This report, resulting from the Inquiry by the King’s Fund, found major shortcomings in the current care system that disadvantage older people and their carers.There is restricted access to care and practical support, limited choice and control over care services, a risk from untrained and unqualified staff and hardship caused by inadequate funding and controversy about who pays for long-term care.The report views care services as part of a wider health, housing and social care system. Local authorities with social care responsibilities are expected to work closely with NHS primary care trusts and housing bodies to commission a wide range of care services, including intermediate care and extra care housing. Care services operate within distinctive local care markets, where individuals and public bodies buy goods and services from the private, voluntary and statutory organisations that provide them. Local authorities are expected to develop and manage these care markets, with a view to improving value for money and increasing choice through competition.
A new report points to a decline in performance by doctors taking a postgraduate medical exam between 1997 and 2001. The study has been conducted by the Royal Colleges of Physicians and is published today in the Open Access journal BMC Medicine. The fall follows more than a decade of improved performances.The report indicates that the overall performance of postgraduate medical students taking the Part 1 examination of the Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians on specific exam questions that were repeated across the years was 14.1 per cent lower in 2001 than in 1996. The exam is part of higher specialist training.
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Local authorities will in future be obliged to ensure there are sufficient childcare places in their areas. Children,Young People and Families Minister Beverley Hughes has said she will legislate to fulfill parents’ legitimate expectation of accessible high quality childcare and early years provision.The minister has launched a consultation to take forward the commitment to bring in legislation set out in the ten-year strategy ‘Choice for parents, the best start for children’, which was published late last year. It highlighted the importance of every child being given the best start in life and offering parents and carers more choice in balancing their work and family life.
Read more on NEW LEGISLATION WILL STRESS COUNCILS’ CHILDCARE ROLE…