Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust is offering an opportunity for people who use or have an interest in their services, and family carers, to take part in some training in Newcastle over an 8 month period starting in August to become more involved and develop leadership skills.  For more details on the Service User & Carer Leadership Development course, please click here.

Northumberland now has new parking restrictions in force.  To make sure you’re up to date with any changes, please have a look at Northumberland County Council’s Car Parking enforcement brochure so you don’t get caught out!

NHS Informatics 2012: delivering a successful information revolution
19th September 2012, the Barbican, London

• The Department of Health has called for an ‘information revolution’ defined by transparency and accessibility – critical for quality improvements

• Data management is moving from being the domain of informatics individuals to involving all professionals working within the NHS

• Do you want to find out how informatics can put patients at the heart of the NHS?

• Are you interested in the direction the NHS Information Strategy is taking?

Register to attend NHS Informatics 2012

A free study day entitled ‘The Naked Truth of ME/CFS’ sponsored by the John Richardson Research Group is being held on May 19th in Washington.

For professionals and others working or interested in the field of ME/CFS:

Please see details of the day’s agenda here

with further details available here

The NABIF Spring Conference 2012 on ‘The Tapestry of Brain Injury’ is to
be held on the 16th May at the Centre for Life in Newcastle.

Please click here for the day’s programme details

Please click here for NABIF Conference 2012 stand booking FORM

The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment on the Judicial Review regarding Safe and Sustainable and the Royal Brompton Hospital on 19th April.  Three Court of Appeal judges have found the Safe and Sustainable process for the public consultation to be fair, lawful and proper and they have dismissed all of the unfounded allegations raised by the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Sir Roger Boyle, former national director for heart disease and stroke, said:

“I am very pleased that three Court of Appeal judges have found the Safe and Sustainable process for the public consultation to be fair, lawful and proper and that they have dismissed all of the unfounded allegations raised by the Royal Brompton Hospital. Today’s judgment is an important milestone for children with congenital heart disease as it brings improvements to their services a step closer.

“This is a landmark judgment for future NHS reconfigurations. The Court of Appeal has recognised that the process of public consultation – not costly litigation – is the most appropriate way for public bodies to express their views on proposed changes. The NHS must ensure that the clinical benefits for children and other patients come first – not the vested interests of individual hospitals.

“Now that the Safe and Sustainable consultation is no longer quashed, the Joint Committee is able to consider people’s consultation responses and the other evidence received. With an open mind the Joint Committee will give further consideration to options for change that include three surgical centres in London and to new proposals that have been submitted  during consultation. The decision making committee will carefully consider all the evidence and prepare to make a final decision at a meeting in public on 4 July 2012.”

Further response from Sir Neil McKay, Chair of the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, can be found at http://www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/news/view/95

March 27, 2012

The Health and Social Care Bill today gained Royal Assent to become the Health and Social Care Act (2012).

The core principles of the Act mean that doctors and nurses will be able to tailor services for their patients, more choice will be given to patients over how they are treated, and bureaucracy in the NHS will be reduced.

The Act will:

• Devolve power to front-line doctors and nurses: Health professionals will be free to design and tailor local health services for their patients;

• Drive up quality:  Patients will benefit from a renewed focus on improving quality and outcomes;

• Ensure a focus on integration: There will be strong duties on the health service to promote integration of services;

• Strengthen public health: Giving responsibility for local public health services to local authorities will ensure that they are able to pull together the work done by the NHS, social care, housing, environmental health, leisure and transport services;

• Give patients more information and choice: Patients will have greater information on how the NHS is performing and the range of providers they can choose for their healthcare. And they will have a stronger voice through Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch;

• Strengthen local democratic involvement: Power will shift from Whitehall to town hall – there will be at least one locally elected councillor and a representative of Healthwatch on every Health and Wellbeing Board, to influence and challenge commissioning decisions and promote integrated health and care;

• Reduce bureaucracy: Two layers of management – Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities – will be removed through the Act, saving £4.5 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament, with every penny being reinvested in patient care.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said:

“The Health and Social Care Act will deliver more power to clinicians, it will put patients at the heart of the NHS, and it will reduce the costs of bureaucracy.

“We now have an opportunity to secure clinical leadership to deliver improving quality and outcomes; better results for patients is our objective.”

