- Page 47 of 72 - SA Mathieson

Four Scottish communities purchase their neighbourhoods

Helped by grant money, three community groups have succeeded in purchasing their land collectively

Today on the Guardian’s Social Enterprise Network I write about two decades of community land ownership in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. Assynt Crofters’ Trust bought the land on which 13 townships stand on 1 February 1993, and the majority of the huge, but very lightly populated, area around Lochinver is now owned by its community. Today sees a further step, with a government-funded community purchase (the Scottish Land Fund, via the Big Lottery Fund) of the smokehouse in Achiltibuie, a little to the south – along with three announcements elsewhere in Scotland. Continue reading “Four Scottish communities purchase their neighbourhoods”

CSUs: NHS commissioning support units set to spend around £670m a year

Other maps of the new NHS: clinical commissioning groups (CCGs); local area teams (LATs); specialised commissioning hubs and clinical senates.

I’ve previously written about the development of CSUs on this blog, and it’s now one of the main subjects of my first report for EHI Intelligence. Budgets and staff numbers from a sample of the 22 CSUs suggest they will set a total budget of approximately £670m for the 2013-14 financial year, and employ about 8,500 staff. It’s been covered by my colleagues on the EHI newsdesk, and there’s more details on the report here. Continue reading “CSUs: NHS commissioning support units set to spend around £670m a year”

ID cards Shred Day, two years later

On 11 February 2011, I got on a train to Witham in Essex to witness Home Office minister Damian Green destroying hard drives used for the ID cards’ National Identity Scheme – and took photos including this one. (That’s Mr Green, in the hi-vis vest, tie and black gloves.) The resulting news story is here, along with a gallery. ID cards Shred Day was, at the very least, surreal. Continue reading “ID cards Shred Day, two years later”

NHS Commissioning Board local area teams map: naming with LAT-itude

List and links to individual pages on local area teams

Other maps of the new NHS: clinical commissioning groups (CCGs); commissioning support units (CSUs); specialised commissioning hubs and clinical senates.

I’ve been looking at NHS local area teams as part of a forthcoming report for my employer EHI Intelligence, which will also cover CCGs and CSUs. LATs, the 27 local offices of the NHS Commissioning Board, are another part of the new structure of NHS that comes into force as of 1 April. Among other things, they will provide access to centrally-run ICT systems such as NHSmail.

And, this being the NHS, the local area teams map below based on a PDF from the commissioning board* features names that don’t exist on any current map of England, or at least not in the same shape. There are some names shared with CCGs and CSUs – although there are also LATs which break new ground. Continue reading “NHS Commissioning Board local area teams map: naming with LAT-itude”

NHS specialised commissioning hubs and clinical senates mapped

Following the Health and Social Care Act 2012, April 2013 saw the management of the NHS in England being extensively reorganised, under a new central organisation named NHS England (originally the NHS Commissioning Board). NHS England set up 27 area teams to act as its local offices: these are mapped here, along with links to pages on each of the teams including their contact details.

NHS specialised commissioning hubs

As well as the area teams, NHS England set up 10 specialised commissioning hubs, mapped below, which are responsible for leading the commissioning of specialised services in the NHS in England, including the direct commissioning of military and prison health services. There is more information on NHS England’s work on direct commissioning of services here.

The 10 areas are quite similar to the 10 strategic health authority areas that were abolished at the end of March 2013, but with a few differences: for example, Dorset migrated from the south-west into the area previously known as South Central and now called Thames Valley and Wessex. Continue reading “NHS specialised commissioning hubs and clinical senates mapped”