Health & Social Care

They do things differently in Totnes, and they have a Member of Parliament who does it her way too. Jess Bowie travels to Devon to spend the day with Sarah Wollaston, the Tory MP and select committee chair who has no fear of speaking the truth to power. 

How will public sector cuts in the 2015 Spending Round impact on the UK health sector?

Kate Gross, No. 10 private secretary to two prime ministers, was driven by a desire to make people’s lives better, writes Oliver Robbins

Top Treasury official calls for closer working between Whitehall and local government

The Department of Health’s director general for social care, local government and care partnerships tells Winnie Agbonlahor about a career spent working across boundaries

Twenty-one percent of doctors who die while undergoing “fitness to practise” investigations have taken their own lives, a report has revealed

Time to stop the blame game and find solutions to clinical failure in the NHS, says PASC

A recent CSW round table examined the potential of Big Data to improve outcomes and cut costs in our healthcare system. Colin Marrs reports. Photos by Paul Heartfield

Government and police officials must ensure all civil servants and police officers are aware of female genital mutilation (FGM) and how to tackle it, said parliamentary under secretary of state for communities and local government Stephen Williams (pictured), last week.

“I blew the whistle on the CQC’s failings”

The women leading the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman are calling for their organisations to be merged and strengthened, making life easier for service users. Winnie Agbonlahor meets them

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) (pictured) has won the British Quality Foundation’s 2014 Lean Six Sigma Award for its project on improving the processes for dealing with long-term sick leave amongst ONS field staff. 

NHS chief executive Simon Stevens has made ambitious promises to the Health Select Committee. 

Dame Fiona Caldicott has been appointed as the first national data guardian for health and social care, secretary of state for health Jeremy Hunt will announce today.

The Department of Health (DH) and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) did not adequately prepare for the delivery of the Better Care Fund, said the National Audit Office’s (NAO) Planning for Better Care Fund report published today. 

Diabetes is a deadly disease and it is spreading fast. Christel Schaldemose explains why the EU must act now.

Andrew Lansley’s health reforms, designed to put doctors in the driving seat, have been widely panned – and he’s subsequently been sacked. But what do local GPs think? CSW finds out

Public officials should be free to try new approaches without fear of being “hauled in front of ministers, the Public Accounts Committee or being investigated by the National Audit Office”, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says in a report published today.

Call for power to classify protected characteristics to be devolved to Scotland

Almost two thirds (65%) of civil servants have suffered from ill health as a result of stress at work, one fifth (19%) of which have taken more than 40 days off within a 12 month period as a result of stress-related ill health, new surveys from the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union reveal. 

The Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decision to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) for disabled people was challenged by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 22 October. 

European health commissioner Tonio Borg has called for policymakers and stakeholders to pursue an "integrated approach to tackling obesity" that cuts "across all EU policies".

A survey of health professionals reveals negativity about NHS reforms across the board. Samera Owusu Tutu reports