Professor Steve Field, chair of the NHS Future Forum, said: “It was a tremendous privilege to be able to chair the Independent NHS Future Forum. All the comments and debate that we heard helped improve the Bill.

“Chairing the Future Forum gave me the rare opportunity to meet a huge variety of patients, the passionate health professionals and organisations that make the NHS what it is. What’s vital now is that the Government continues to work closely with them to put the freedoms the Bill offers into practice.”

Dr Nadim Fazlani, a GP and the leader of a Clinical Commissioning Group in Liverpool, said:

“The new structure of the NHS will give me and my colleagues much more freedom and control to design care around our patients. ‘No decision about me without me’ is a key concept – my colleagues and I will be working directly with patients, giving them a wider choice of where, when and how they receive their healthcare.”

The implementation of the Act will now enable clinical leaders, patients’ representatives and local government to all take new and leading roles in shaping more effective services.

Dear All,

Please see details below of a new and unique opportunity to advertise your services!!; I understand that advertising will be free for a trial period then at very reasonable rates after that – The site is not live as yet but we hope it will be fully active in the next month or so – Please make sure to follow the contact details below if you are interested and not respond to me……

DAWN Advice, a Northumberland-based social enterprise, is working with Northumberland Care Trust and Northumberland County Council to develop a Support Worker Register for the county.

The service, known as DAWN Assist: Enabling Independent Living, (www.dawnassist.org.uk) is an internet-based register of people seeking employment as support workers. It can be searched by people who require support, and will help them to identify suitable candidates.

Potential workers would register on the site by providing details of their skills and experience, along with when and where they are available to work. The person looking for support workers can then search the register and create a shortlist of those matching their requirements.

DAWN Assist also provides information and resources to assist employees with being self-employed in the care sector and to help employers ensure that they appoint and retain the best possible staff. The service works closely with the Self-Directed Support Team at Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

Users of the DAWN Assist service will be located across Northumberland and will be looking to purchase a number of ancillary services including training, payroll, transport and other related support services.

The unique mix of employers and users that will visit the DAWN Assist site means it will offer an ideal opportunity for potential advertisers to promote their products or services to a very specific target market.

If you are interested in advertising on the DAWN Assist site or have any other questions about the service, please contact Tony Errington on 01670 785511 or tony.errington@dawnadvice.org.uk

Northumberland Disability and Deaf Network (NDDN) Open Meeting is on Friday 30th March 2012 from 12.30pm – 2.30pm at Northumberland County Blind Association, Staithes Lane, Morpeth, NE61 1TD.  Click on the poster to find out more information.

There will be updates on the work of the Network, it’s future, and the Welfare Reform Bill

Lunch will be provided.  If you need transport, or have any other special requirements, please contact us.  If you would like to come along, please contact Carolyn Roberts on 01434 600599 or at carolynr@adapt-tynedale.org.uk

Momentum and The Stroke Association have recently been successful in securing funding from the National Lottery for a new service North of Tyne. The Changing Lives Service will provide support to people who have suffered brain injury or other neurological conditions, and aims to relieve pressure on statutory services and provide much needed resources. The team will support clients into existing groups or set up new groups where appropriate. These groups will be based around the interests of the clients, examples might include photography, singing, bowling, golf, walking (the list is endless!)

A unique staff model has been recruited to integrate various skills and consists of Community Integration Coordinators, an Assistant Psychologist and a Job Coach. The team is integrated within Momentum and work closely with a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and an Occupational Psychologist. The new service can offer community integration and prevocational support buts aims primarily to reduce isolation and increase confidence.

For further information please contact:

Community Integration Coordinators
Kelly Oliver Dougall, Koliverdougall@momentumskills.org
David Harvey, Dharvey@momentumskills.org
Sara Cronin, Scronin@momentumskills.org

Assistant Psychologist
Amy Ofield, Aofield@momentumskills.org

Job Coach
Joanne Chapman, Jchapman@momentumskills.org

Kelly Oliver Dougall – Community Integration Coordinator, Changing Lives North of Tyne Momentum North East Brain Injury Centre Floors 1 & 2 Forth Banks House Skinnerburn Road Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3RH T: 0191 2320234 F: 0191 2304307 koliverdougall@momentumskills.org