‘Why do you care about student mental health though, aren’t you just in it for the money?’ I’ve heard many variations on this question over the last year, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It reflects the surprise that many people feel when they hear that I, and others like me in the private student accommodation sector, dedicate significant time and resource to student mental health and wellbeing.

Being invited to talk at the Quality Improvement in Healthcare conference is a real honour and privilege. I am looking forward to attending the event, and listening to the excellent speakers from the field of Quality Improvement, as well as networking with delegates. Whilst it is an honour to be speaking at such an event, it also provides me an opportunity to learn from others and reflect on my own improvement journey.

As a researcher specialising in self-harm, a common question I get is whether talking about self-harm encourages people to do it, or put more simply, “is talking about self-harm dangerous?” And the answer I give is an emphatic “no!”

Contrary to this widely held misconception, talking carefully and knowledgably about self-harm can not only help to dispel the misunderstandings around these behaviours, but may encourage people who self-harm to share their concerns, feel supported, and even to make the first steps towards seeking help.

Hello, my name is David McNally. I’m Head of Experience of Care with NHS England. Our Team’s role is to support the NHS to improve people’s experience of care and we believe that should be done as an integral part of any quality improvement or clinical transformation work and should be undertaken through coproduction with patients, users, carers and staff. 

In the course of our work we engage with a lot of NHS provider Trusts and what follows amalgamates some of the things we hear and highlights some of Trust’s common challenges. Does this sound familiar? Do get in touch if you’d like to share your experience davidmcnally@nhs.net

An imaginary conversation that could have taken place on a visit to an NHS Trust near you

In December 2017 I began my Clinical Fellowship, with a focus on evidencing the “state of the nation” of leadership for the allied health professions (AHPs), and its relationship to quality and productivity.  Colleagues at Kingston University Enterprise Limited undertook a fabulous evaluation¹ to provide the answers.

We found that AHP leadership was hugely variable and highly complex – 41 different job titles from 43 job descriptions for the “go-to” AHP lead! Little wonder that it was confusing, that AHP leaders were difficult to find and often missing at the decision-making table.

So what?  We found that AHPs in trusts investing in senior leadership were more engaged with improvement work and sharing AHP innovations that impact positively on the quality of patient care.   

‘Why do you care about student mental health though, aren’t you just in it for the money?’

I’ve heard many variations on this question over the last year, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It reflects the surprise that many people feel when they hear that I, and others like me in the private student accommodation sector, dedicate significant time and resource to student mental health and well-being.

Poor mental health and distress is much more likely to manifest itself in the home of the student than on campus. Whether it’s homesickness, a panic attack, or a more life-threatening problem such as an eating disorder, it will often be our teams that spot it first.

Former UK Health Minster, Dan Poulter, recently shocked the nation with evidence to suggest that the NHS is being “ripped off” by two billion pounds per year.

In a column in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “In short, our hospitals are getting ripped off left, right and centre. And with £18 in every £100 you pay in tax being spent on the NHS, that means you’re getting ripped off.”

Buying more diligently and implementing cost-saving practices is a must if our NHS is to survive a time of great uncertainty. With this in mind, the NHS also has approximately 1.5 million employees that need to be informed and inspired ready to implement the next innovations that will change NHS procurement forever. Read more…..

Peter Smith is the expert in procurement who will be chairing our NHS Procurement conference in December. The objective of this conference is to help solidify NHS procurement processes, understand the Future Operating Model (FOM), harness NHS buying power more effectively and create savings for our health service.

Ahead of our conference, he has put together this handy guide as to what makes a presentation to a procurement audience valuable, insightful and, above all, useful.

You can find his full list of presentation “Dos and Don’ts” below!

Read more…..

“I’m looking forward to the forthcoming Health and Wellbeing conference, hosted in Salford University on the 4^th December! There are some excellent, experienced speakers, with a wealth of knowledge on workplace health.

It’s an exciting time to be working in the field- as I enter my 31^st year in occupational health I am struck by the fact that we do seem to have more awareness and impetus behind the work and health agenda than at any other time in my career. Dame Gina Radford – the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England and DWP’s Chief Medical Officer articulated this by saying ““we have an unprecedented opportunity and the pace of change and willingness to make change is like nothing I have experienced before” and it is good to see the multiple programmes that the “Improving Lives” Command paper strategy has generated taking shape. As Chair of the Council for Work and Health, I see our multidisciplinary membership actively contributing and supporting the work. Read more…..

“I can’t recall a time when there has been as much focus on “procurement” as right now, be it the introduction of the Future Operating Model re-shaping NHS Supply Chain, the performance reporting and benchmarking regime under NHS Improvement’s Model Hospital, to the drive for STP wide service consolidation.  In this context where does “procurement” at a local level fit, what is the role of procurement at a Trust/STP level?

To answer this question, we first need to understand the full scope of the procurement function.  It’s not simply about negotiating lower prices.  That in many ways is the easy part.  It’s also about contract management, building partnerships with industry, and crucially managing the supply chain.  The scale/ complexity/ operational dependency of a Trust supply chain is arguably procurement’s greatest secret and greatest opportunity.  In other sectors the supply chain function is recognised as fundamental to the operational performance of the organisation, the dependencies in a Trust are no different and arguably given the performance weakness of the inbound supply chain, more critical. It is worth noting that the typical performance level of both pharma and clinical supplies wholesalers is less than 90% so 1 in 10 of items Trusts order do not arrive first time. Read more…..