07/05/2025
Bevan Brittan provides high quality, comprehensive advice to the NHS, independent healthcare sector and local authorities. This update contains brief details of recent Government publications, legislation, cases and other developments relevant to those involved in health and social care work, both in the NHS, independent sector and local authorities which have been published in the last month.
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Bevan Brittan Free Training Events
There is no charge for any of the events listed below
Webinars
These are internal hour long lunch time training sessions. You can sign up to watch the training sessions remotely via our webinar facility. Please contact Claire Bentley.
In discussion: The future of anonymity of professionals in health and social care cases post the Supreme Court’s decision in Abbasi and Haastrup | Friday 9 May 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
Medico-legal issues from a micro-biology perspective | Tuesday 20 May 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
Medication and Mental Capacity | Wednesday 4 June 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
Please note that registration for each webinar will close one hour before the webinar starts, so please do ensure you have booked your place in advance to guarantee attendance.
Acute and emergency care
Publications and Guidance
Realising the three shifts: preventing more people from reaching crisis point will be one measure of success. A small but significant part of the population are attending A&E frequently. In 2021, the British Red Cross (BRC) published Nowhere else to turn. This report showed that while less than 1% of the English population attend A&E frequently, they account for 16% of all A&E attendances, 29% of all ambulance journeys, and 26% of all hospital admissions.
News
CEO tells staff ‘silence is complicity’ after record sexual misconduct reports.
How we can help
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around acute and emergency issues please contact Claire Bentley.
Children and young people
Publications/Guidance
Why language matters: why professionals need to talk about child sexual abuse. NSPCC Learning has published a Why language matters blog exploring how professionals can struggle with understanding, talking about and responding to child sexual abuse. The blog is in response to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s National review into child sexual abuse in the family environment. The blog discusses why it can be difficult for children to share their concerns and how professionals can approach conversations about concerns of child sexual abuse with children and with other professionals.
Communicating with children : a guide for those working with children who have or may have been sexually abused. The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA Centre) has updated its guidance on communicating with children who have or may have been sexually abused. The guide has been designed to help professionals to listen, understand and provide support to children and young people when there are concerns about sexual abuse.
Ten actions the government can take to improve children’s health. Children in the UK experience some of the worst health outcomes in Europe. Jessica Holden, Policy Adviser at The King's Fund, considers the steps the government should take to address this.
Housing and safeguarding children. NSPCC Learning has published a Learning from case reviews briefing on housing. It summarises the key issues and learning for improved practice for housing services and providers from a sample of case reviews published between 2020 and 2023. The briefing highlights that housing professionals need to: understand their responsibility to recognise and respond to safeguarding and child protection concerns, even if the accommodation itself poses no issues; work effectively with other agencies and actively share their knowledge about families; and consider the needs of the whole family and the role of the local area in meeting those needs.
Child sexual abuse. The Home Office has published a progress update on the Government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse in the UK. In a speech made by Jess Phillips, the Safeguarding Minister, the Government has also outlined steps being taken to act on the recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). In addition to measures already announced by the Government, plans include: the creation of a new Child Protection Authority for England; a joint thematic review of child abuse in family settings; and the development of specialist child sexual abuse and exploitation training for social workers and other key members of the children’s services workforce.
What you need to know about child sexual abuse. The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse has published a new resource outlining key research and statistics about child sexual abuse, including what we can all do in response. This resource is for anyone who works with children in any capacity or has wider safeguarding responsibilities including local councillors and council officers.
Child sexual abuse and exploitation. Childlight has published a new report in its Searchlight series examining child sexual exploitation and abuse. The report looks at eight Childlight studies, exploring three key areas: profitability and who benefits from child sexual exploitation and abuse; hidden at-risk populations; and accountability, including an analysis of legal challenges in tackling AI-generated child sexual abuse material across the UK. Findings highlight the links between child sexual exploitation and organised crime groups, but also how mainstream technology providers can benefit, with advertising revenue increasing when platforms attract high volumes of traffic, including traffic generated by online child sexual abuse and exploitation. The report calls for global leaders to come together to provide a comprehensive public health response to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Piloting Devolved Decision Making for Child Victims of Modern Slavery. The Home Office is seeking to award grant funding to local authorities within England, Scotland and Wales with responsibility for children’s social care and in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health or Health and Social Care Trusts who hold responsibility for children’s social care. This funding is available to empower those responsible for children’s social care to make decisions about whether children are victims of modern slavery in conjunction with local safeguarding partners. The grant funding will be awarded to a maximum of 10 pilot sites. Deadline: 5pm Wednesday 14th May. More information and apply here.
