Implementation pathway report: Community Resource Person An intervention by the Technical Support Unit Uttar Pradesh, India, February 2015

A report describing the methodology behind an implementation pathway for the Community Resource Person innovation being implemented by the Technical Support Unit (a large-scale collaboration between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Uttar Pradesh government) in Uttar Pradesh, India

Setting priorities to inform assessment of care homes’ readiness to participate in healthcare innovation: a systematic mapping review and consensus process

© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedOrganisational context is known to impact on the successful implementation of healthcare initiatives in care homes. We undertook a systematic mapping review to examine whether researchers have considered organisational context when planning, conducting, and reporting the implementation of healthcare innovations in care homes. Review data were mapped against the Alberta Context Tool, which was designed to assess organizational context in care homes. The review included 56 papers. No studies involved a systematic assessment of organisational context prior to implementation, but many provided post hoc explanations of how organisational context affected the success or otherwise of the innovation. Factors identified to explain a lack of success included poor senior staff engagement, non-alignment with care home culture, limited staff capacity to engage, and low levels of participation from health professionals such as general practitioners (GPs). Thirty-five stakeholders participated in workshops to discuss findings and develop questions for assessing care home readiness to participate in innovations. Ten questions were developed to initiate conversations between innovators and care home staff to support research and implementation. This framework can help researchers initiate discussions about health-related innovation. This will begin to address the gap between implementation theory and practice.Peer reviewe

Strengthening Integrated Primary Health Care in Sofala, Mozambique

Background: Large increases in health sector investment and policies favoring upgrading and expanding the public sector health network have prioritized maternal and child health in Mozambique and, over the past decade, Mozambique has achieved substantial improvements in maternal and child health indicators. Over this same period, the government of Mozambique has continued to decentralize the management of public sector resources to the district level, including in the health sector, with the aim of bringing decision-making and resources closer to service beneficiaries. Weak district level management capacity has hindered the decentralization process, and building this capacity is an important link to ensure that resources translate to improved service delivery and further improvements in population health. A consortium of the Ministry of Health, Health Alliance International, Eduardo Mondlane University, and the University of Washington are implementing a health systems strengthening model in Sofala Province, central Mozambique.Description of implementation: The Mozambique Population Health Implementation and Training (PHIT) Partnership focuses on improving the quality of routine data and its use through appropriate tools to facilitate decision making by health system managers; strengthening management and planning capacity and funding district health plans; and building capacity for operations research to guide system-strengthening efforts. This seven-year effort covers all 13 districts and 146 health facilities in Sofala Province.Evaluation design: A quasi-experimental controlled time-series design will be used to assess the overall impact of the partnership strategy on under-5 mortality by examining changes in mortality pre- and post-implementation in Sofala Province compared with neighboring Manica Province. The evaluation will compare a broad range of input, process, output, and outcome variables to strengthen the plausibility that the partnership strategy led to healthsystem improvements and subsequent population health impact.Discussion: The Mozambique PHIT Partnership expects to provide evidence on the effect of efforts to improvedata quality coupled with the introduction of tools, training, and supervision to improve evidence-based decision making. This contribution to the knowledge base on what works to enhance health systems is highly replicable for rapid scale-up to other provinces in Mozambique, as well as other sub-Saharan African countries with limitedresources and a commitment to comprehensive primary health care

Valuable assets : a general formal investigation into the role and status of classroom assistants in Scotland's primary school

Based on the earlier pilot research conducted by SCER, the EOC instigated a General Formal Investigation (GFI) of the role and status of classroom assistants in Scotland's primary schools. As part of the GFI, SCER was commissioned to conduct a national survey of classroom assistants, teachers and head teachers. Primary data was generated from a Scotland-wide, large scale survey sent to over 1000 primary schools. Interviews were also conducted with Directors of Education and the Scottish Executive Education Department

Addressing the Health Needs of an Aging America: New Opportunities for Evidence-Based Policy Solutions

This report systematically maps research findings to policy proposals intended to improve the health of the elderly. The study identified promising evidence-based policies, like those supporting prevention and care coordination, as well as areas where the research evidence is strong but policy activity is low, such as patient self-management and palliative care. Future work of the Stern Center will focus on these topics as well as long-term care financing, the health care workforce, and the role of family caregivers

Championing the extended schools social workers role – prevention and practice

Introduction The Every Child Matters (ecm) policy and rollout of Extended Schools agenda, has massively changed the social agenda in schools and there an industry of practitioners working in schools has arisen. Enter professional social workers into the arena and the Extended Schools Social Worker (ESSW) role is born. This report charts the development and progress of this role and explores its remit and scope. Methodology Five participants included a team colleague, school link person, school manager, educational psychologist and social care manager were interviewed to obtain a rounded view of the ESSW role. A composite case study was constructed based on generic details that typify issues tackled in this preventative role. This served as a basis for discussion about the role. A series of reflections linked to how the policies were implemented in practice, termed ‘reflective policy’ were then grouped in themes. Findings: The findings suggest that social workers do have an important role to play in prevention and are having a positive effect on the profession’s image. Referrals are seen to arrive in social care by a circuitous route and ESSWs are bringing social work skills and knowledge to improve safeguarding approaches in schools. The level of severity of casework has been on the rise, in a climate of increasing demand on social care systems. There are risks associated with the role and although the acknowledgment of consent prior to family engagement is a helpful one, it brings a new risk of managing what is known prior to consent. There is a need for greater management resources and sustainability. A more equal partnership with schools promoted. Strengths include the range of activities tailored to local community needs, the scope of the role and opportunities to link with and promote CAF (Common Assessment Framework) systems including TACs (Team Around the Child)