In 2002, the King's Fund commissioned a major inquiry into the state of the capital's mental health and mental health services and how far they meet the needs of service users. The inquiry set out to: investigate whether mental health care had improved in the capital since the King's Fund ...
Most formal care services for older people are funded by the public sector, but they are largely supplied by independent providers. This paper looks at what factors influence the 'mixed economy' of the care market, including what funding is available and from where, and how commissioning works, and the role ...
In January 2006 the Department of Health published Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services. It is the government's seventh White Paper on health since coming to office in 1997 and, after several years of reform aimed at the acute hospital sector, it represents what ...
Primary care trusts (PCTs) provide a broad and complex range of community-based services. However, the commissioning and management of these services have been a challenge for the NHS and in particular for PCTs. As PCTs provide community health services, there is a potential conflict of interest for their role as ...
Unhealthy behaviours - smoking, alcohol misuse, poor diet, lack of exercise - lead to ill health, with resulting costs to individuals, to the NHS and to society as a whole. PCTs are expected to commission support to help people change their behaviour to adopt healthier lifestyles - but what should ...