NHS Employers will be responding, on behalf of NHS organisations, to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) consultation on their raising concerns guidance. The guidance supports nurses and midwives in raising or escalating concerns about the safety or well-being of people in their care and their workplace. To ensure that our response fully reflects the views of employers and to help inform future work in this area, please complete our short online survey before 19 March 2010. For more information please visit our whistleblowing web page.

NHS Employers has published a new pay circular (1/2010) that covers updates to the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook. The changes cover the extension of the period of protection for on-call arrangements, equal opportunities, current legislation and good practice, guidance on frequently asked questions, and outstanding historical changes to the national review bodies. To download the new pay circular visit our pay circular web pages.

The Secretary of State for Health and his full ministerial team joined the meeting of the Social Partnership Forum in December 2009 to outline the vision set out in the recently published NHS 2010-2015: from good to great. The Secretary of State emphasised the need for partnership working to help deliver the vision set out in the document and the role that regional social partnership forums would play. Issues including social enterprises, a new staff engagement guide and the NHS Constitution were also discussed at the meeting. For more details see the Social Partnership Forum website.

Last week the NHS Confederation raised serious concerns with health secretary Andy Burnham and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about the proposed registration fee structure for NHS trusts in 2010/11. Responding to the CQC consultation on fees, the Confederation argued that given the lack of evidence for how the system will work in practice and lack of clarity about how the Department of Health’s promise to make registration cost-neutral to the NHS will operate, the proposed fee structure for 2010/11 should be put on hold. To read the full response go to the NHS Confederation’s latest news web page.

The Social Partnership Forum is once again sponsoring and judging the partnership award at the Healthcare People Management Association’s Excellence in HR Management awards. The awards recognise outstanding contributions to human resource management and applications are open until 31 March 2010. The partnership accolade will reward an initiative that demonstrates inclusion of all stakeholders in the processes of formulating, consulting, implementing and evaluating issues related to the provision of health or social care. Details of how to enter, as well as case studies of previous winners, can be found on the Social Partnership Forum website.

NHS Employers is looking for NHS organisations that are using innovative ways to communicate the content of the NHS Constitution to their staff. All NHS organisations are now under a legal obligation to have regard to the NHS Constitution in all their decisions and actions, so we are keen to hear of best practice and learning in order to share this with others. We have also published a series of top tips to help employers implement the NHS Constitution locally. If you would like to share your ways of working please email andrew.fisher@nhsemployers.org with brief details of your activities. For further information and to read the top tips, go to our staff engagement web pages.

The 2008/9 Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) report on the midwifery workforce has now been published. The report gives maternity service providers, local health authorities and the UK health departments information on areas that may need monitoring and action. It sets out recommendations for the local supervising authorities and highlights challenges for service providers to improve midwifery staffing numbers and services. NHS Employers is now working with employers and the maternity professions to produce a maternity learning resource pack to assist employers with developing the maternity workforce. For more information go to our midwifery web pages.

As the largest employer in Europe, the NHS plays a key role in investing in the skills of the UK workforce and providing employment for disadvantaged groups including young people, new graduates, socially excluded adults and the long-term unemployed. The importance of this increases during difficult economic times. To help NHS organisations understand the range of routes into NHS employment and the support and financial incentives available, NHS Employers has developed a new section of its website. We have also signed up to the Backing Young Britain campaign and encourage NHS organisations to join us. Find out more on our recruiting in the UK web pages.

The Department of Health (DH) last week announced that the National Pandemic Flu Service is to be stood down from 11 February. The web and phone service is being withdrawn because of falling numbers of cases and indications that the primary care workload generated by influenza-like illness is now manageable. Vaccination programmes for high risk groups and eligible staff are continuing and this is still the best way to prevent the spread of swine flu. Critical and intensive care places remain under pressure in some areas and hospitals will continue to manage cases using current plans. Read more on our pandemic flu latest news web page.

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 were laid before Parliament on 21 January, with the intention that the legislation will come into force on 1 October 2011. This directive on temporary agency work (AWD) will see agency workers in the UK receive equal treatment to permanent staff after they have been employed continuously for 12 weeks. Further information on the directive and key messages for the NHS can be found on our AWD web page.

Outstanding and innovative midwifery was celebrated on 27 January at the 2010 Midwifery Awards, organised by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). Sian Thomas, director NHS Employers, joined HRH Princess Anne to present the NHS Employers award for excellence in recruitment and retention. This accolade went to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust for their innovative ‘What we do best’ approach. For the full list of winners visit our maternity services latest news pages.

The Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) 2009/10 curricula review is coming to a close and we have received the final two draft curricula on public health medicine and ophthalmology. Health service managers are encouraged to give their views on potential improvements to delivery or other changes to the curricula. The draft curricula are available to view and download now, alongside pro-forma and deadline dates for responses, on our PMETB consultation web page.

NHS Jobs, the dedicated recruitment website for the NHS, has announced 15 winners of its national competition to ‘find the face’ of NHS Jobs. Chosen from almost 800 entries, the winners range from nurses to cooks, administrators to scientists and represent the diversity of the 1.3 million strong NHS workforce. The winning 15 will feature on the NHS Jobs website and promotional materials in the coming months. Keep an eye out for the winners and their stories on the NHS Jobs website and find out who they are on our latest news page.

The NHS is part of the economy-wide programme to increase apprenticeships across the UK, and is moving towards its 2009/10 aspiration to increase the number of NHS Apprenticeships by 5000. Employers, schools and colleges across the country will be involved in Apprenticeship Week, which is also an opportunity for NHS organisations to celebrate the success and hard work of apprenticeship leads, managers and apprentices. For more information, see our Apprenticeship Week news page.

NHS Employers is keen to find out how NHS organisations use e-learning tools and social media such as Twitter and YouTube to communicate. We are also looking for examples of NHS organisations that use e-learning or social media to communicate with staff, so that other NHS organisations can learn from their experiences. To contribute, please complete our short online survey on the NHS Employers website.

Employers are encouraged to give their views on the Care Quality Commission's (CQCs) equality and human rights scheme. The feedback will help shape action plans on its overall approach to embedding equalities and human rights, human rights-based approach, priorities for action and action plans. The deadline is the 18 February, after which NHS Employers will submit feedback to represent these employer views on the consultation. For more information and to complete the survey visit our equality and diversity web pages.