Telecare eNewsletter December 2014

Welcome to the December 2014 newsletter from Innovate UK (previously Technology Strategy Board), Knowledge Transfer Network and the Telecare Learning and Improvement Network.

Launched October 2005, our free monthly newsletter is now distributed to 48,000 subscribers in the UK and worldwide via e-mail and archived at www.telecarelin.org.uk. You can also find highlights on Rebelmouse (daily) or by following Mike Clark on Twitter (@clarkmike). With over 500 news and event links over the last month, we hope that you find this newsletter useful.

After an additional £700m to support hospitals this year, the Chancellor's Autumn Statement has identified nearly £2bn of extra cash for the NHS in England from next year. NHS England's Board recently looked at how the money will be allocated. The extra funding comes at a time when the NHS has recorded its worse two weeks of hospital waiting times against the four hour target. The Government has announced further spending cuts for local authorities which could impact on how social care is provided. The NHS Mandate for 2015/16 has been published - the arrangements for digital and technology remain similar to the 2014/15 mandate. The final Better Care Fund Plans are expected in the coming weeks ready for an April 2015 commencement along with substantial changes brought into effect by the Care Act 2014 in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland face similar pressures on their health and care systems as funding remains very tight. NHS England is now expecting new care models to be developed in 2015 as part of the extra cash investment but there will also be significant efficiencies to be found. The recent 'Five Year Forward View' and 'Personalised Health and Care 2020' report set out some of the potential models and milestones for technology and digital innovation. As 2015 commences, new toolkits are expected for technology enabled care services. The Long Term Care Revolution continues its national discussion ahead of its competition launch in Spring 2015. New conferences are being added to the listings including the RSM event in February and King's Fund Digital Health and Care Congress in June 2015 (current call for papers). Along with the usual links listing, there is an extra supplement this month covering public domain links to telecare in England (more coverage to come in 2015) - if you know of further projects and programmes, then do let us know.

For weekly news, updates and information, you can register with Innovate UK's ALIP group and the dallas group. You can follow the dallas programme on Twitter at @dallas_connect. You can also follow the Long Term Care Revolution at #LTCRevolution or via Facebook.