New institute to help narrow the health gap

A new University College London (UCL) institute that aims to reduce health inequalities through action on social determinants has been launched.

The UCL Institute of Health Equity, which will be led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, will receive £1m funding from the Department of Health over the next three years to take forward action that will reduce health inequalities in England.

Accelerated learning sets for health and wellbeing boards

A programme of accelerated learning sets has launched to help emerging health and wellbeing boards to work together on the biggest challenges that face them on their way to statutory running from April 2013.

Publication of 2010-11 reference costs

These reference costs give the most detailed picture available about how nearly 400 NHS organisations spent £53bn delivering healthcare to patients in 2010-11.

Reference costs are the unit costs to the NHS of providing healthcare to NHS patients.

Public health human resources concordat

The public health HR concordat provides the principles and standards for managing the HR processes to support the transfer of PCT public health commissioning activity to local authorities. It sets out the obligations of the NHS and local government employers and trade unions in managing the change.

Report reveals significant challenges for mental health tariff

A new report commissioned by the NHS Confederation's mental health network shows that, despite enthusiasm for the policy, the first tariff in mental health faces significant challenges.

The report is based on interviews with over 100 people working on the mental health tariff across the NHS for mental health trusts, commissioners, the independent sector and local authorities.

Getting personal? Making personal budgets work for people with dementia

This report found that more than three quarters of people with dementia who receive social care support at home are not using direct payments or other personal budgets. It calls for the personal budget system to be adapted to meet the specific needs of people with dementia.

Help test the new Commissioning Zone

NHS Networks is overhauling the Commissioning Zone, the web portal for commissioners, and has exciting changes planned, but real users are needed to help with the testing. If you are a GP or involved in a clinical commissioning group or a PCT commissioner, we would like to invite you to a hands on testing session in central London on Tuesday 6 December.

The session will last for about an hour and will involve showing the current and new Commissioning Zone websites to you and asking you to work through a number of scenarios. It doesn't matter whether or not you are a user of the existing Commissioning Zone.

We are able to pay locum fees and travel expenses for the meeting.

Please contact andre.tomlin@minervation.com if you would like to take part.

If you can't make this session but would still like to help, we'd still like to hear from you.

Commissioning Excellence - November edition

The latest edition of PCC's bulletin for commissioners calls for more co-operation between the NHS and the pharma industry and looks at how facilitated meetings can smooth the development path for CCGs. It also covers new discussion forums for pathfinders and a case study on better diabetes care in Bexley.

Integrated services for people with long term conditions

Case management is a well established way of integrating services around the complex needs of people with long term conditions. It is a targeted, community based approach that identifies individuals at high risk of hospital admission, assesses their needs, produces a personal care plan, and ensures coordination of that plan. However, evidence to date suggests that case management is not always implemented in a cost effective way or to the benefit of patients and carers.

This report from the Kings Fund examines how this strategy can improve delivery of integrated care for people with long term conditions.

Choosing a predictive risk model: a guide for commissioners in England

Predictive risk models are an important part of the strategy for managing patients with chronic illness. They are used to identify patients most at risk of future unplanned hospital admissions, and who may benefit from preventive measures. This guide is intended to help commissioners with selecting predictive risk modelling tools from an open market.

AQP - An introduction

PCC has published a briefing for anyone new to the Any Qualified Provider procurement model.

New medical revalidation briefing available

NHS Employers has published a new briefing. Medical Revalidation: What Employers Need to Know and Do provides a timeline of activity so far, a checklist of actions that organisations need to carry out if they are to be ready for the introduction of revalidation and a list of the key milestones ahead.

Quality and Outcomes Framework exception reporting 2010/11

Exception reporting rates show the percentage of patients who are not included when determining Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) achievement. The overall effective exception rate across all clinical domain indicators for England was 5.4 per cent, though there is variation between indicators. The latest statistics are available from the NHS Information Centre.

Typos in the 12/13 QOF QP A&E guidance

Typos have been discovered in the quality and productivity accident and emergency indicators guidance, published by NHS Employers. They were the point allocations in the summary table on page one, missing text for indicator wording under QP13 on page three and a few typos in the detailed guidance sections for QP12 and QP13. The errors have been corrected in the guidance and the updated version is now available.

In addition, the point allocations for the QP A&E indicators and the wording of Smoking6 were incorrect in the Summary of QOF Changes. Both of these errors have been corrected and an updated version is now available.

Prescribing and dispensing information systems

The Business Services Authority is undertaking a project to modernise the prescribing and dispensing information systems provided by NHS Prescription Services which will be completed by 2013/14.

See the PCC website for full details of events.