Health & Social Care

A paediatric epilepsy nurse reveals her worries about job cuts and the power of managers over clinicians.

Eleven NHS foundation trusts are in financial difficulty, and a further 13 are at risk of getting into difficulty, David Bennett, the chief executive of the NHS regulator Monitor, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday.

The Department of Health’s new information strategy sets out plans to standardise data collection in NHS bodies, and to share and use it more effectively. Colin Marrs examines a trailblazer for the open data agenda

CBI director-general John Cridland writes (CSW p4, 12 April 2012) that the government has made little progress with its public service reforms over the past nine months. Those working in health and education witnessing major changes being pushed through might beg to differ, as might the civil servants trying to make sense of proposals from ministers for the ‘right to challenge’, ‘right to provide’ and now the ‘right to choose’.

Civil servants in the Department of Health (DH) have raised concerns over its approach to policymaking, its risk-assessment skills and its effectiveness at consulting stakeholders, an exclusive opinion poll for CSW has found.

The legal clock is ticking for the government, as ministers must decide next week whether to release the NHS transition risk register or appeal again against the Information Tribunal’s decision that it should be published.

The last chair of the UK Statistics Authority was a fierce defender of the impartial and objective use of statistics. His replacement, Andrew Dilnot, tells Joshua Chambers how he intends to operate in this sensitive and important role.

A care manager says cuts can drive useful change – but uncertainty prevents it

The NHS could host commercial advertising on its website in the near future, a deputy director at the Department of Health said on Monday at a seminar held by CSW in conjunction with the Post Office.

Different targets and better joint working between health and social care agencies would improve the ambulance service, says this week’s Frontliner

After nearly 22 months, the Commons select committees’ first elected chairs have had plenty of time to size up their Whitehall counterparts. Joshua Chambers asked them how the departments they watch have been performing

Departmental select committee chairs have provided mixed reviews of the departments they scrutinise for a Civil Service World Special Report, which has found that 40 per cent of them are dissatisfied with departments’ responses to their reports.

The civil service has to develop specialist policymaking skills, says Lord Darzi – and that requires topical professional qualifications

A doctor says the NHS’s priorities are all wrong: pettifogging rules are rigorously enforced, but the Working Time Directive is pretty much ignored

Whitehall should better coordinate policy across health, social housing and social care services, while local commissioning bodies should integrate social care with healthcare commissioning, according to a report published today by the Commons health committee.

Frontline: Forensic medical examiner A doctor working with the police worries about the effect of outsourcing on the care of vulnerable people

The NHS reforms set out in the government’s Health and Social Care Bill are “disrupting and distracting” the effort to make £20bn of savings over the next four years, according to a critical report published yesterday by the Commons Health Committee.

After 15 years in the civil service – including a stint as the cabinet secretary’s communications chief – Siobhan Benita is making the leap into politics. Matt Ross meets the would-be London mayor as she kicks off her campaign.

In 2000, Tim Kelsey launched the private business Dr Foster to produce a league table on hospital performance. Now he’s been hired by the PM to push the transparency agenda throughout Whitehall. Matt Ross meets him.

Sian Jarvis has spent more than a decade overseeing communications for the Department of Health. She tells Joshua Chambers about public health policy – and communicating controversial reforms to the NHS.

This week’s interviewee says the coach of NHS reform is heading broadly in the right direction, but wishes the driver would take more care

The health select committee chair – and former health secretary – Stephen Dorrell has been instrumental in delaying the coalition’s NHS reforms. Speaking to Joshua Chambers, he sets out his own plans for healthcare.

An NHS worker wonders why her hospital has a complex IT system but also uses paper records