News Evaluation and impact assessment | Policy
Menopause and the NHS workforce
Now with the World Menopause Day 2022 update. What is it like to experience menopause as an NHS employee? And what is its impact on both the individuals and the organisations they work for?
News Elective care | Inequalities | Policy | Strategy Development
Helping ICSs to reduce inequalities in access to planned care
Are there inequalities in access to planned care? If so, what are they? Which groups ‘gain’ and which groups suffer? And what could be done to address any inequalities? In pursuing their objective of reducing inequalities, what could Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) do? What strategies and approaches are likely to be successful?
Blog post Emergency care | Policy | Primary, community and social care services | Public health and prevention
Infant-feeding problems during the pandemic
Emergency department attendances fell dramatically and systematically during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. This effect was almost universal, affecting people from all parts of society and for all health conditions. But in our recent paper we highlight one notable exception to this rule -presentations at Emergency Departments for infant-feeding problems increased during the pandemic.
News Better use of analysis | Inequalities | Learning and development | Policy
Insight 2021
The Midlands Decision Support Network in association with The Strategy Unit hosted INSIGHT 2021 our annual festival of learning and sharing events for the NHS, local government and other partners across health and care (4th – 15th October).
Blog post
Is ‘Integrating Care’ bold enough?
In this blog, Fraser Battye leaves the Strategy Unit’s usual careful and empirical view of the world. He reflects on NHS England and Improvement’s ‘Integrating Care’ paper from the perspective of wider ideological and societal trends. In doing so, he suggests that there is scope for bolder reform – and that localism is the way to go.
Blog post
What might ‘Integrating Care’ mean for analysts?
In this blog, Fraser Battye looks at NHS England/Improvement’s ‘Integrating Care’ paper. While not looking forward to another NHS re-organisation, he sees a lot that analysts will like. Fraser also notes the potential advantage that the Decision Support Unit model gives systems in the Midlands. What can analysts do to seize these opportunities?
Blog post Futures thinking | Policy
The bigger picture
Today, the Health Foundation launched the REAL Centre (Research and Economic Analysis for the Long term), an incredibly important initiative to imp
News Evaluation and impact assessment | Inequalities | Policy
The Strategy Unit and Ipsos MORI partnership
We are delighted to announce our partnership with Ipsos MORI, a leader in social research and evaluation.
Feedback from clients
The Neighbourhood Network Feedback
We have received some fantastic feedback from those who attended our "Science of Improvement" workshop led by our very own Professor Mohammed A Mohammed on Wednesday 27th February 2019.
Blog post
The body keeps the score (do we?)
In this fifth guest blog, in our series of viewpoints on the physical and clinical mental health divide, Dr Paul Turner, General Practitioner at Karis Medical Centre, Birmingham and Joint Clinical Director for Mental Health, NHSE West Midlands Clinical Network describes the cost of untreated complexity.
News Learning and development | Policy
What can the NHS learn from the EU
What could NHS policy makers learn from the European Union?
Blog post Evaluation and impact assessment | Learning and development | Policy | Primary, community and social care services
Brief reflections on Dudley's journey as a Vanguard
With the end of the New Care Models programme there is an opportunity to reflect on what has been learnt at local level.
Blog post
Integrating health and care services - what works? It’s complicated…
Coinciding nicely with the NHS 70th Birthday celebrations and the parallel discussions of ‘where next and how to do it better’ for the NHS, last we
Blog post
Do you like to integrate horizontally or vertically? NHS positions examined
Our latest research paper explores the impact of the different options for integration implemented as a result of the Transforming Community Services policy in 2010. This accompanying commentary reflects on potential implications for the current policy drive towards Integrated Care Systems.
Blog post
Intelligence-driven healthcare: what should the future look like?
Find out about our recent summit on intelligence to drive improvement in healthcare and comment on our working design principles.
News Evaluation and impact assessment | Learning and development | Policy | Primary, community and social care services
Sharing learning from Dudley Vanguard
In 2015, Dudley embarked on an ambitious journey to transform its health and social care services.
Blog post
What works for primary care led integration?
We recently shared highlights from our realist synthesis on primary care-led integrated models, at the Health Policy and Planning Network workshop. Take a look at our presentation for a flavour of our findings ahead of publication later in the summer.
Blog post
Want to have better access to general practice appointments?
Here’s how we can support practice staff to improve access.
News Finance and payments | Learning and development | Policy
Strategy Unit work helping make the case for increased NHS funding
We were pleased to hear Simon Stevens referring to the conclusions of our project in his speech this week setting out the
Feedback from clients
"Shining a light on mental health provision" (Mental Health Report)
Our analysis of the physical health of people who use mental health services is helping to identify strategic priorities and opportunities for improvement in health systems across the country.