Domestic abuse. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales has published a new report investigating children’s experiences of domestic abuse and highlighting the financial pressure facing specialist services. The report includes a survey of 266 domestic abuse services providing support to children, along with 168 statutory agencies responsible for commissioning domestic abuse services. Key findings include: 27% of services had to turn children away due to capacity and funding shortages; and 45% of children had to wait over a month to access a service. The report sets out the impact of living with domestic abuse on children, such as mental and physical health issues, and makes calls for: children’s voices to be centred; stronger cross-departmental working and strategic leadership; and holistic funding.
News
Children’s Commissioners unite to call for equal protection for children from assault in UK. Every child in the United Kingdom must have the same protection from assault as adults, four Children’s Commissioners have united to say in a joint statement. The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, and her colleagues in Scotland, Nicola Killean, Wales, Rocio Cifuentes and Northern Ireland, Chris Quinn, have come together to intervene as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill returns to Parliament in Westminster
Tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation: update. Minister Phillips delivered a speech on the government's plan to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The House of Lords held a debate 'Tackling Child Sexual Abuse' on Tuesday 22 April. The Hansard record is here and the debate can be viewed here.
Bevan Brittan Updates
Child Sexual Exploitation – A changing picture for Public Bodies Deborah Jeremiah and Nicky Williams
Inequalities for children in poor housing - Neil Brand and Julia Jones
How we can help
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around children please contact Deborah Jeremiah.
Clinical Risk / Patient Safety
Publications/Guidance
The impact of staff fatigue on patient safety. This report finds that staff fatigue contributes directly and indirectly to patient harm but is not routinely considered in patient safety event reporting or learning reviews. The report shares safety recommendations and learning for health care organisations to increase their understanding of staff fatigue.
Workforce and patient safety: primary and community care co-ordination for people with long-term conditions. This report finds that a lack of co-ordination of care for people with long-term health conditions is taking a toll on patients and carers, resulting in burnout, distress and harm. The report provides examples of effective care co-ordination programmes that attempt to address challenges at a local level.
Maternity (and Perinatal) Incentive Scheme Year 7 launch. On 26 February 2025, NHS Resolution sent all trusts a letter giving an overview of the revised Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS) guidance for year 7. Full guidance for year 7 of the MIS was published on 2 April 2025.
Publication of new EN case stories. NHS Resolution have published Early Notification (EN) case stories, which include a collaborative work with Ambulance Services, highlight key learning points and considerations to help support learning from harm identified through claims.
Workforce and patient safety: primary and community care co-ordination for people with long-term conditions. This report finds that a lack of co-ordination of care for people with long-term health conditions is taking a toll on patients and carers, leading to burnout, distress and harm. It also outlines the impact of being unable to navigate the health and care system. A focus of the investigation was on the role of the ‘care co-ordinator’ – someone who is able to connect patients/carers with the right care and support.
Charging for NHS care: guidance for obstetricians in England. Maternity Action and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have published a clinician’s guide on NHS charging for obstetricians who treat women who may be chargeable for their maternity care under the NHS (Overseas Visitors Charging) Regulations 2015. It sets out the charging rules in relation to maternity care, the charging exemptions, and how clinicians can best work with Overseas Visitor Teams within NHS trusts in England. It also suggests ways that clinicians can better advocate for women who may be charged but are also destitute or have experienced domestic abuse, female genital mutilation (FGM), or sexual violence during pregnancy.
Nursing associates in maternity settings: position statement. Nursing associates are members of the nursing team in England who help bridge the gap between health and care assistants and registered nurses. This position statement outlines challenges to deploying nursing associates in maternity settings, including issues with profession-specific education and training, delegation of tasks, accountability, and scope of practice. It concludes that it does not support nursing associates working in maternity services. The Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives have also published separate statements in support of this position.
