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Purpose: This study aims to critically examine the effects of COVID-19 social discourses and policy decisions specifically on older adult volunteers in the UK, comparing the responses and their effects in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, providing perspectives on effects of policy changes designed to reduce risk of infection as a result of COVID-19, specifically on volunteer involvement of and for older adults, and understand, from the perspectives of volunteer managers, how COVID-19 restrictions had impacted older people's volunteering and situating this within statutory public health policies. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a critical discourse approach to explore, compare and contrast accounts of volunteering of and for older people in policy, and then compare the discourses within policy documents with the discourses in personal accounts of volunteering in health and social care settings in the four nations of the UK. This paper is co-produced in collaboration with co-authors who have direct experience with volunteer involvement responses and their impact on older people. Findings: The prevailing overall policy approach during the pandemic was that risk of morbidity and mortality to older people was too high to permit them to participate in volunteering activities. Disenfranchising of older people, as exemplified in volunteer involvement, was remarkably uniform across the four nations of the UK. However, the authors find that despite, rather than because of policy changes, older volunteers, as part of, or with the help of, volunteer involving organisations, are taking time to think and to reconsider their involvement and are renewing their volunteer involvement with associated health benefits. Research limitations/implications: Working with participants as co-authors helps to ensure the credibility of results in that there was agreement in the themes identified and the conclusions. A limitation of this study lies in the sampling method, as a convenience sample was used and there is only representation from one organisation in each of the four nations. Originality/value: The paper combines existing knowledge about volunteer involvement of and for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between internationally educated nurses’ (IENs’) performance in a registered nurse competency assessment process and the outcomes of their nursing registration applications. Assessments of nursing practice competencies, IEN applicant characteristics and registration outcomes were explored.Design/methodology/approach This is a secondary statistical analysis of a subset of IEN application data from a previous study in combination with assessment data from an additional database. Application data between 2008 and 2011 were analyzed using univariate/bivariate analyses and regression models to explore the relationship of performance in the assessment process and outcomes of the registration process.Findings Competency categories IEN applicants had difficulties with (from least to most) were Professional Responsibility and Accountability, Ethical Practice, Self-Regulation, Service to the Public, Knowledge-Based Practice: Specialized Body of Knowledge and Knowledge-Based Practice: Competent Application of Knowledge. IENs educated in the UK and USA had the highest scores and odds of meeting competencies. Applicants educated in India and Asia had lower scores and odds ratios. All national entry-to-practice examination and registration eligibility competencies were significantly related to registration outcomes. Applicants passing the exam had higher competency scores while applicants ineligible for registration had lower competency scores.Research limitations/implications Limitations include integrity of data extracted from active databases, IEN motivation to complete the RN registration process and conversion of assessment scales for research analysis.Originality/value Results inform regulation policies that improve IEN registration processes and may be informative to regulators, assessment centers, educational institutions and IENs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The management of human resources is of crucial importance in enabling the delivery of efficient and effective services. The purpose of this paper is to explore one issue relevant to Human Resource Management, that is, the management of hospital doctors in the NHS. The present-day UK National Health Service faces countless challenges at both the macro and operational level. Design/methodology/approach — The paper examines the implications for the NHS in general, and the medical profession in particular, of the continued dominance of the medical profession over the career management of hospital doctors. Findings — The paper argues that FIRM must play a pivotal role in the management of clinicians to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of NHS reforms. The challenges to FIRM and the medical profession that are inherent in this process are outlined. Research implications/limitations — It is argued that the potential long-term gains to be derived from the development of closer working relationships between human resource managers and medical managers are crucial for the delivery of an effective health service. Originality/value — A new and innovative way of looking at the management of doctors and their careers within a changing NHS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of telecare services across the UK has been supported by grants from the respective governments of Scotland and Wales, and by the DH in England. New services are being established to sometimes operate alongside existing community equipment services and community alarm services. Elsewhere they are embracing a wider range of services including rehabilitation, intermediate care and health services designed to reduce the use of unscheduled care services. This paper discusses the difficulties in understanding the scope of telecare services, and the definitions of services that will need to be confirmed so that service users can choose appropriately if offered direct payments. Two different service models are offered, one of which uses telehealth as an umbrella term to cover all telecare, e-care and m-care, and telemedicine where the former includes all such services offered in the service user's home, including those of a medical nature. The second model views telecare alongside assistive technologies and telemedicine as one of three different technology groups designed to make people more independent or to bring care closer to home. There is significant overlap between the three groups, which justifies the introduction of a new term -- ARTS (assistive and remote technology services) -- to describe this area of support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose is to examine the bases of positive relations between suppliers and purchasers of healthcare services. In doing so, the paper examines the nature of cooperation between the providers of healthcare services (hospitals) and those who commission and purchase healthcare on behalf of patients (regional health authorities). Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs a qualitative interview approach for gathering and analysing major stakeholder (provider and purchaser) perceptions of their interorganisational relations and how these interactions impact on the quest of the healthcare provider to meet the needs of the community they serve. Findings - The paper identifies group relevant variables into four major themes or "core categories" that characterise purchaser-provider stakeholder cooperation. These themes represent provider and purchaser views on those factors characterising stakeholder relationships within the purchaser-provider dyad. Practical implications - The paper suggests that extending practitioners' understanding of the nature of these interrelated factors may lead to better insights of how interorganisational relations and partnerships might be managed more proactively throughout the healthcare value chain. Originality/value - In the extant literature, there is a paucity of research that has illustrated multi-stakeholder perspectives in the public sector. This paper explores the perceptions of two main stakeholders in public healthcare to map and assess management issues influencing purchaser-provider cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the UK National Health Service (NHS) has been characterised by radical and continuous change at every level. Within the literature, and the NHS itself it is argued that successfully changing such an organisation requires the sustained commitment, trust and goodwill of staff As part of developing and maintaining mutual trust and commitment it is widely argued that employers must meet the employee expectations which form part of the psychological con tract, an important element of which, Armstrong argues, is being able to trust in management to keep their promises. Within this paper we argue that policies can be seen as a visible manifestation of management promises and present the improving working lives (IWL) policy within the NHS as an example of one such "promise" that has been made to staff in relation to areas which are important to them at a personal level. Using an anonymous questionnaire that explored areas central to ML, data were collected from staff in five Primary Care Trusts within one Strategic Heath Authority in relation to their experiences and awareness of what was being done to address these issues. The research found that although the IWL Standard makes very public promises about work-life balance, harassment, equality and the valuing of staff at best these have only been partially delivered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports that the British Department of Health will be publishing a Green Paper on a New Vision for Adult Social Care imminently. The paper which is about ensuring that service delivery systems achieve person-centred care services, is partly being shaped by the department's Care Services Efficiency Delivery programme, which aims to develop a partnership with local councils to improve the quality of services for vulnerable adults, and release £6.45 billion across local government to benefit frontline staff over the next three years. From April 1, 2005, the Department of Health has also announced that seven of its programmes that work with organisations supporting people of all ages with health and social care needs will be integrated in a bid to reduce bureaucracy and bring together good practice and service improvement. The seven initiatives will be brought together in a dedicated care services improvement partnership which will be part of the Social Care Institute for Excellence.

