National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care

This Framework (reviewed) is intended to provide guidance for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) when assessing the needs of children and young people whose complex needs cannot be met by universal or specialist health services. CCGs have a legal responsibility for securing to a reasonable extent the health care which an individual needs, and this guidance is about the process which should be followed for the equitable discharge of that responsibility for children and young people with complex needs. This revision takes account of the new structures of NHS commissioning created by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the new integrated approach to the commissioning of services for children and young people with special educational need or disability (SEND) which the Children and Families Act 2014 introduced. In particular, where a child or young person has a SEND, which will often be the case, then CCGs and local authorities ...

Multi-country purchasing study

The international research consortium RESYST (Resilient & responsive Health Systems) has examined healthcare purchasing functions in some low and middle-income countries to identify factors that influence the ability of healthcare purchasers and other key actors to take strategic actions. The countries included in the study are: Kenya, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand and Vietnam.

From a universal health coverage perspective, this research project focus on purchasing of services from healthcare providers. This core function of healthcare financing must be designed and undertaken strategically to promote quality, efficiency, equity and responsiveness in health service provision and, in doing so, purchasing facilitate progress towards universal health coverage.

The research examined the relationships between purchasers and other groups of actors involved in purchasing mechanisms, including the government, healthcare providers and citizens, so as to understand the various components of strategic purchasing and the organizational environment within which it operates.

The study makes some ...

Launch of online training in person-centred care

A free online training course in person-centred care in English is now being launched. The purpose is to give health care sector staff tools to help themselves to start working in a person-centred way.

Globally there is a strong trend towards more person-centred care, involving a partnership between the patient, the patient’s family and the care professionals. Person-centred care means listening to the patient’s own narrative and using it alongside other examinations and tests as the basis for a health plan.

Irma Lindström Kjellberg, Senior Adviser at the University of Gothenburg Centre för Person-Centred Care, GPCC in Sweden, who has created the course, says: “This is about the patient’s role as a partner, how staff and patients make agreements, and how to document them in a health plan”