Responding to challenge. Commissioned by the Care Quality Commission, a Patient Experience Library (PEL) report looks at how to identify red flags and harmful patterns of organisational and professional behaviour in healthcare. The PEL analysed warning signals from avoidable harm inquiries in health and social care and found harmful patterns in behaviour and cultures. The report found that where there is a problem, it usually involves multiple people who have failed to spot or deal with avoidable harm. The outcome of the report includes the Red Flag Tracker online resource, providing a framework to identify and report on an organisational culture in which safety failures are more likely to occur.
Maternal mental health. NSPCC Learning has released a new podcast episode exploring the experiences of Black mothers and perinatal mental health challenges. The podcast features a discussion with professionals from the NSPCC’s Pregnancy in Mind service and The Motherhood Group, covering: what perinatal mental health means and the link to infant mental health; why Black mothers are more likely to experience perinatal mental health issues; and what culturally appropriate care should look like.
Cases
Case of Note from NHS Resolution: Morawiec v. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Central London County Court, 30 August 2024 – Judge Baucher). This case examines allegations that a total knee replacement operation was performed negligently and that following this procedure the trust failed to diagnose, treat or act upon the claimant’s presentation. Read more about this case.
Bevan Brittan Events
Medico-legal issues from a micro-biology perspective | Tuesday 20 May 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
In discussion: The future of anonymity of professionals in health and social care cases post the Supreme Court’s decision in Abbasi and Haastrup | Friday 9 May 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
How we can help
We are working with clients on formulating policies and making it easier to balance treatment with finite resources. We are helping with social care policies and day to day activities such as contact and isolation, human rights issues and life/death decisions. We are working on notifications of harm and death, RIDDOR, CQC compliance, judicial review, infection control law and grappling with the new regulations and guidance. For more information click here.
If you wish to discuss any clinical risk or patient safety issues please contact Joanne Easterbrook or Daniel Morris.
Digital Health
Publications/guidance
AI skin cancer detection system gets green light for conditional NHS use. An artificial intelligence system for potential skin cancer has been conditionally recommended for use in the NHS for the next three years while further evidence is collected. The Deep Ensemble for Recognition of Malignancy (DERM), developed by Skin Analytics, analyses images to assess and triage skin lesions, potentially redirecting benign cases to non-urgent pathways. The technology aims to significantly reduce waiting times by efficiently triaging patients with suspicious skin lesions. DERM represents an innovation that aligns with the Government's health priorities to move "from analogue to digital" by rolling out new digital technologies to benefit patients, reduce waiting lists and modernise the NHS. See also recent article by Dan Morris - Fully autonomous AI clinical decision-making: new frontiers of liability
The direction of AI innovation in the UK: insights from a new database and a roadmap for reform. This report analyses the AI innovation landscape in the UK to determine which type of AI deployment is, and is not, currently taking place. It finds that health is the second largest sector for AI activity – with most specialised innovation focused on diagnosis, drug improvement and treatment improvement. However, public health is a burgeoning field of AI innovation. The report highlights that, to be more mission-aligned, there will need to be an increased focus on prevention.
AI-enabled ambient scribing products in health and care settings. This guidance outlines key considerations for NHS technology leaders implementing ambient scribing products across health and care settings in England. Ambient scribing products, when combined with generative artificial intelligence (AI), can convert speech directly into structured medical documentation, such as notes and letters. The products are sometimes referred to as ambient scribes or AI scribes and include advanced ambient voice technologies (AVTs) used for clinical or patient documentation and workflow support.
Preparing the NHS for the AI era: why smarter triage and navigation mean better health care. Patients are frequently stuck in the wrong queues, NHS waiting lists are getting longer, and staff are overworked. This report argues that by updating antiquated patient navigation systems, there is an opportunity to remedy this. The paper suggests that an artificial intelligence (AI) navigation assistant might revolutionise the NHS by helping people get the proper care the first time, reducing stress on employees, and enhancing patient outcomes.
News
Government’s tech reform to transform cancer diagnosis. Cancer 360 brings patient data into one central system, so clinicians can prioritise those most in need and see patients quicker.
Gamechanging AI doctors’ assistant to speed up appointments. Government drives forward use of innovative artificial intelligence in hospitals as trials show dramatic reduction in admin with more time for patient care.
Latest health data reveals thousands of patients now seen quicker. Thousands of patients are securing appointments quicker every day as part of the government's drive to build an NHS fit for the future.