The article focuses on improvements in services across the National Health Service (NHS) of Great Britain. This is due to changes in attitude and culture since the introduction of the NHS Plan in the year 2000. The NHS now faces further challenges to put patients at the centre of service planning and provision.

The article discusses the role of Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in transforming the approach to healthcare for a major British government department. It says that Defra take a holistic view of employee health and provide comprehensive occupational health and support services to promote wellbeing. It also says that Defra has a poor managerial and staff awareness and therefore underutilization of available services through the contracted healthcare provider and no strategic framework that aligned good staff health and wellbeing at work with the achievement of organizational goals and performance.

This article reports that in recent years, care services for older people have rarely been out of the news in Great Britain. Mounting public concerns about the current state of care services and worries that the situation might be even worse in the future led the King's Fund to set up its Care Services Inquiry in late 2003. The aim of the inquiry has been to look at what is happening now and to find out whether older people are getting the care and support they need through the current care system. The inquiry has focused on London where care market conditions are particularly problematic. London faces distinctive challenges in planning and delivering care and support for older people, given the age and ethnic profile of its population and the high costs of land, property and labour, all of which affect the demand for and supply of care services. Half way through the investigation, all the evidence considered by the independent committee of inquiry has confirmed that there are real causes for concern about care services in London. It is true that the committee has heard about good practice and positive developments benefiting older people, but it has heard much more about bad practice, service shortcomings and worries about the future.

This article reports on the announcement made by British Health Secretary John Reid that a national screening programme for bowel cancer will be rolled out across England from April 2006. The £37.5 million programme will involve two screening methods, from April 2006, men and women in their sixties will be screened using a method which involves looking for blood in stools. There is clear evidence that using this method can cut the death rate for bowel cancer by 15%. Large-scale pilots of a second method of screening involving endoscopies will also be carried out involving people in their late fifties. The average age when bowel cancer is first discovered is 65, and it becomes increasingly common with advancing age.