As the role of nursing associate grows in number, we need to understand it better. Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, introduces us this new role and how it’s set to complement the NHS Long Term Plan’s workforce strategy.

Nick Kirby, managing director of the Shelford Group, explains why supporting social care is important for healthcare organisations

The NHS is tackling mental health at work – and every organisation can follow suit, writes Sue Covill

The NHS Confederation’s international director Layla McCay discusses whether genome sequencing will really help patients

Responding to the decision to extend Brexit to 31 October, Niall Dickson, Brexit Health Alliance co-chair and NHS Confederation chief executive, called for an end to the Brexit ‘circus of uncertainty’.

Levels of demand on the health service are not slowing down, which places even more strain on an overstretched system, Nick Ville has said in response to the latest NHS performance statistics.

The concept of integrated care is not a new one, points out Nav Chana, chair of the National Association of Primary Care, as he recalls various policy initiatives over his professional life time attempting to deal with the issues of care coordination between health and social care.

With 5,821 suicides in the UK alone, 135 people affected by each one, and many of them preventable, Dr Phil Moore, chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners’ Mental Health Commissioners Network, writes on an international collective that’s addressing avoidable gaps in UK and international healthcare systems

With an outmoded pension scheme for the NHS, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, looks at options for updating it.

Senior male leaders in healthcare, who hold a great deal of power and privilege, should offer their allegiance to those who may benefit from it, writes Sam Allen, chair of the Health & Care Women Leaders Network.

Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Mental Health Network, responds to NHS England’s announcement that all areas of England have access to specialist mental health services

Responding to today’s NHSX announcement, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, said it must draw on front-line expertise.

Any future plan for social care must address massive unmet and under-met needs across the country by widening eligibility, writes Nick Ville, director of policy and membership at the NHS Confederation, which is a leading the Health for Care coalition.

As workload kept increasing at Cambridge Community Services’ DynamicHealth Musculo-skeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Services, the time came to stop fire-fighting, take a step back and look again at how best to provide services to their MSK patients. Richard Cooper, non-executive director at the trust, tells the story of success although there is still more that can be done.

Over the past 1000 days or so since the vote to leave the EU, it’s fair to say we’re no closer to knowing what the future looks like outside of it. For Wales, this has presented a multitude of challenges across a range of sectors.

With the government increasingly handing responsibility of local skills provision to metro mayors, combined authorities and local enterprise partnerships, The NHS Confederation and NHS Employers supported Aurea Jones’s application to the Mayor of London’s Skills for Londoners Business Partnership as part of their work to help NHS leaders understand the wider skills agenda and how to influence it. Here Aurea, director of People Strategy at Barts, reports explains how it all works.

When 15 different health and third sector organisations say social care needs a long-term financial settlement, it must be time for change. Glen Garrod, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, finds encouragement in the NHS Confederation-led Health for Care coalition.

In response to a new BMA report on public health: Prevention Before Cure: Prioritising Population Health, Nick Ville, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said government must end short sighted cuts to public health services.

Devolution is inherently a place-based issue and isn’t just about workforce, writes Michael Wood, local growth advisor at the NHS Confederation.

We welcome this report which finds an important contribution is made by EU nationals working in social care