Major NHS App expansion cuts waiting times. Reform of NHS App stops 1.5 million hospital appointments being missed, with 87% of hospitals now offering services through NHS App.
Bevan Brittan Updates
How agentic AI is transforming private healthcare and what it could do for your business - Dan Morris.
Fully autonomous AI clinical decision-making: new frontiers of liability - Dan Morris
How we can help
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around Digital Health please contact Daniel Morris.
Employment/HR
Publications/guidance
Turning the tide: progress and actions to support targets of sexual misconduct in surgery Sexual misconduct in the surgical profession is endemic. The Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery (WPSMS), supported by RCS England, has highlighted the scale of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in the surgical profession. The 2023 report, Breaking the silence: addressing sexual misconduct in health care, emphasised the urgent need for systemic change. RCS England is committed to a zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct and continues to work closely with the WPSMS to drive reform across surgery and health care. This policy paper outlines the progress made to date, and sets out the critical next steps needed to ensure sustained action in addressing this serious issue.
GP contract 2025/26 explained: funding, incentives and the workforce. Delve into the detail of the 2025/26 GP contracts, and what they mean for the workforce, funding and incentives.
Nursing associates in maternity settings: position statement. Nursing associates are members of the nursing team in England who help bridge the gap between health and care assistants and registered nurses. This position statement outlines challenges to deploying nursing associates in maternity settings, including issues with profession-specific education and training, delegation of tasks, accountability, and scope of practice. It concludes that it does not support nursing associates working in maternity services. The Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives have also published separate statements in support of this position.
Supporting clinical leaders to shape the future: the story of Barts Health. Sally Hulks looks back on the five-year clinical leadership development programme co-designed with Barts Health NHS Trust.
Cases
For Women Scotland Ltd (Appellant) v The Scottish Ministers (Respondent) [2025] UKSC 16. The Supreme Court, in allowing For Women Scotland Ltd's appeal, ruled that the words 'sex', 'woman' and 'man' in the Equality Act 2010 mean biological sex, biological woman and biological man, rather than 'certificated sex' under the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Our initial Bevan Brittan briefing is here: Supreme Court ruling – ‘Sex’ and The Equality Act 2010 | Bevan Brittan LLP
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s interim update is here: An interim update on the practical implications of the UK Supreme Court judgment | EHRC
Our Bevan Brittan briefing on the EHRC update is here: EHRC publishes interim update - re the use of single-sex spaces | Bevan Brittan LLP
The resulting House of Lords debate on single sex spaces in the NHS is here: NHS: Single-sex Spaces for Staff - Hansard - UK Parliament
How we can help
We can offer support and advice on managing many workforce issues including flexing your workforce to respond to the pandemic, managing bank staff, redeployment, vulnerable groups, sick pay, leave options, supporting staff well-being, presenteeism, remote and home working, through FAQs, helpline or policy guidance and practical day to day advice.
If you wish to discuss any employment issues generally please contact Jodie Sinclair, Alastair Currie, Oonagh Sharma, James Gutteridge, Andrew Uttley, Joanna Burrows and Lee Carroll.
Finance
Publications/guidance
Charging for NHS care: guidance for obstetricians in England. Maternity Action and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have published a clinician’s guide on NHS charging for obstetricians who treat women who may be chargeable for their maternity care under the NHS (Overseas Visitors Charging) Regulations 2015. It sets out the charging rules in relation to maternity care, the charging exemptions, and how clinicians can best work with Overseas Visitor Teams within NHS trusts in England. It also suggests ways that clinicians can better advocate for women who may be charged but are also destitute or have experienced domestic abuse, female genital mutilation (FGM), or sexual violence during pregnancy.
How we can help
For more information on issues around finance, please contact Claire Bentley.
Health Inequalities
Publications/Guidance
Still ignored: the fight for accessible health care. Health services such as the NHS, as well as social care services across England, are required, by law, to offer extra support if people with hearing loss struggle when accessing services – for example, being provided with an accessible alternative to the telephone to be able to book appointments or receive test results, or communication support, such as a qualified British Sign Language interpreter. However, this report reveals that 7 out of 10 deaf people and people with hearing loss have never been asked about their information and communication needs when accessing NHS care.
