In this update:

·         public spending ·         older Australians ·         disability care ·         rural disadvantage ·         governance ·         complex problems ·         indigenous services ·         indigenous clients ·         indigenous child health ·         efficiency measurement

·         health effectiveness ·         cancer treatment ·         dental labour force ·         children's heart services ·         children's palliative care ·         emergency departments ·         prescription charts ·         health transport ·         health impact assessment ·         food regulation ·         suicide

·         mental illness impact ·         parents mental illness ·         prison drug use ·         autism ·         residential care ·         volunteers ·         youth work ·         youth services ·         post school pathways ·         rental housing

	The changing composition of public spending  Spending on social security, personal social services, health and education has become an increasing focus of public spending. Between them these accounted for nearly two thirds of all public spending in 2010–11, up from less than half 30 years before. UK Inst Fiscal studies (Aug 2011) Caring for Older Australians Inquiry report Productivity Comm (Aug 2011) Disability Care and Support Inquiry report Productivity Comm (Aug 2011) Postcode Justice - Rural and Regional Disadvantage in the Administration of the Law in Victoria Deakin Uni (Jul 2011) A development tool to support emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups with their governance arrangements includes a review of governance literature, national and international, in both public and private sectors, within healthcare and beyond. UK NHS Leadership (Aug 2011) Taking responsibility for complexity When is a policy problem complex, why does it matter, and how can it be tackled? UK Overseas Developement Institute (Aug 2011) Taking Care of Business: Corporate Services for Indigenous Primary Health Care Services – Overview Report suggests that the process for developing models appears to be more important than having a specific model or structure to apply at the outset. This means that the initial costs of developing shared approaches to delivery of corporate services is likely to be significant (particularly when both the consultation and infrastructure development needs are considered). Lowitja Institute (Aug 2011) Byalawa project  a website and a set of six online videos designed to assist health sciences students across a range of disciplines learn to effectively communicate with Indigenous patients and clients. Understanding and Improving Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health in Canada The goal of the report is to create a better understanding of and support for programs and initiatives that have the potential to reduce health disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. Health Council of Canada (Aug 2011) A Hybrid Approach to Efficiency Measurement with Empirical Illustrations from Education and Health In both education and health, there is growing realization of the need to look beyond the number of people passing through a facility to the difference that the facility makes to the lives of the people passing through it...This paper proposes a new approach that blends the themes of Data Envelopment Analysis and the Stochastic Frontier Approach to measure overall efficiency World Bank (Aug 2011)
	Comparing the USA, UK and 17 Western countries’ efficiency and effectiveness in reducing mortality In cost-effective terms, i.e. economic input versus clinical output, the USA healthcare system was one of the least cost-effective in reducing mortality rates whereas the UK was one of the most cost effective over the period. UK Royal Society of Medicine (Aug 2011) Achieving World Class Outcomes in Cancer Treatment (free registration required)In this presentation, Prof Richards addressed five questions about the NHS achieving world class outcomes in cancer: (1) What would ‘world class’ look like (2) What measures are appropriate? (3) Where are we now? (4) Why are England's outcomes below the best? and (5) What do we need to do to close the gap? UK OHE (Jul 2011) Dental labour force Australia The supply of dentists in Australia grew from 46.6 to 50.3 full-time equivalent practising dentists per 100,000 people between 2000 and 2006 AIHW (Aug 2011) Safe and Sustainable review on the future of children’s congenital heart services concentrating surgical expertise onto fewer sites and bringing non-surgical care closer to home will benefit patients UK NHS (Aug 2011) Local square table learning and evaluation report discussions between those who provide children’s palliative care, those who use the services and those who play a wider part in supporting children, young people and families. UK Children's Hospices (Aug 2011) Emergency Communication: Addressing the challenges in health care discourses and practices ineffective communication has been identified as the major cause of critical incidents in public hospitals .... This project, by examining spoken interactions between health-care practitioners and patients in hospital emergency departments identified and analysed causes of misunderstandings and breakdowns. more NSW UTS (Aug 2011) Standards for the design of hospital in-patient prescription charts The evidence base to support the patient safety advantages of standardised prescription charts is limited but exists UK RCN (Aug 2011) Transport for health and social care, looks at transport arranged by the Scottish ambulance service, NHS boards and councils to take people to and from health and social care appointments... Badly planned transport results in unnecessary journeys, missed or late appointments, people staying in hospital longer than they need to and reliance on unplanned options such as taxis...Greater coordination of transport for health and social care could lead to significant improvements and financial savings. Scotland Audit (Aug 2011) Evaluating Health Impact Assessments in New Zealand HIA evaluation is typically based on health promotion evaluation literature and uses process, impact and outcome evaluation. NZ Health (Aug 2011) Regulation on food intended for infants and young children and on food for special medical purposes Consultation to seek views on European Commission's proposal UK Health (Aug 2011) The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness Suicide rates among people with mental illness in England and Wales have fallen over the last decade...•In-patient suicides in England are at their lowest level since 1997 with 94 recorded in 2008 compared to 214 in the first year of the Annual Report. UK Uni Manchester (Aug 2011)
	The Experience and Support Needs of Adult Siblings of People with Mental Illness and Delphi study MIFA (Jul 2011) Supporting Parents with Mental Health Needs in Systems of Care Research indicates that children with parents/caregivers with significant mental health needs are at greater risk of involvement in the child welfare system. US TAP (Jul 2011) Prescription drug use among detainees: Prevalence, sources and links to crime 19 percent reported having recently used pharmaceutical drugs for non-medical purposes in the past 12 months—nearly five times as high as reported by the general Australian population AIC (Aug 2011) Autism: a guide for criminal justice professionals updated (download from "Also available" link) UK National Autistic Society (Aug 2011) The Low Review: Personal Mobility in State-Funded Residential Care Personal mobility is the ability to get around. People can face additional costs associated with mobility because of their disability UK Review (jul 2011) Development of an ACT Volunteer Statement The ACT Government is preparing a set of principles to recognise and support volunteers a...it will represent a whole-of-government approach and will support organisations working with volunteers by providing a framework of principles ACT DHCS (Aug 2011) Youth Work in Australia: Reflections and Aspirations youth work around the world, history of youth work in Australia, aspirations and the future AYAC (Jul 2011) An evaluation of approaches to commissioning young people's services local authorities are not always considering the voluntary and community sector, charities, or other arms of the public sector, when commissioning services for young people. UK Ofsted (Aug 2011) Which paths work for which young people? identifies various educational paths involving school and post-school study and assess the effectiveness of these in relation to post-school outcomes at age 25 years..., for males, undertaking an apprenticeship after completing senior secondary and university are attractive paths. For females, the best path is that of university study, even for those with low academic orientation LSAY (Aug 2011) Making a Rented House a Home: Housing solutions for ‘generation rent’ proposes a new approach to build-to-let development, demonstrating that institutional investment has the potential to be part of the solution to meet the housing needs of those on low-to-middle incomes who are unable to buy a home. UK Resolution Foundation (Aug 2011)