The CQC have recruited nine national advisors to provide advice and leadership on how we inspect and regulate mental health and learning disability services across England. See full details...

People and their families who use a range of different health and social care services could in the future learn more about what the quality of care is like across a whole local area as part of a new pilot project. Our Quality of care in a place pilot will focus on Greater Manchester – including a more in-depth look at Salford and Tameside – and North Lincolnshire to test out how well coordinated health and care services are in local areas. Exploring care quality across local areas By using the results of our inspections, together with other intelligence from local and national organisations, the project will assess whether bringing together knowledge about the quality of care of a whole place can help to encourage providers of health and social care to make improvements locally, and tell people more about how well their local services work together. The pilot will also specifically look at the experiences of older people and people who need mental health care to see whether analysis of different population groups is helpful in building a picture of the system as a whole. We’re committed to looking at ways in which the regulation of health and social care can reflect greater integration of services. The findings of the Quality of care in a place pilot will feed into our strategy for the next five years, which we’re developing now. A clear and transparent picture Chief Inspector of General Practice and Integrated Care, Professor Steve Field, said: “One of the most important things we can do as a regulator is to be clear and transparent about the picture of health and social care. “We already know what an valuable source of information our published reports with ratings are for members of the public. Our new Quality of care in a place pilot is really about increasing that level of openness even further by building a picture of what the whole quality of care is like for people living in a particular area – including how well services are coordinated. “As well as identifying any issues that need to be tackled across different organisations and finding out more about health inequalities, we will also use the pilot to highlight examples of good practice that other areas can learn from. “I’m really pleased we are able to start testing out such an important piece of work that could also tell us more about what impact key issues such as quality of leadership and commissioning have on the quality of care across a local area.”...

The NHS is undertaking a range of initiatives that are introducing new ways of delivering care services to patients. It is becoming increasingly important for policy-makers and decision-makers to understand what works, why it works and what impact these changes are having on cost and patient outcomes. This guide outlines ten steps towards retrospective matching to evaluate new health and care services models. See the full report here (http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/publications/evaluation-complex-health-care-interventions-using-retrospective-matched-control-analysis?utm_source=The+King%27s+Fund+newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5937597_ICB+2015-08-12&dm_i=21A8,3J9H9,FNH0UY,COMZV,1)...

Omege Care for life are running free history workshops on the last Friday of each month (excluding December). Held at the Dudey Archives and Local History Service Castle Room, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ, the next meeting is on Friday 25th September between 1:30pm-3pm. Thw workshop includes gree access to ancestry.co.uk for Dudley library cardholders. Please book your place in advance by calling Omega on 0845 259 3163 (voicemail messages can be left out of office hours and someone will call back as soon as...

Creative Support are a high-quality provider of person-centered support services, for adults with a range of needs including, mental health, learning disabilities and dementia.   Creative Support will be celebrating 25 years of success and Older Persons’ Month on Saturday 26th September from 1pm – 4pm at The Royal British Legion Club in Kingswinford. There will be loads going on, including live music from Aquarius, arts and crafts activities delivered by volunteers from The Challenge, and more! Tickets are only £2 and include a buffet lunch! (Drinks can be purchased from the bar)   If you would like to have a stall, or for more information and to book your ticket, contact Aiesha on 07580 969 368 or email...