We’ve issued a joint resource alert with NHS England and the Royal College of Physicians, to support acute and ambulance trusts to adopt the revised National Early Warning Score (NEWS2).

We have published practical guidance to help you to identify areas for development and improve the effectiveness of leadership and governance arrangements in relation to Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU).

Ian Dalton and National Guardian, Henrietta Hughes, have also outlined our expectations of boards and board members, which include using the guidance to take your board through a self-review exercise and create an improvement action plan.

A reminder that in order to complete your mandatory cyber security submission before the deadline you must register by 8 May.

So far, less than half of trusts have registered for an account. Please make sure you register so you can access the system before the 11 May deadline.

If you missed yesterday’s masterclass on improving practice in the reduction of Gram-negative blood stream infections, the masterclass presentations and information on the improvement collaborative are now online.  The Single Oversight Framework now includes E.coli infections  to support board level assurance on improving infection rates.

You can also join in with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Hand Hygiene Day this Saturday. WHO have published resources (including a video and infographic) you can use to raise awareness and improve hand hygiene and infection prevention in your organisation.

Switching from high-cost branded medicines to equally safe and effective biosimilar and generic versions saved the NHS more than £324 million in 2017/18.

Our ACT Academy has launched an online library of QSIR tools  — a comprehensive collection of over 90 proven tools, theories and techniques that can be applied to a wide variety of quality improvement projects.

We’re offering the opportunity for 14 professionals in director-level positions to develop skills needed to take on the role of CEO within the next two years.

As part of our ongoing support to pathology networks, we have added more resources to the pathology networks toolkit, including:

• Clinical governance toolkit
• Operational governance guide
• Essential services laboratory design: blood sciences
• Consolidation framework
• Legal watchpoints guide

As part of the NHS 70 celebrations we have over 400 tickets to give away to NHS staff for some fantastic sporting events.

From Wimbledon to Wembley, there’s something for all sports fans. First up is the chance to win one of 20 tickets to watch the Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley on 5 May 2018.

Thursday 10 May, 1.30 – 2.30pm

Join this webinar to find out how our new improvement tool can help you find out where your biggest delays are in transfers of care, and how you can track progress over time.

Friday 11 May, 10am – 3pm, London

Join our masterclass to understand the conditions needed to develop successful leadership within the ambulance sector, and learn to design a set of success measures to support leadership development.

Tuesday 29 May, 9.45am – 4pm, London

The session will draw on research and practice from other sectors on high-performance, productivity and workforce sustainability, as well as reflections from board members themselves, considering the most effective responses to workforce challenges.

This event is part of our board member development programme running throughout the year, and is open to all board members of both NHS trusts and foundation trusts.

Tuesday 10 July, 10am – 3pm, Wellington House

This event is for NHS trust and foundation trust chairs to discuss challenges and network. Our chair, Dido Harding, will be attending and Steve Russell, our London Executive Regional Managing Director, will be providing a regional update.

National tariff workshops: Monday 11 June — Thursday 28 June, London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham

Mental health tariff workshops: Wednesday 13, Tuesday 19 June and Tuesday 26 June, London, Leeds and Birmingham

At the end of the month we will release proposals for the 2019 national tariff for engagement. As with previous years, we are going to be holding a series of workshops, but this year the events will be smaller group meetings focusing on discussion and feedback from attendees.

Wednesday 16 May, 3.30 – 4.30pm

There is to be a second phase of the Joint VCSE Review which considers how the VCSE sector and health and social care agencies can partner together. It will include a revised set of recommendations to prompt local and national action.

Join the Chair of the VCSE Review Alex Fox, President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Glen Garrod, and Director for Experience, Participation and Equalities at NHS England Neil Churchill at a launch webinar aimed at community trust CEOs.

• Provider bulletin: 25 April 2018