s own targets Read More »

The final version of the new Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (“Regulations”), otherwise known as the Fundamental Standards, has been published this week. The Regulations are due to come into force for all providers on 1 April 2015.  The Regulations replace the 2010 regulations and introduce the new Fundamental Standards …

Final Regulated Activities Regulations published Read More »

NICE has today published guidance on providing effective care to older people with a number of long-term conditions. Issues can arise when caring for individuals with a variety of care needs and the overarching theme is one of more joined-up, person-centred care. The guidance directs health and social care practitioners to consider obtaining a risk …

New guidelines published on care provision for older people with long term conditions Read More »