Self-Management Today - December 2009

 Issue 1 December 2009

 Welcome

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the first edition of Self-Management Today, the new newsletter from the new National Register of Self-Management. As a community of volunteers and professionals all committed to improving the lives of people with long-term conditions we aim to keep you up to date with the latest news, views and advice in the world of self-management.

One of the first things we would like to do, is thank everyone who entered our competition to name this newsletter. We would like to congratulate Ember Vincent from Brighton who won with Self-Management Today. We think you will agree - it does what it says on the tin! A £10 M&S voucher is on its way to you now. Also, thank you to everyone that has already contributed their ideas on what they would like to see within this newsletter. There were some brilliant ideas so watch this space to see some of them in future editions. But don’t let your ideas stop there, we are always open to feedback and suggestions on ways to improve - see below for details on how you can contact us.

So here we are, the new National Register of Self-Management. But one of the main things on a lot of people’s minds is… “What is it?” The Department of Health is committed to providing the highest quality self-management courses to people living with long-term health conditions in England and this new register is a way of ensuring that only fully accredited tutors are delivering these courses. Tutors, who become members of the register, can choose to display their details to PCT's looking for tutors to run particular courses. PCT's will be able to demonstrate that they are only using accredited tutors to deliver courses.

www.selfmanagement.co.uk is the website of The National Register of Self-Management. Members of the register will be able to log on to the site to update their details, access new and amended course materials, find more training opportunities and find out about local and national conferences and events. www.selfmanagement.co.uk will be one of our main portals of activity and communication. It’s still in its infancy and currently it is a way for new tutors to add their details to the register. As it grows we hope it will become a centrepiece for the Self-Management community. It is live now so please feel free to go and have a nose and let us know what you think. We are also interested in finding out what you would like to see on the site; downloadable resources, a central calendar of training and events or perhaps a library of self-management and self care literature? Call us on 0333 344 1800 (free call from mobiles with bundled minutes and a normal local rate call from landlines) email info@selfmanagement.co.uk

We hope you enjoy the first edition of Self-Management Today!

 The Department of Health and The National Register of Self-Management

By Angela Hawley, Self Care Lead, Long Term Conditions Team, Department of Health

In 2002 the Department of Health (DH) set up the Expert Patients Programme to look at the effectiveness of self care across the NHS. The pilot was a huge success. Following this success DH looked at ways to continue to support the growth of self care and in response, set up a Community Interest Company to take this forward. EPP CIC was established in April 2007 to deliver courses, maintain the quality of those courses, and support the growth of self management at grass-roots level.

EPP and the derivatives continue to be delivered by  EPP CIC and NHS organisations under licence from Stanford University. The terms of the license require that courses are delivered only by accredited tutors and to ensure that this quality standard is maintained DH have asked EPP CIC to establish and maintain a National Register of accredited tutors and trainers.

It is important for patients and for commissioners to know that the people delivering courses are appropriately trained and will deliver a quality experience to individuals. The National Register is open to everyone who is trained to deliver Stanford courses, and we hope that this quality measure will add to the evidence for commissioners that there is value in commissioning lay-led self-management courses for people with long term conditions.

 Self Care Week 9th - 15th November 2009

By Angela Hawley, Self Care Lead, Long Term Conditions Team, Department of Health

The first national Self Care Week was held during 9-15 November 2009 to raise public awareness of the support available to help people stay fit and healthy and encourage them to take a more active role in decisions about their care.

A key focus was to promote awareness of the offer of a care plan and the support people should expect from the NHS to help them to self care - all part of DH’s efforts to raise public awareness of what self care means to people with long-term conditions, and the public. The successful campaign was supported by a range of activity across the NHS and voluntary sector. PCTs and other organisations arranged events across the country to help promote the week, including launching specific self care initiatives and linking with seasonal health messages. EPP CIC held a launch event for the evaluation and promotion of the Self Care For You Programme and Simon Knighton (CEO EPP CIC) promoted activities in Kirklees via a radio interview for BBC Radio Leeds. The DH have captured some of the fantastic activity which took place to promote the campaign. Please visit Self Care Week Activity Review for a summary of the weeks events.

For more information visit www.nhs.uk/yourhealth

 Supply and Demand within the Self-Management Community

By Phil Baker, Operations Director, Arthritis Care

The ability to match demand for accredited tutors with supply, across all areas of England, has long been a major challenge for provider organisations.

In the last few years organisations delivering Stanford self-management courses have come together in various ways, through the T Trainer group and the Steering Group of SS2Q and QISMET, to discuss, develop and implement better ways to monitor, train and support our staff and leaders.

The new Register of Self-Management has the potential to facilitate more movement of accredited tutors across various organisations so that programmes can be delivered more efficiently and effectively. While the inherent element of competition between providers cannot be ignored, the use of proper management protocols should see a growth in contact between providers, as well as a developing dialogue among a wide range of organisations about the best use of the incredible resource the trained and accredited tutors represent.

 A short insight into a Lead Trainers life in Denmark

By Nicolaj Holm Faber - Projektkoordinator

Denmark has been offering CDSM courses through the municipalities for 5 years. I’m lead trainer and besides running trainers workshops frequently, I spend a lot of energy supervising trainers and give speeches, mainly to nurses, physiotherapists and other groups within the Health Care system, who have doubts about patient to patient education. It is quite funny confronting them with the concept and the outcomes. I’m pleased that we can be inspired from our British neighbours.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years from Denmark
Nicolaj

 Have your learning recognised through the Open College Network

Thanks to the work of EPP CIC and the OCN Credit 4 Learning, the National Register of Self-Management is able to offer all accredited self-management tutors, who are on the register, the opportunity to apply for Learning Credits.

Learning Credits are a way of measuring and valuing your learning. They are nationally recognised and accepted as means of entry into employment or further and higher education colleges. Accredited tutors trained to deliver EPP courses in England can now be awarded with 15 credits which is the equivalent to A level achievement.
If you are trained and accredited as a Tutor for an Expert Patient Programme Course (CDSMC – in accordance to the license and guidelines of Stanford University) in England then you should be eligible to apply for Learning Credits.

It depends when you were trained and accredited as a tutor. We would need to know who trained you and who accredited you, when and how long ago. You may be asked for proof of accreditation when applying.

If you are interested please contact Louisa Austin on 01225 731421 or louisa.austin@eppcic.co.uk to request an application form or visit the  Learning Credits page on this site. For more information visit OCN Credit 4 Learning

 Calling all tutors.....

You are the people who are working in Self-Management on a daily basis. What we would like to do is a round-up and share interesting articles, news, events, training and best practice, in each edition. Obviously we will try and keep abreast of things here but if you see anything that you think would be of interest to other tutors then please let us know. Whether it’s from your local paper, on a TV programme, radio programme or a national or Sunday newspaper.

If you see something, please let us know! Call 0333 344 1800 email info@selfmanagement.co.uk

 Tell us what you think

Self-Management Today will be published every two months and we will send it out mainly via email but there will also be a link to a printable version our new website www.selfmanagement.co.uk. We will post a printed version to anyone who does not have an email address.

We are a new organisation and we are very interested to hear your feedback; what you like, what you don’t like, what you would like more of? Why not become one of our contributors? If you are interested please do let us know.
The National Register of Self-Management The Tramshed Beehive Yard Walcot Street Bath BA1 5BD
Email: info@selfmanagement.co.uk Telephone: 0333 344 1800