A patient safety alert has been issued to help you transition to the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) framework, which introduces standard terminology to describe texture modification for food and drink.

Transitioning to IDDSI will help you prevent patient safety incidents because of local variations in terminology used to describe thickness of food for patients requiring a modified texture diet (including eliminating imprecise terminology such as ‘soft diet’).

Pressure ulcers are a largely avoidable healthcare problem. Our new recommendations for a revised definition and measurement framework (for April 2019 implementation) and national educational curriculum are part of the national Stop the Pressure campaign to help reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers.

Boards, please ensure you have robust systems and quality improvement programmes in place to support the national programme, with a clear link to quality, patient experience and financial metrics.

People with learning disabilities, autism or both can find it difficult to access NHS services and, in turn, receive much poorer experiences as a result.

We have developed four standards to address these needs. They are made up of improvement measures and actions to help you to achieve them.

Patients with some types of brain tumour could avoid long stays in hospital if trusts adopted an urgent care pathway. The new report from the GIRFT programme includes 15 recommendations to support a more productive cranial neurosurgery service, helping to treat patients more promptly, free up hospital beds and avoid bottlenecks.

Friday 6 July, London

The full agenda for our annual improvement event is now available — including a panel discussion with East London NHS Foundation Trust’s Dr Navina Evans, NHS Highland’s Elaine Mead and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s Dr Bob Klaber titled ‘how can you successfully embed improvement into the DNA of your organisation?’

The day will also feature keynote speeches from healthcare leaders and breakout sessions on flow, creating the right culture for continuous improvement and improvements in patient safety.

Tuesday 3 July, 12.30pm – 1.30pm

This webinar will help boards use our FTSU guidance to evaluate their speaking up leadership behaviours and arrangements — with advice on building a strategy with a lasting impact and an opportunity to have your questions answered.

Earlier this month the Home Office announced that doctors and nurses will be excluded from the cap on skilled worker visas. This means there will be no restriction on the numbers of doctors and nurses who can be employed through the tier 2 visa route.

As part of next week’s NHS70 celebrations, a major new NHS recruitment campaign will be launched on 3 July. The campaign will initially focus on nursing roles, but will highlight other roles in the future. We will be providing materials and assets for NHS organisations to use for all their recruitment activity. Further details will be shared with trusts shortly.

The innovative red bag scheme is improving care experience and communication between care homes and hospitals. When a resident becomes unwell and is assessed as needing hospital care, care home staff pack a dedicated red bag including the resident’s paperwork, medication, day-of-discharge clothes and other personal items.

NHS Sutton clinical commissioning group (CCG) found residents with a red bag spent four days less in hospital — saving £167,000 a year.

• Provider bulletin: 20 June 2018