NEW On funding, Andy Burnham says it is possible to do more within current budgets - "I mentioned people coming into hospital and long stays" Says the NHS loses "several billions pounds a year" to unnecessary / extended hospital stays

Burnham says principles from Casey include 'home care wherever possible' Questions of what it covers and what is funded are for Casey's review

Burnham - We will have independent Casey review a year from now (brought forward from 2028) Care has to be very integrated, preventative and person-centreree

Burnham: Social care doesn't live in its own silo - it's intrinsically linked to the NHS There is no way we can restore the NHS to the standards we'd want to see without reforming social care

Andy B: it's a major dereliction of duty that parliament has not cracked care Says gaps in care often lead to people calling 999 - once that's done it's very difficult to prevent admission of frail person, they are sucked in

Louise Casey: some of our asks to improve care will be modest and some will be less modest Says "we can do difficult"

Yvette Cooper speaking in north London before Andy Burnham says "We cannot keep walking around this problem" - argues it was 50 years ago Barbara Castle first sought to integrate health and social care

Is it too much to hope that today's speech presents social care as a positive thing in itself? Not just an adjunct to healthcare, not just for older people, but a service which can & should enable 1000s of people with physical disabilities, mental health issues, learning disabilities to thrive? 1/2

Dave West @ HSJ@davewwest.bsky.social · last wk.

Aside from hospitals - preventative support and care in the community surely need to be a big part of 'neighbourhood health' and 'integrated health organisations'. At the moment the connection is rather sketchy . Ends

Trailer tonight for Andy Burnham social care speech tomorrow No10 again emphasises the link with NHS pressures - the Notes claim "cuts to social care funding between 2010 and 2018 led to an estimated additional half a million A&E attendances a year for people aged 65 and over".

In his first speech as defence secretary, Wes Streeting reiterates his record at health in "achieving the biggest reduction in waiting in 17 years". Is that record still looking as good?

Trailer tonight for Andy Burnham social care speech tomorrow No10 again emphasises the link with NHS pressures - the Notes claim "cuts to social care funding between 2010 and 2018 led to an estimated additional half a million A&E attendances a year for people aged 65 and over".

A positive + not insubstantial step on care reform Interesting also to see the official PR include range of comments that also point out the change relies on other big decisions - funding to pay for pay increases, and something to enforce them t.co/mp7vm4xwWW

A must read from @alicesemark.bsky.social @stkaye.bsky.social @re-state.bsky.social on supporting the adult social care workforce … great examples including Wigan & recommendations 👇link to report in thread. @adass.bsky.social @nuffieldtrust.org.uk @blimeysimon.bsky.social @davewwest.bsky.social

Re:State@re-state.bsky.social · 4w ago

Today, we’ve published ‘Care to stay’ with recommendations to support the adult social care workforce including: 1 – DHSC should introduce a voluntary register for frontline care workers 2 – the Digitising Social Care Programme should be significantly expanded

My read of Burnham's speech on devolution is, though, that Burnham does get the agglomeration stuff, and the political issue will be the 'what about places that either don't *want* to be run by their cities?' or thornier still, as @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social mentioned here, that don't have one:

The Manchester project encapsulating Burnham’s growth vision

The Piccadilly underground station under negotiations would show the vote-winning fruits of fiscal devolution

ft.com

I (ironically) fell over on the way to the physiotherapist today and grazed my face, knees, and hands. But NEVERMIND, I have a new podcast episode out with the HSJ www.hsj.co.uk/hsj-download... talking ambient scribes, responsibility, and the single patient record. Give it a listen!

The HSJ Download Podcast: Who is responsible when AI goes wrong?

Ben Clover, Ella Devereux and Joe Talora are joined by Dr Jessica Morley to discuss how best to regulate AI in healthcare.

hsj.co.uk

Carers, people with care needs and carers’ organisations are encouraged to have their say on how to improve Carer’s Allowance in major review of benefit that opens today www.gov.uk/government/n...

