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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
23 May 2016 - 15:26

null Health and Wellbeing Policy News 16-23 May 2016

 It's been a big news week for health and wellbeing policy.  More detail can be found here, but a few of the key items are:   Agreement in the junior doctors' dispute was finally reached between the Government and the BMA (18th).  The deal now has to be put to a ballot of members and many are apparently unhappy with it.  Jeremy Hunt insisted that the Government had... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
16 May 2016 - 15:20

null Health and Wellbeing Policy News

I have been doing a weekly health and wellbeing policy update for some time now.  The full details can be found here, but a few of the highlights from the past week include: The NHS has had its busiest year on record with many targets not met (12th) Workforce planning in the NHS has been criticised by the Public Accounts Committee, which questions whether the Government knows the... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
29 Feb 2016 - 15:39

null Whole system working for improved health and wellbeing

A solution to a knotty problem sprang into my mind last week.  I was on my way to the local Health and Wellbeing Board and pondering why it has had so little effect.  My previous thoughts on this had focussed on the problems with the health and wellbeing strategy and how it didn’t do what I thought a strategy should do.  However, another aspect of the problem is the process for... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
30 Sep 2015 - 11:01

null Strategies going round in circles – but that’s OK

I am not convinced our local health and wellbeing strategy is terribly strategic.  However there are some quite interesting, and even innovative things going on locally in health, adult social care, children’s mental health and other areas.  There are person-centred approaches, a better use of prevention and community based work. So, what to do?  Should we just ignore the... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
27 Jun 2015 - 19:15

null A Strategic Framework for Health and Wellbeing

As I’ve written before (here and here) I think there is tremendous potential for Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) to make a huge difference through their Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWSs).  But it’s deceptively complex. So I drew a diagram (attached) that sets out the key elements a strategy could focus on – those things that could make most long term difference to... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
30 Oct 2014 - 11:17

null What a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy should include

[A more detailed version of this blog appears here.]   How can Health and Wellbeing Boards make the most difference?  I think it’s through Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWS’s).  No, wait, come back.  Hear me out.  OK, so they’re not making that much difference at the moment (I’d love to hear of any examples where they are) but they could.   Of... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
16 Sep 2014 - 09:19

null What makes for good public health research?

Some reflections on my role on a NIHR board making recommendations on grants for public health research* We are constantly being bombarded with public health advice – don’t smoke, lose weight, only eat saturated fats if they’ve got the right number of carbon atoms.  But there remain huge gaps in our knowledge.  Fortunately, grants are available for high quality research, but what... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
11 Sep 2014 - 09:07

null A Framework for Identifying Aspects for Improvement

I was reflecting on experiences of various meetings last week, and it struck me that they quite neatly fall into categories I’ve used in the past to assess why organisations don’t follow good practice or improve.  These were cases, all to do with community engagement, where I could clearly see that something was wrong – sometimes it was my fault and sometimes down to other people. ... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
01 Sep 2014 - 15:35

null Are you ‘a people’?

I was struck by a blog I read recently asking, ‘Am I not a people?’ The (very interesting) blog was asking whether civil servants can substitute themselves for ‘real people’ in the policy making process.  The answer was, no.  Though of course they are ‘real’, with “family, a kitchen to clean, bills to pay, hopes and dreams of my own”, the civil servant (or other person... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
28 Jul 2014 - 15:54

null Why don’t public bodies co-operate more on community engagement?

Everyone agrees it makes sense for public bodies to co-ordinate their community engagement.  So why don’t they (usually)?   I managed to get our Health and Wellbeing Board to agree a protocol, last week, committing the Council, CCGs, Healthwatch and the voluntary and community sector to co-operate in their community engagement work. I’d like to think I achieved this because of... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 15:09

null Co-production - the solution to all your problems?

What are you trying to achieve?  Saving money, better commissioning, transformational change, effective community engagement, making a mark in your organisation, or just trying to do some good locally?  Well co-production is your answer.  It’s the one-size-fits-all, panacea that will meet all your needs.  And it cures piles.   Well not quite, but it could be part... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 13:10

null Slaying the scary monsters of community engagement

Once upon a time, a long time ago, when the kingdom was plagued with giants and monsters and wicked issues, a wise prince went out and talked to the townsfolk to work out what to do.  And they came up with a much wider range of ideas than the prince could have on his own, even with the help of his adviser, the wizard.  And there’s always been a few princes doing that ever... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 15:11

null Don’t tender for Healthwatch! Where markets do and do not have a role.

Councils up and down the country will be commissioning local Healthwatch organisations.  If it’s not too late, I’d like to suggest they think about alternatives to the tendering route. Local Healthwatch is to be the new champion of patients, carers, social care clients and the public.  They are to replace the Local Involvement Networks (LINks).  They are to be the means of... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 15:41

null How well is this country doing? The Happy Planet Index and Costa Rica

  How well is this country doing? We're in a double dip recession. We know that because GDP fell by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012. So if it had risen by 0.1% would we have been fine? Minute changes in GDP make headlines and can make or break political careers. But are we right to focus on GDP for our guide to how well the country is doing? GDP is not the only measure. scale ... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 13:10

null Co-production in health and social care

  Do you think there's a need for people to seek to work more closely with those responsible for health, the providers of social care and the deliverers of other services? And by 'those responsible for health' I mean, of course, the general public and by 'the providers of social care' I mean the unsung and unrewarded army of unpaid carers. Should the public service professionals ask... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 15:28

null Involving people to get their input to groups and partnerships

  A familiar, difficult and critical issue came up at our Healthwatch development group recently. Basically: 'it's great having all you people round the table – we've accepted any offers of interest – but at some point we'll need a much smaller group that can move quickly and take decisions.'   There was no hidden agenda here, but it immediately set alarm bells ringing. At the... See more
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Adrian Barker
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 15:13

null Who Pays Your Wages?

  The notorious £1m bonus of RBS boss, Stephen Hester, was being defended on Radio 4 on Friday. I'm not going to have a go at the interviewee (Christopher Wheeler, an analyst at Mediobanca) – it was a difficult job to defend a bonus of nearly £1m when everyone, even the government and the Daily Mail seem to think it's wrong, and anyway, Hester has now said he won't claim it. I just... See more
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Showing 21 to 37 of 37 entries.