Today, the Health Foundation launched the REAL Centre (Research and Economic Analysis for the Long term), an incredibly important initiative to improve long-term planning for health and social care.  The centre’s launch report, the bigger picture, has a simple premise; that if we can understand the changes that have taken place in health and social care and the factors that have driven these changes, then we might be better placed to plan for the future.  The report is based on a detailed and rigorous analysis of the trends in health and social care activity since 2000.  Insights emerge that we miss when we take a shorter-term perspective.

We recommend the report to anyone who wants to understand how policy decisions and demographic pressures combine to shape our health and social care service.

We were delighted that the Health Foundation asked for our support to undertake the detailed modelling that underpins this report and look forward to many more inspiring outputs from the REAL Centre over the coming years.