Views sought to transform benefit paid to carers

Opening today (Tuesday 7 July 2026) the six-week call for evidence will gather views on: modernising the earnings limit to reduce the impact of the current cliff edge, improving predictability for car...

gov.uk

Nice to have some unbridled good news, in this day and age. Girls who got the HPV vaccine at 12 and 13 have pretty much zero chance of dying from cervical cancer before 30. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

HPV vaccine means young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death

A new study finds that hundreds of lives have been saved since school-age girls were offered the HPV jab in 2008.

bbc.co.uk

Still finding this worrying (and unreported). It's summer, and these numbers aren't obviously falling off. Recent numbers for Enfield, Haringey, Islington + Hertfordshire seem to suggest a North London-centred outbreak is still expanding.

It's Friday afternoon. What better time to sort out your entry to the #MJAawards @phoebeivy.bsky.social @davewwest.bsky.social @madlendavies.bsky.social @abirimmer.bsky.social @andrewgregory.com @cbwickware.bsky.social Enter here before June 1: mjauk.org/enter-the-20...

Enter the 2026 MJA Awards - Medical Journalists’ Association

Dates Entries open: 11 May 2026 Entries close: 10 June 2026 Finalists announced: August 2026 Awards ceremony:22 September 2026 Award Categories 2026 Case Study The Dr David Delvin Award for sex and se...

mjauk.org

The Streeting legacy - Health Bill bang on 200 pages just dropped on Parliament publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...

Let's remain optimistic for the Single Patient Record, no matter how low its chances might seem

Dave West @ HSJ@davewwest.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Some irony in Healthwatch England's findings being cited in the case for the government's proposed NHS Modernisation Bill - the bill that will also scrap HWE

Some irony in Healthwatch England's findings being cited in the case for the government's proposed NHS Modernisation Bill - the bill that will also scrap HWE

Do poor towns really have the worst hospitals? Analysis here of new data that helps map NHS provider quality against their patient deprivation profile. lawrencedunhill.substack.com/p/do-poor-to...

Do poor towns really have the worst hospitals?

New data helps map the quality of NHS hospitals against the deprivation profile of their patients.

lawrencedunhill.substack.com

It's not just DHSC where morale is plummeting; the HSJ reports that morale declined in every NHS integrated care board that answered the NHS staff survey in 2025 Worth remembering that these are the people who are supposed to deliver Streeting's 3 shifts www.hsj.co.uk/policy-and-r...

Stuart Hoddinott@stuarthoddinott.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The civil service people survey results are out DHSC has the largest drop in engagement (staff morale) among Whitehall departments, 6ppts from 63% to 57% The dept also had a *13 ppt* drop for its leadership and managing change theme Seems like NHS England abolition is causing serious discontent

Shades of Herbert Morrison.

New ICB chairs in South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester will for the first time report to their elected Mayors (as health commissioners), as well as to NHS England/SofS on their NHS responsibilities. Could make for an interesting dynamic

Co-chairs named for DHSC advisory group on frailty & dementia MSF , including @jkdhesi.bsky.social & neighbourhood health guidance is expected to (finally) land this week I understand The centre has been slow on integrated care policy lately, but they're some small steps forward...

DHSC declining to confirm a Phase 2 for the neighbourhood implementation programme In reply to a Parliamentary question from @helenmorganlibdem.bsky.social

Don’t blame the government – NHS ‘conservatism’ is holding back change stark piece on HSJ today from @joemcmanners.bsky.social - about the stalling of 'neighbourhood health' & associated agenda to shift power and resource to the community www.hsj.co.uk/service-rede...

Don’t blame the government – NHS ‘conservatism’ is holding back change

Neighbourhood health has momentum and support, but without structural reform to funding and authority, the NHS risks slow implementation

hsj.co.uk

#ntsummit Baroness Casey mentioning the ageist way that Dementia/Frailty gets labelled in effect as social problems not clinical diagnoses/medical problems and so get marginalised in funding/service priorities