NHS Employers has submitted its response to the recent Department of Health proposals on the future financial support arrangements for students undertaking NHS-funded healthcare courses. NHS Employers is very supportive of the review, in line with moving to an all-degree nursing profession. Our consultation with employers resulted in support for providing a means tested bursary and a non-means tested loan to all students. Employers can expect a final recommendation to be announced early in 2010 and the earliest expected change for students undertaking training will be from September 2011. Further information is available on our nursing news web page.

The review into the European Working Time Directive and its impact on the quality of postgraduate training for doctors, dentists, healthcare scientists and pharmacists, is now underway. The review is being led by an independent chair, Professor Sir John Temple, on behalf of NHS Medical Education England (MEE). He has invited written evidence to help inform the work. NHS Employers encourages you to respond to the review directly and would also be grateful to receive your comments at medicalworkforce@nhsemployers.org so that we can feed back to the review team. For more information, see our EWTD web pages.

The first Briton to enter the US basketball hall of fame will speak at Strength in diversity: maintaining the focus, NHS Employers’ equality and diversity conference on 19 January 2010. Former sports star John Amaechi is an active advocate for human rights, equality and diversity and a director for the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games Diversity Board. For further information visit our equality and diversity latest news web page.

From January 2010, the NHS will be under a new obligation to have regard to the NHS Constitution in all its decisions and actions. The Constitution’s pledges, principles, values and responsibilities need to be fully embedded and ingrained into everything the NHS does. The NHS Values provide everyone with a common vision of what the NHS stands for. NHS Employers has published a series of case studies of trusts that have developed their own local values, looking at actions to involve staff and offering tips for other trusts carrying out similar work. For more information, see our staff engagement web pages.

New bodies that combine the expertise of industry, health and education have been formed to promote innovation in the NHS, Health Minister Ann Keen announced today. Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs) are cross sector partnerships between NHS organisations, the higher education sector and blue chip companies such as BMW, GlaxoSmithKline and BT. Over £11 million will be given to the 17 successful applicants that were chosen by an Independent Award Panel chaired by Sir Alan Langlands, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. For more information and to find out about the successful trusts, visit the Department of Health website.

The quality, competence and communications skills of locum doctors are important concerns for organisations providing NHS care. Patient safety requires that locum doctors are appropriately trained and qualified for the work they undertake, and that the necessary NHS employment checks are carried out. NHS Employers has published advice to support NHS organisations with this, which outlines the current standards governing the appointment and use of locum doctors. The guide is available from our medical workforce web page.

Young people have a positive attitude towards future careers in the NHS, however they are less well informed about what a career in the NHS actually involves. To coincide with its Step into the NHS schools’ competition, NHS Careers recently polled 1,000 young people aged 11-16 to discover what they know about healthcare job roles, other than the nurses, doctors and paramedics shown on popular TV programmes. The poll revealed that 75 per cent of respondents held the misconception that it was essential to be able to handle the sight of blood and 60 per cent believed that it was important to be good at science. Find out more on our latest news web page.

NHS organisations have until 31 December 2009 to register the 2010 Healthcare 100 awards, which celebrate the top organisations to work for in health. They will then have until the end of January 2010 to complete the detailed paperwork needed to apply. A further three case studies from the top performing trusts last year are now available online. These include interviews with those involved about how they are engaging with their staff to improve the quality of care for patients. For more information, see our staff engagement web pages.

The Social Partnership Forum has worked in partnership with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to introduce mediation as a method of resolving disputes in the NHS. The Department of Health and the Social Partnership Forum worked together to equip NHS trusts and their employees with the skills needed to resolve conflict and bring about better employment relations in the long-term. Five trusts were chosen to pilot the projects, each establishing its own project team or board involving both managers and trade union representatives. To find out more about the project, and read case studies and top tips, visit the Social Partnership Forum website.

The countdown to Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration is well and truly on with registration opening on 4 January and the deadline for registrations on 29 January. The NHS Confederation has published a revised mapping of the new registration requirements to Standards for Better Health, along with a new set of frequently asked questions. Please email any further queries to registration@nhsconfed.org and see the NHS Confederation’s CQC registration web page.

NHS Employers has been invited to provide information on the impact of the default retirement age in NHS organisations. To ensure that your views are taken into account, please complete our short online survey by 25 January 2010. For more details visit our Equality and Diversity web pages.

The Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) 2009/10 review is continuing and we have now received draft curricula for anaesthetics and intensive care medicine. We have also received draft curricula from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The paediatric curricula contain a summary document highlighting the major changes to the curricula and assessment systems. Health service managers are encouraged to give their views on potential improvements to delivery, or other changes to the curriculum. The draft curricula, summaries of changes, pro-forma, and deadline dates for responses can all be found on our consultation web page.

Self care week is a national campaign to raise awareness of the information and resources available to help people, especially those with a long-term condition, take control of their own health and well-being. The Department of Health co-ordinates the campaign and is seeking ideas and suggestions from NHS organisations on the content of the 2010 activities. The 2009 campaign took place in November. Employers are encouraged to take a few minutes to complete a short online survey by 8 January 2010. For more details, see our planning your workforce web pages.

With growing interest in the role of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS Employers is asking NHS organisations to provide their views on the CQC's equality and human rights scheme. Please respond to our online survey by 31 January 2010 and we will submit collective feedback to represent the views of employers on the consultation. For more information and to fill out the survey, visit our equality and diversity web pages.

A revised version of ACAS’s Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities will come into effect on 1 January 2010. ACAS has published two new guides to complement the new code. The new code and guides can be downloaded from the ACAS website.

Last week, we met with Professor Steve Field of the Royal College of General Practitioners about GP issues. Our director Sian Thomas met Gillian Hibberd, president of the Public Sector People Managers’ Association, to discuss areas of common interest such as pay, professional development and wider public sector issues. We engaged with several more trusts about joining the NHS Employers membership scheme. We attended a regional Social Partnership Forum (SPF) meeting in South Central. Employers gave views to health ministers and trade union partners nationally on the operating framework, the issue of social enterprises and how the NHS Constitution is being implemented.