Tendering For Care

e-Health Insider reported that the Information Centre is working towards the creation of a new national information system for adult social care records.

Details were given of the opening session of a new Parliament for people with Learning Disabilities in Cambridgeshire

A new programme of grants to hospices was announced.

The Department of Health launched its "Dignity in Care" campaign with and invitation...

Care planning can be defined as a process which offers people active involvement in deciding, agreeing and owning how their diabetes will be managed. It aims to help people with diabetes achieve optimum health through a partnership approach with health professionals in order to learn about diabetes, manage it and related conditions better and to cope with it in their daily lives. Care planning is one of the key interventions required to achieve Standard 3 of the Diabetes National Service Framework: empowering people with diabetes.

This report, from the joint Department of Health and Diabetes UK Care Planning Working Group, contains guidance on the care planning process for diabetes services.

The Department of Health published Mental Health Policy Implementation Guidance - Community Development Workers for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities - final Handbook.

At several recent conferences it has been made clear that sustainability is the new key requirment for a successful business. This emerged loud and clear from the Environment Agency’s fourth national conference ‘Environmental Futures 06’ - sustainability is now the hottest ticket in town. It is now important to addressing sustainability in all aspects of business, including tendering. The recent of the National sustainability Action Plan is now moving this forward within the procurement process.

There appears to be a growing view, particu;arly amongst third sector organisations that they are failing to win contracts because they are being "undercut" by the large providers. In fact, over the coming months there are huge opportunities open to those smaller organisations who have a real understanding of how the tendering and procurement process works. The "old days" of receiving a telephone call from a commissioning officer offering a new contract are well and truly gone. A delegate at one of our recent Workshops said "at least I know that a contract which we wanted had been handed to someone else at a golf course". It is true that with understanding of what is needed also comes a considerable amount of work for staff and those involved in governance. However, there is a growing body of evidence which shows that the smaller organisations can and are succeeding.

CSCI published Performance Ratings for Adult Social Services in England. This is the complete document including the results of all social services.

The Department of Health published a leaflet describing approaches to self care for people with long term conditions. This includes a number fo case studies.