How we can help
We have a multidisciplinary team advising NHS commissioners and providers on all aspects of tackling health inequalities, ranging from:
- advising on the new legal framework and compliance with the relevant statutory duties, particularly in the context of service reconfiguration;
- addressing workforce inequalities;
- taking action on patient safety to reduce health inequalities;
- the role of the Care Quality Commission in tackling health inequalities; and
- lessons to be learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around health inequalities please contact Julia Jones.
Housing
Publications/Guidance
Housing and safeguarding children. NSPCC Learning has published a Learning from case reviews briefing on housing. It summarises the key issues and learning for improved practice for housing services and providers from a sample of case reviews published between 2020 and 2023. The briefing highlights that housing professionals need to: understand their responsibility to recognise and respond to safeguarding and child protection concerns, even if the accommodation itself poses no issues; work effectively with other agencies and actively share their knowledge about families; and consider the needs of the whole family and the role of the local area in meeting those needs.
Bevan Brittan Updates
Inequalities for children in poor housing - Neil Brand and Julia Jones
How we can help
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around housing please contact Julia Jones or George Riach
Information sharing/data
Publications/guidance
Electronic patient records: why the NHS urgently needs a strategy to reap the benefits. To explore the challenges in realising the benefits of electronic patient records (EPRs), The Health Foundation conducted interviews with leaders in five acute NHS trusts in England, and also looked at an example from a leading US medical centre. This analysis presents insights from these interviews and recommends next steps for unlocking the potential of EPRs.
Our specialist team brings a unique combination of experience and skill from across the health, social care, and local authority sectors to help you meet the wide ranging challenges faced organisationally as you deal with the various and complex legislation in respect of information law. That team understands the practical way those legal frameworks impact the range of issues faced, as well as the diverse nature of both public and regulatory expectation in relation to “personal data”, “data protection”, “freedom of information”, “access to health records” and wider “information governance”. As well as assisting your organisation in dealing with challenging requests for disclosure, we can also help to provide strategic advice in relation to policy and information security, as well as bespoke organisational training on key legal issues.
If you wish to discuss any information law and / or governance issues facing your organisation, and how we may help, please contact Jane Bennett.
Integrated Care
Publications/Guidance
Abolishing NHS England: what you need to know. This briefing sets out the key points from developments confirming the abolishment of NHS England.
Alleviating child poverty – a shared endeavour: the critical role ICSs can play in the government’s child poverty strategy. A virtual roundtable of integrated care board (ICB) and integrated care partnership (ICP) leaders shared work on their role in alleviating the impact on child poverty in their local system. The roundtable also highlighted the system levers available to deliver this work and proposed ways these levers could be strengthened by government. This briefing summarises that discussion and highlights the key calls to government to ensure that the role of systems is used to their full potential as part of the child poverty strategy.
Pioneers of reform: realising a new vision of ICB strategic commissioning. This report outlines a new vision for strategic commissioning that will enable ICBs to be pioneers of reform. It also outlines the skills and capabilities needed to fulfil their statutory duties and their wider role in driving and sustaining transformation in health and care. The report also sets out recommendations for a phased implementation process.
NHS public health functions agreement 2025 to 2026. This guidance sets out the arrangements under which the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care delegates responsibility to NHS England for certain public health services (known as section 7A services). The services currently commissioned in this way are: national immunisation programmes; national population screening programmes; child health information services; public health services for adults and children in secure and detained settings in England; and sexual assault services (sexual assault referral centres).
Model Integrated Care Board – Blueprint v1.0.This Model ICB Blueprint has been developed by a group of ICB leaders from across the country, representing all regions and from systems of varying size, demographics, maturity and performance. It is a joint leadership product, developed and written by ICBs in partnership with NHS England.
How we can help
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around integrated care, please contact Anna Davies.
Mental Health
Publications/Guidance
Mental health: shifting the focus. This briefing sets out the current state of the mental health sector and why there is a need to provide more clarity, coherence and alignment on what needs to be prioritised in the short-to-medium term to deliver high-quality, sustainable mental health services in line with the government's three shifts (across treatment to prevention, hospital to community, and analogue to digital).
Lampard Inquiry background presentation. The Lampard Inquiry is investigating the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex between 2000 - 2023. The King's Fund delivered a seminar to support the inquiry on the context of mental health policy.
