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Biomedical subjects

Bob Hudson

Publications and source records attributed to Bob Hudson.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Policy change and policy dilemmas: interpreting the community services White Paper in England.

CONTEXT: In 2006 the Labour Government in England published its long awaited White Paper on 'community services', following on from the 2005 Green Paper on the future of social care. The policy envisages an unprecedented shift of activity and resources from acute care to community settings, along with a much stronger focus on preventive care. Several mechanisms are to be put in place to ensure this shift takes place, most notably practice-based commissioning, payments-by-results and enhanced partnership working. PURPOSE: This article outlines the intended changes and assesses the extent to which they add up to a coherent strategy. CONCLUSION: It is argued that although there is widespread support for the overall vision, the strategy contains some difficult policy tensions that are common to other welfare systems. These will have to be addressed if the vision is to be a reality.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Information sharing and children's services reform in England: can legislation change practice?

The Laming Report into the death of Victoria Climbie reiterated the long-standing critique of inadequate communication and coordination amongst the key professions and agencies. It led directly to the Green Paper, Every Child Matters in 2003 and the subsequent Children Act 2004. Amongst other things the Act proposes the establishment of a database on every child, which would be accessible to a range of practitioners - a measure that has been hotly contested. This article examines the reasons for this contestation and explores the extent to which a compromise might be judged to have dislodged a key policy objective.

Child↗
PubMed2005

Sea change or quick fix? Policy on long-term conditions in England.

Long-term conditions is a policy area that has risen rapidly up the political agenda in England, culminating in the development of the National Health Service and Social Care Model in 2005, which is to be implemented over the following 2 years. The Model draws heavily upon US ideas of case management and proposes the creation of 3000 community matrons to undertake this role with the most vulnerable patients. Although welcomed in principle, the specific proposals in the Model have been subject to some criticism, and these issues are explored in the present paper. The problematic areas include patient identification, the transplanting of US models to England, the role of case management, workforce and funding issues, and the mix of medical and social models. The author concludes that there is a danger of long-term care policy developing an unduly health-focused approach at a time when the thrust of partnership working is towards an inclusive, whole-system model.

Case Management↗
PubMed2003

Children's trusts. New kid on the block.

The proposal to establish children's trusts follows years of poor co-ordination of services. The establishment of these trusts will involve structural integration with other organisations and may not appeal to everyone in the NHS. The government seems prepared to consider almost any form for these trusts. Partnerships, not restructuring, would seem to be the way forward.

Child↗
PubMed2003

Delayed discharges. Another fine mess.

A simulation exercise on charging for delayed discharges revealed significant potential for conflict between organisations, and no benefit for service users. Participants thought the charging system would work against the development of community services. They favoured joint NHS/local authority approaches to the development of an effective system for preventing delayed discharges.

Efficiency, Organizational↗
PubMed2002

Interprofessionality in health and social care: the Achilles' heel of partnership?

Partnership working is now a central plank of public policy in the UK, especially in the field of health and social care. However, much of the policy thrust has been at the level of interorganisational working rather than at the level of interprofessional partnerships. The empirical and theoretical literature is largely sceptical about the feasibility of effective joint working between separate but related professionals--the 'pessimistic tradition'. Based upon an empirical study of general practitioners, community nurses and social workers in northern England, this article challenges such a tradition and proposes an 'optimistic hypothesis' for further investigation.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed2000

Social services and Primary Care Groups: a window of collaborative opportunity?

This paper reports on the findings of two investigations into the relationship between social services and Primary Care Groups (PCGs): a national postal questionnaire and a series of regional seminars. The key findings of both explorations are summarised and placed in the context of other available evidence on the development of PCGs. Issues covered include: the background and status of social services representatives; preparation and support for the board role; feedback and accountability, and early contributions. It is concluded that progress is being made in bringing together the agendas and activities of PCGs and social services, and to a lesser extent the wider local authority, but that important obstacles remain in place. The enduring significance of the resource dependency model needs to be a key factor in emerging partnerships.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Joint commissioning across the primary health care-social care boundary: can it work?

General ideas about joint working have been commonplace in the UK for several decades and those more specifically about joint commissioning have been popular since the quasi-market reforms of the early 1990s. The Labour Government is now placing a heavy premium upon 'partnership working' and expects this to breathe new life into joint commissioning initiatives; especially those involving social care and primary health care. However, despite the relatively lengthy experience of joint commissioning, we still know very little about how it works in practice. This article reviews joint commissioning as a policy concept, describes some recent research findings and pulls out messages for policy and practice. It concludes that although effective joint commissioning is attainable, there can be no 'quick fix' at local level.

Journal Article↗