Last month I wrote about teams and the importance of effective teams in providing high quality person-centred care. This month I want to focus on probably the single most important aspect of effective person-centred care from the person’s perspective, and that is communication. Communicating with others is a basic human instinct from a very […]

  The excitement of Team GB completing in the Winter Olympics is now behind us and we can start to look forward to the arrival of spring, longer days and the prospect of some sunshine (we can hope!). Before we do move forward I would like to pause for a moment to reflect on some […]

  In January Dr Mike Durkin, NHS England National Director of Patient Safety, launched a year of action for patient safety. This focus on patient safety is in response to the recommendations from both the Francis report and Professor Don Berwick. Both Sir Robert Francis and Jane Cummings, the Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England, […]

Keeping everyone healthy during the winter months… Now that the trees have lost their autumn glory and frost glistens on bare branches it is a timely reminder that winter and the holiday season is fast approaching. This is the time of year when the pace of life shifts up a gear both at work and […]

As the days shorten and the temperature drops, winter is now with us to signal the end of another year. Along with the excitement of the festive season, the news is full of concerns about the impact of the current economic situation and winter weather on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable people. For health […]

    Last year I wrote about abuse of vulnerable adults in my October blog and yet, despite the outcry that resulted from the failures of care at Mid Staffordshire and the calls for improvements in regulation and standards, I find myself once again commenting on yet another gross betrayal by those who were supposed […]

House of Lords rejects latest attempt to amend Care Bill to give social workers power to enter homes to assess adults at risk. Read more…

        Social care is one of the largest employers in the country. More than 1.5million people work in a huge variety of jobs in the sector, and Skills for Care estimate that a million more jobs will be needed in the sector over the next decade, just to keep pace with demographic […]

This is the time of year when the different political parties hold their annual conferences. We hear party leaders laying out their plans for the future and how they are going to change the current situation and make it better for everyone. Working in health and social care, you will be familiar with the impact […]

        Ready for Ageing Alliance’s concerns seem to be echoed by the population, after a survey revealed similar fears expressed by a large proportion of the 2,200 UK adults surveyed. Three quarters of people said the Government was not ready for the impact of an ageing population, and 84 per cent felt […]