On Monday 12 June 2023, in response to the death of head teacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life following an Ofsted inspection, the education regulator has announced a number of reforms to its current inspection system. Schools which are given an Ofsted rating of inadequate will be re-inspected sooner to give them a …
The Health and Care Professions Council (“HCPC”) has announced that it will be offering new support to registrants who are going through the Fitness to Practise (“FTP”) process. As readers will be aware, the HCPC is the independent regulator of health and care professionals in the UK and regulates over 280,000 professionals across 15 separate …
On 11 May 2023 NHS England announced that it has failed to meet key targets to tackle the backlogs in cancer care and routine treatment. The number of people waiting more than 18 months for treatment has fallen by over 90%, but there are still a record 7.3 million people on an NHS hospital waiting …
NHS misses targets in England to tackle care backlogs Read More »
More people will be able to access health services without needing to see a General Practitioner (“GP”) under a new proposed plan (“The Access Recovery Plan”) launched by Department of Health Social Care (“DHSC”) officials in England on 9 May 2023. The Access Recovery Plan proposes that patients now use high street pharmacies for common …
Government plan set to refer more patients to pharmacies Read More »
On 11 April 2023, junior doctors in the UK started a four-day walkout, which is anticipated to be the most disruptive in NHS history. As a result of this four-day walkout up to 250,000 appointments and operations could be cancelled. The British Medical Association (“BMA”) is asking for a 35% pay rise for junior doctors. …
On 5 April 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care (“DHSC”) announced a further delay to the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards (“LPS”). The LPS were first introduced under the proposed amendments under Schedule 1 to the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 (“MC(A)A 2019”). The MC(A)A 2019 was due to amend the Mental …
Further update in relation to the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards Read More »
The implementation of updated General Medical Council (“GMC”) guidance, inclusive of an online ‘declaration tool’ for final year medical students applying to provisionally join the medical register has led to a reduction in the number of low-level fitness to practise declarations requiring no further action by the regulator. This is in accordance with new data …
GMC changes cause a drop in medical student fitness to practise declarations Read More »
On 4 April 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care (“DHSC”) announced that funding promised to develop the social care workforce in England has been halved from £500 million to just £250 million. Previously, in December 2021 the DHSC published a white paper on adult social care reform. DHSC ministers pledged to invest at …
Social care workforce funding halved for England Read More »
On 29 March 2023 an independent review into CQC’s handling and response to the dismissal of Mr Shyam Kumar was published. The review established major failings by the Care Quality Commission (“CQC”) who are responsible for regulating England’s health and social care sector. What happened? The independent review was ordered after an employment tribunal on …
CQC criticised in an independent review over whistle-blower response Read More »
The Institute for Policy Research (“IPR”) recently published a report focusing on NHS workforce retention called ‘Should I stay or should I go? NHS staff retention in the post Covid-19 world’ (“The IPR Report”). The IPR Report highlights the extent of the NHS staffing crisis. It analysed responses from NHS staff between December 2020 to …
How the NHS Staffing Crisis Could Affect Your Practice’s CQC Rating Read More »
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