Caroline has been a medical librarian in a variety of NHS and academic roles since 1999, working in academic, primary and secondary care settings, service improvement, knowledge management, and on several high profile national projects.
She has a PhD in Computing and currently develops resources to support evidence-based cost and quality, including QIPP @lert, a blog highlighting key reports from health care and other sectors related to service improvement and QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity, Prevention). She also delivers training and resources to support evidence identification and appraisal for cost, quality, service improvement, and leadership.
She is co-author of the Searching Skills Toolkit, which aims to support health professionals' searching for best quality clinical and non-clinical evidence. Her research interests are health management, commissioning, public health, consumer health information literacy, and knowledge management.
She currently works as a Knowledge and Evidence Specialist for Public Health England, and works on the Commissioning Elf in her spare time.
This guide is an excellent example of developing resources to help learn from good practice. It has been written for all commissioners and providers, but in particular clinical commissioners, and mental health commissioners and practitioners. Primary care mental health The first section of the guide gives a comprehensive overview of the state of primary care [read the full story…]
Anyone can suffer from mental illness, but current mental health services may not be appropriate for the whole population. People from black and minority ethnic groups may have different requirements, and this guide aims to help commissioners reduce inequalities by procuring good health care for all. This guidance has been produced by the Joint Commissioning [read the full story…]
This new guide from the Royal Society for Public Health is most relevant to commissioners, providers, local authorities, people working in health improvement and public health practitioners. Take a look and see which areas will be most useful to you in terms of reducing health inequalities and improving health and wellbeing in your area.
This report provides everything that is needed for people working in mental health services to make a business case for investing in early and community-based interventions. This includes, commissioners, practitioners, local authorities, policy-makers, providers, and social care. As part of this document, the authors have provided the evidence for the cost-effectiveness of a range of [read the full story…]
This guidance has been published and should be read alongside the Commissioning Policy A05 Complex and Specialised Obesity Surgery Services of the NHS Commissioning Board April 2013. It has been sponsored by the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society, and is supported by a number of relevant professional bodies, including the Association of UK Dietitians [read the full story…]
The National Health Service is aiming to provide a patient-centred health service, and this involves all staff and all departments. NHS England has produced four “bite-size guides to patient and public participation”. The guides, in particular the first one, are aimed at clinical commissioning groups, to help them involve the public, especially patients and carers, [read the full story…]
This practical guidance has been written to help commissioners, service providers, nurses, medical, and allied health professionals, understand the difference care and compassion can make to the service experience of frail older people, and also to the financial situation of health and social care organisations. The guide covers the following themes: Reducing healthcare-related harm Care [read the full story…]
This work, developed by accountancy firm Mazars LLP, has been commissioned by NHS Confederation and Strategic Health Authority Mental Health Leads. It is a diagnostic tool aimed at mental health commissioners working for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), helping them to identify where the gaps are in their local service provision and what they need to [read the full story…]
The King’s Fund has just published this report, which describes how the health and social care workforce are coming up with new models for delivering primary care, to support the “current system of commissioning”. The report is aimed at commissioners, GP staff, and related stakeholders, including social care and local authorities, and promotes improved liaison [read the full story…]
This collection of case studies is aimed at all people involved in the development and delivery of quality health services, in particular, commissioners, local authorities, voluntary sectors, and health professionals in all settings, including primary and secondary care. Some of the CCGs are also working with organisations from the retail sector, for example John Lewis. [read the full story…]
