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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15 Jul 2009
Social enterprise in 2009
This briefing provides a background to social enterprise and an overview of the right to request policy.
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25 Jun 2009
The regulatory landscape in health and social care in England in 2009
This briefing sets out the range and scope of 'regulators' in the health and social care sector in England. Its aim is to outline who does what in regulating, inspecting, auditing and contributing to setting standards in health and social care in the new regulatory landscape.
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11 May 2009
NHS expenditure on external consultants
In the budget for 2009, it was announced that the Department of Health will be contributing £2.3 billion in additional savings to the overall reduction in Government expenditure and borrowing. Health Secretary at the time, Alan Johnson, said:"Better quality, safe health care goes hand in hand with better value for money" and NHS Chief Executive David Nicholls has written to the NHS stating that "the value-for-money challenge will be met through delivering on our quality agenda, not instead of it." However, several reports are already suggesting that there will inevitably be cuts in frontline services, training budgets, and investment in new facilities. The RCN is constantly alerted to the impact of external financial factors on patient care in the NHS. In order to better understand how the NHS was using its resources in these uncertain economic times, the RCN wrote to over 550 NHS organisations across the UK under the Freedom of Information Act and asked for a breakdown of their expenditure on external consultants.
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8 May 2009
The assistant practitioner role
This document considers some of the key policy issues regarding the emergence of the role of the assistant practitioner in health care. They are: the remit and purpose of the role; reasons for the introduction of this role; the role in the wider health care workforce context including workforce numbers, nursing workload and the deployment of registered nurses. The nursing profession must hold a robust debate on all the above because the assistant practitioner role must be linked to a vision for both the future configuration of the nursing workforce, and the future function and contribution of nursing to health care within that.
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16 Apr 2009
A short guide to World Class Commissioning
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1 Apr 2009
Looking back to look forward
This briefing provides a rapid review of the lessons from published reports on health and social care system regulation. The aim is to summarise the key lessons, particularly relevant as a new integrated regulator begins its work on 1 April 2009, replacing the previous commissions. It also sets out what the RCN view is on system regulation, and what the RCN wishes to see as key priorities for the coming years. The RCN recognises that 2009-10 is a year of unprecedented change, but from 2010-11 onwards believes that there is a real opportunity to learn from the change experience to improve health and social care for the benefit of patients, carers, staff and the public at large.
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16 Jan 2009
Assisted suicide
The purpose of this briefing is to provide members with a background to key issues relating to assisted suicide, so as to inform member responses to 天美传媒 consultation (which ran from 16 February until May 22 2009). It details the current legal and parliamentary positions with respect to assisted suicide, which vary between the four UK countries, and also lists current arguments both for and against assisted suicide and potential issues relating to nursing practice.
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15 Jan 2009
Intergrated care pilots
The Government regards integration as one remedy for the fragmentation of services, which has been identified as a barrier to providing more effective and personalised care. The purpose of the above briefing is to outline how the Government is taking forward its integrated care agenda through the development of a number of integrated care pilots and to obtain feedback from members on the development of these pilots.
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23 Dec 2008
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England
In April 2009 a new regulator of health and social care began work in England. This briefing provides details on the context for the new Care Quality Commission (CQC), its functions, aims and key staff and ongoing work by the RCN to shape and influence the approach taken by the CQC.
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4 Nov 2008
Draft guidance on NHS patients who wish to pay for additional private care
The purpose of this briefing is to provide a short introduction to the 'draft guidance on NHS patients who wish to pay for additional private care' that was issued on 4 November and was then the subject of a further consultation. This draft guidance constitutes part of the Government's response to the review and the consultation on this closed on 27 January 2009.
