Social enterprises are at the heart of the coalition government’s Big Society agenda. Introduced by the previous Labour government, social enterprise organisations are seen to be more innovative and responsive than traditional NHS and other public service organisations. The Social Enterprise Pathfinder Programme was introduced in 2006 by the Labour …
This report, from the University of Bristol, discusses the evidence to support Self-Referral to Physiotherapy, a policy first introduced by the previous Labour government in its White Paper, ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’. Self-referral aimed to enable patients to refer themselves directly to a physiotherapist without having to see …
The New Types of Worker Programme (NToW) was piloted under the previous Labour government. The initiative was part of a government agenda to further integrate health and social care services, by developing a workforce that had transferrable skills to work in both areas. The Department of Health funded a pilot …
Information Prescriptions were launched under the previous Labour government as a way to give patients or service users better information about their condition, treatment options and support networks. They aimed to give more support to people with long term needs, to tackle inequalities, improve access to services, provide choice and …
Individual Budgets (IBs) aimed to give social care users more choice and control over their own support arrangements, by giving them cash payments to spend so they can tailor their care to their personal needs and not just to what is offered. Individual Budgets were piloted by the previous Labour …
The previous Labour government developed the Care Closer to Home initiative in response to a need to move health and social care out of institutions such as hospital, and into community settings. The programme aimed to reduce demand on acute hospital services, whilst also improving patient choice and convenience. It …
The ‘Making the Most of Evaluation’ research group: Salisbury C, Stewart K, Purdy S, Thorp H, Cameron A, Lart R, Peckham S, Calnan M. The NHS White Paper ‘Our health, our care, our say’ (2006) described a new strategic direction for health and social care in the community.1 The …
Last month Haringey Council decided to withdraw funding to its lunch club centres for its elderly. Much concern was expressed and its scrutiny committee was called to take another look. Despite a near unanimous decision of this committee to instruct the Council to reconsider, Haringey Council remained resolute and from …
Payment by Results (PbR) emerged in the NHS in 2003 with a simple objective: establish a tariff based hospital payment system that provides care providers with an incentive for improved performance. 1 The same premise underpins Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). 2 SIBs emerged in 2010 and have since been lauded …
Following its inclusion in the Conservative party manifesto for the last general election 1 and a commitment in the subsequent coalition government agreement 2, in July 2010 the health white paper announced the establishment of a Cancer Drug Fund designed to improve access to drugs not yet approved for use …