Website of the Department of Health

John Boyington, Director of Health and Offender Partnerships, National Offender Management Service (NOMS) announces DH funding for the development of clinical services for drug users in 45 prisons; 17 of which will also receive funding to develop an integrated model of care for substance misusers.

Contact: Mary Piper on 020 7972 4952

Department of Health (DH) and Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Permanent Secretaries have sent a letter to GO Regional Directors and SHA Chief Executives. It describes the new national framework for the DH’s regional presence and asks them to develop a memorandum of understanding. The letter builds on CMO’s letter of March 29th 2006. For full information please go to:

On 2 August, Lord Warner announced a nationwide programme of projects to pilot recommendations made by the Independent Pathology Review chaired by Lord Carter, and to provide evidence for further reforms. For details, and the Review Report, see:

The Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards currently has a number of vacancies for employer (chief executive) and lay members on its regional committees. If you wish to express an interest or know somebody who does, please complete an application form from the ACCEA website at:

A new annex, Annex J, has been added to the Guidance on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Agents: Safe Working and the Prevention of Infection. This gives essential advice to clinicians on pre-surgery assessment to identify patients with, or at risk of, CJD. See:

The deadline for PCTs to return the data required for part of the calculation of the booking element of the Directed Enhanced Service (DES) payment is 12 September 2006. For the full letter:

Trusts holding post mortem human organs and tissues under existing restrictions should note that the Human Tissue Authority has issued a Code of Practice, which includes guidance on the disposal of existing holdings. More at:

(i) The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is due to come into effect in April 2007. A Best Practice tool has been developed to help organisations in successful implementation of the Act. The tool is available in the first instance to statutory organisations and independent and voluntary hospitals.

A further £40m will be available to certain Local Authorities for 2007/8 to develop new extra care housing places in England. Bids will only be accepted electronically between Monday 25 September and Tuesday 3 October 2006.

From 1 September 2006, changes to the NHS complaints regulations will come into force bringing the NHS complaints regulations closer to social care complaints procedures in advance of implementing the Our health, our care, our say White Paper commitment to an integrated NHS and Social Care complaints procedure by 2009. For more information see: