Opening the ‘black box’ of scenario planning through realist synthesis
Scenario planning is recognised as an effective aid to strategic planning in complex, uncertain conditions. It is an approach that the Strategy Unit is increasingly building into its work with health and care systems and third sector organisations.
Exploring Mental Health Inpatient Capacity
This report explores the pressures on inpatient mental health services across Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships in England, drawing on a wide range of datasets, published research and interviews with staff working on mental health services. The report was commissioned by and includes…
Clinical Workforce Scenarios for the Black Country
The future is highly uncertain. Unless we consider the diverse factors that could affect health, our plans will lack creativity and sustainability. The challenges facing NHS systems are headline news: NHS structures are frequently the subject of organisational change; new policy directives; funding…
Waiting Times and Attendance Durations at English A&E Departments
In March 2019, NHS England is expected to report the outcome of its review of constitutional waiting times targets. This report reviews the factors that have led to the decline in performance against one of these targets - the 4-hour target for Accident and Emergency Departments. The analysis…
The Potential Economic Impact of Virtual Outpatient Appointments in the West Midlands: A scoping study
The Strategy Unit was recently approached to examine the case for a shift from traditional outpatient services to the use of virtual and remote access technologies for appropriate outpatient appointments. An essential part of this assessment was broadly scoping the potential socio-economic impacts…
The Status of Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems in the West Midlands
Commissioned by NHS England, this report describes the state of electronic palliative care coordination systems in the West Midlands. It draws on a review of the literature, interviews with local NHS staff and responses to information requests. As people approach the end of their lives…
Intelligence-driven health and care: phase two
Following on from the Design Summit in May, the Strategy Unit has continued to work on how Intelligence-driven health and care can improve outcomes for patients and local communities. The project, commissioned by MLCSU, aims to explore the emerging intelligence needs of the health and care sector…
Making the case for integrating physical and mental health services in England - National overview
This is a national overview report of our Making the case for integrating physical and mental health services reporting which took place in July 2017. The original reports looked at the physical health of people who use mental health services; life expectancy, acute hospital use and…
Risk and Reward Sharing for NHS Integrated Care Systems
Risk and reward sharing is a simple and attractive concept, offering a commissioner the opportunity to co-opt and incentivise a provider to moderate growth in healthcare demand by sharing in the savings or cost over-runs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a US government…
Horizontal or Vertical: Which way to integrate?
In 2011, Primary Care Trusts faced a difficult choice. The Transforming Community Services policy required a complete break of commissioner and provider functions. But what should PCTs do with the community health services they delivered; vertically integrate with an acute trust, horizontally…
Palliative and End of Life Care Report for Children and Young People
Commissioned by NHS England, this report describes the the characteristics and levels of resource required by children and young people (CYP) (0-25 years) with life limiting conditions and/or life threatening conditions (LLC). The scope of this report does not attempt to explain or address the…
Dudley MCP Scenario Analysis
Dudley is one of fourteen vanguard sites nationally developing the Multispecialty Community Provider (MCP) care model. The MCP involves the implementation of new organisational relationships that are intended to result in new system dynamics, incentivising the actions that can improve population…
Identifying Potential QIPP Opportunities - Dudley Example
Given the pressures within the NHS, being able to identify opportunities for efficiencies and improvements is vital to inform commissioning intentions. This report is an example of analytical work which to support commissioners. The objective of this report is to provide information to…
Palliative and End of Life Care in the West Midlands
Commissioned by NHS England, this report describes the status and context of palliative and end of life care services in the six Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships in the West Midlands. The report contains data on trends and forecast numbers of deaths, place of death, palliative…
Changes in Dementia Incidence, Prevalence, Severity and Mortality
Dementia is a key priority for NHS England and is estimated to affect around 676,000 people in the country. Our analysis is intended to help understand the need for future dementia diagnosis and treatment services in a specific area and to help commissioners to identify and…
Changes to Admission Thresholds
This analysis builds on a paper, Changes in Admission Thresholds in English Emergency Departments, which explores changes in the casemix of patients attending emergency departments (EDs) and the propensity of EDs to admit patients. The report incorporates additional analysis commissioned by…
Making the Case for Integrating Mental and Physical Health Care - Full Report.
An analysis of the physical health of people who use mental health services: life expectancy, acute service use and the potential for improving quality and using resources more efficiently. The Strategy Unit, inspired by earlier research published by the Nuffield Trust, has created a ground…
Integrated Impact Assessment for Major Hospital Reconfiguration
The Strategy Unit worked as a strategic partner of the NHS Future Fit Programme in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin from its initiation and until it was able to move to public consultation. A key output was a comprehensive Integrated Impact Assessment of acute hospital options that enabled…
The Effect of Demographic Change on Acute Hospital Utilisation
Recognising that the effect of population ageing can be overstated, we set out to ask what effect an older population will have on demand for health and care services. Here, we explain why typical approaches ‘overlook the fact that rising life expectancy makes … older people “younger”,…
Scoping the Future (CRUK)
Within the context of rising demand for diagnostic services and concerns about capacity, Cancer Research UK commissioned this project to explore the issues for endoscopy services, to inform national strategic recommendations.