Long-term conditions: making sense of the current policy agenda

This article is first of a series focusing on long-term conditions and aims to guide district nurses through the whole raft of policies that are currently emerging from the Department of Health for England and Wales. The article provides an overview of current policy by taking the reader through the initiatives, starting with population-wide prevention and concluding with policies focusing on clients with complex needs. The main triggers for government health strategies and the influence of models from the United States are discussed. The national service framework for long term conditions is explained and used as an example of the current emphasis on generic, rather than condition-specific, initiatives. The article concludes by drawing the initiatives together within the most recent model to come out of the Department of Health--the NHS and Social Care Model.