RCN briefings
Policy briefings, parliamentary briefings and consultation responses on the issues that matter to nursing staff
The RCN works with government, think tanks and other stakeholders to ensure the voice of nursing is heard. You can get involved in policy development by taking part in surveys, workshops, seminars and briefings.
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8 Aug 2012
Our NHS care objectives
The Department of Health published a draft mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board on 4 July 2012. The mandate is the mechanism that the Secretary of State for Health will use to set out what the NHS Commissioning Board has to deliver. The consultation on the draft mandate runs until 26 September.
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31 Jul 2012
Social care reform
The long awaited care and support white paper and an accompanying draft bill and progress report on funding reform were published on 11 July 2012. Much of the content of the white paper and bill were derived from the Government鈥檚 consultation on social care reform that the RCN responded to in December last year. The draft bill covers changes to legislation that would be required to implement the Government鈥檚 vision for reform, as outlined in the white paper, and the Government has asked for views and comments about the bill. The funding progress report follows the Government鈥檚 consideration of the Dilnot Commission鈥檚 recommendations on social care funding, published last year. This briefing examines the detail of the white paper, draft bill and funding progress report and reflects on the positives and negatives in relation to the RCN鈥檚 positions and how changes will impact on service users and patients, their families and carers, and care and support staff.
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26 Jul 2012
NHS failure regime
This briefing provides an overview of the current and future approaches to an NHS failure regime.
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26 Jul 2012
Clinical Commissioning Groups: An overview of the authorisation process
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 includes radical reform of the way that health care is commissioned in England. This RCN factual briefing is intended as a user-friendly summary of the authorisation process for CCGs, focusing in particular on the nursing role in the new commissioning landscape.
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25 Jul 2012
New monitor in England
This briefing note sets out how the role of Monitor is changing under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Although much is still unknown about how Monitor will implement the changes set out in law, this briefing provides an overview of what we know and raises some issues for nurses.
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24 Jul 2012
Personal health records and information management
This briefing summarises the RCN vision for personal health information management, how ICT can support this vision and what needs to be done to overcome barriers to achieve the changes required. It is intended to inform all aspects of records development, record standards development and nursing educational programmes.
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9 Jul 2012
RCN factsheet on nurse prescribing in the UK
Updated December 2014. Over the years, the RCN鈥檚 Policy and International Department has received a lot of interest from national nurses鈥� associations to find out more about nurse prescribing in the UK and the evidence to support it. This fact sheet discusses statistics, education, training and regulation, and evidence of improvements in access, patient safety and patient-centred care that continue to strengthen the foundations underpinning the success of this practice.
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6 Jun 2012
The community nursing workforce in England
In the last decade parallel goals for financial efficiency in the NHS and for care pathways which deliver the best outcomes for patients have aligned to ensure a consistent policy objective to move care out of acute (hospital) settings and into people's homes and communities.
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6 Jun 2012
Quality Innovation Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) in England
Quality Innovation Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) in England is a national programme to deliver quality, innovation, productivity and prevention in the NHS. This briefing provides details on the programme and asks for more transparency so that the public, patients and staff can know what QIPP means for them, and to reassure them that it is not just focusing on short terms cuts but will deliver against all four of the areas covered in the QIPP title.
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22 Mar 2012
Mandatory nurse staffing levels
The attached briefing produced by the RCN Policy and International Department sets out the case for moving to a system of mandated staffing levels. The RCN believes that the development of safe mandatory nurse to patient ratios is crucial to the future of the NHS, and that improved patient outcomes will not be delivered without them.