New protocol on communications between judges in Scotland, England & Wales, and Northern Ireland in cases involving adults who lack capacity, and accompanying handbook. A new protocol regulating communications between judges in Scotland, England & Wales, and Northern Ireland has been agreed for cases involving adults who lack capacity.
Autism policy and services: UK legislation and strategies. The Autism Act 2009 requires the government to publish an adult autism strategy for England. There are separate strategies for other parts of the UK.
Bevan Brittan Events
Medication and Mental Capacity | Thursday 22 May 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
In discussion: The future of anonymity of professionals in health and social care cases post the Supreme Court’s decision in Abbasi and Haastrup | Friday 9 May 2025 | 12:30 - 13:30
How we can help
We are experts in advising commissioners, providers and care co-ordinators on the relevant legal frameworks. We deal with complex issues such as deprivation of liberty, state involvement, use of CCTV monitoring, seclusion, physical restraint and covert medication. We can help providers with queries about admission and detention, consent to treatment, forensic service users, transfers, leave, discharge planning and hearings. We can advise commissioners on all matters concerning commissioning responsibility, liability and disputes. For more information click here
If you wish to discuss any mental health issues facing your organisation please contact Hannah Taylor or Simon Lindsay
Primary Care
Publications/Guidance
General practice across England. This report looks at the variation in general practice performance across England, comparing GP practice characteristics to examine what might explain differences in performance around the country. It shows that patient satisfaction is higher in GP practices that have more GPs (particularly GP partners), have smaller list sizes, deliver more GP appointments, and do more of those appointments face-to-face. However, the number of GP partners continues to fall, particularly among those aged under 40. GP practices do far more appointments remotely than they did before the pandemic. The closure and merging of practices means that patient list sizes continue to creep up.
Implementing the 2025/26 GP contract: changes to personal medical services and alternative provider medical services contracts. Following the changes agreed to the General Medical Services (GMS) contract for 2025/26, this document sets out the approach to the funding changes that NHS England will apply to Personal Medical Services (PMS) and Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contracts.
Beyond the waiting room: reimagining primary care for the next decade. A collection of essays from primary care clinical leaders in England. Primary care is often referred to as the backbone of the NHS – the place where patients show up and rely on those professionals to help them; the place where relationships and continuity make all the difference, the place that connects problems to solutions; the place that works within its means. This collection focuses on the general practice component of primary care in 10 years' time. A further series will reflect the views of members from community pharmacy, dentistry, optometry and audiology.
Unheard voices: understanding the challenges faced by Black people living with HIV in primary care. This report, which surveyed 142 Black-heritage people living with HIV in London, identified distinct barriers to receiving adequate care. It finds that these communities have lower levels of engagement in HIV care, poorer health outcomes, and higher rates of HIV-related morbidity and mortality.
GP contract 2025/26 explained: funding, incentives and the workforce. Delve into the detail of the 2025/26 GP contracts, and what they mean for the workforce, funding and incentives.
News
Patients get care closer to home as GP scheme expanded. Government confirms expansion of Advice and Guidance scheme, with more patients now receiving their care closer to home.
How we can help
If you wish to discuss any issues in primary care then please contact Joanne Easterbrook.
Social Care
Publications/Guidance
Independent commission into adult social care: terms of reference. A Department of Health and Social Care publication sets out the terms of reference for Baroness Louise Casey's independent commission into adult social care. The commission will be undertaken in two phases with the final phase reporting back by 2028 to the Prime Minister. The first phase aims to set out the plan for how to implement a national care service, to report in 2026. It will aim to make adult social care more productive, preventative and to give people who draw on care, and their families and carers, more power in the system. It aims to make recommendations for medium-term improvements, building on work by the Department of Health and Social Care to support the delivery of the health mission in the context of reforms regarding the NHS, local government and the Employment Rights Bill 2024-25 and fair pay agreement for care workers. The second phase aims to make longer-term recommendations for the transformation of adult social care.
How we can help
For ways in which we can help with Social Care issues click here.
If you wish to discuss any queries you may have around social care please contact Claire Bentley.
General
Bevan Brittan Updates
The Assisted Dying Bill - Dan Morris
Abbasi and Haastrup: to name or not to name - Hannah Taylor
SIGN UP FOR PUBLICATIONS
If you would like to sign up for any of our Bevan Brittan publications including this Health and Care Update click here.
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