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News and Views

Keep up to date with our latest news and blogs. 

  • Better use of analysis
  • Learning and development
  • Problem Structuring
  • Emergency care
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  • Paul Seamer
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  • Dr Patrick Aldridge
  • Jane Greenstock
  • Justine Wiltshire
  • Mike Woodall
  • Patricia Lacey
  • Professor Kiran Patel
  • Sharon Townsend
  • Victor Yu
  • (-) Fraser Battye
  • (-) Peter Spilsbury
  • (-) Simon Bourne
  • (-) Zaheera Teladia
  • (-) Jake Parsons
  • (-) James de Lacy
12/05/2023
Blog post
Better use of analysis | Learning and development

Diagnosing harms?

All medicines are poisons. Everything that cures could kill if administered in the wrong doses, to the wrong people, at the wrong times, in the wrong ways.

21/04/2023
Blog post
Learning and development | Public health and prevention

Could a peer review methodology help drive continual learning within and across local systems?

In this blog Karen describes how peer review methodologies are being used to support learning in Long COVID services.

11/03/2022
Blog post

Treating people on waiting lists: who decides what is fair?

Waiting lists for elective care are in the news. The national plan has been issued, with the expectation that lists will continue to rise for some years - and that long waiting will not disappear anytime soon. Addressing this ‘backlog’ will remain a fundamental challenge for some time to come.

09/11/2021
Blog post
Better use of analysis | Learning and development

The Intellectual Forum: a source of fresh perspectives on decision making  

The literature on decision making is like a disaster movie highlights reel. Barely has one calamity registered before another serious misstep takes its place. Case study after case study flashes past, each with its own lessons and warnings.  

15/09/2021
Blog post
Comparative Analysis | Emergency care | Problem Structuring

Infant feeding problems, lockdown and attendance at Emergency Departments: what’s going on?

From our previous work, with Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation, we know that lockdown had a significant effect on attendance at Emergency Departments (ED). We also know that this effect was very unevenly distributed: some demographic groups stayed away far more than others.

03/03/2021
Blog post

Localism and the NHS: a case in four stories

In this blog, Fraser Battye makes the case for localism in the NHS. He tells four short stories. He suggests that these stories highlight an opportunity as the NHS enters a period of reform.  

28/01/2021
Blog post
Complex Modelling | Emergency care | Inequalities

Strategy Unit analysis published showing changes in use of emergency departments under lockdown

We know that patterns of access to healthcare have changed during the pandemic.

22/01/2021
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.

15/01/2021
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?

04/12/2020
Blog post

A learning NHS and ‘black box’ analysis aren’t compatible

Data analysis presents a limitless opportunity to improve decision making within the NHS.

16/10/2020
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

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash 03/03/2020
Blog post

Key opportunities for eye health and well being

Eye health and sight loss services have historically had a lower profile in service provision compared to many other specialities. There is a view that the importance of eye health has been underrepresented in many Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) plans.

09/12/2019
Blog post
Better use of analysis | Futures thinking | Problem Structuring

Measuring what matters in systems – A call for person-centred intelligence

The Strategy Unit and Ipsos MORI launch guide to implementing Person-Centred Intelligence.

Thumbnail 14/05/2019
Blog post
Better use of analysis | Learning and development

Population Health Management support

Thumbnail 11/12/2018
Blog post

Why community alternatives to hospital admission don’t (typically) reduce total admission levels

Repeatedly, published evaluations show that community/primary care services interventions with a stated intention to reduce total (or forecast total) emergency admissions to hospital don’t achieve the expected result**

Thumbnail 07/12/2018
Blog post

Innovation and evaluation – a proposition for change, an offer of support

Health and care services in England are labouring under a chronic state of stress – where for many organisations, ‘just about coping’ has become the new normal.

22/11/2018
Blog post

Simple tools for improving healthcare - Tool 3: The naïve question

This is the third in our short series of blogs on ‘simple tools for improving healthcare’.

Thumbnail 09/11/2018
Blog post

Simple tools for improving healthcare - Tool 2: A clear theory of change

At heart, the Strategy Unit has a very simple belief.

Thumbnail 13/08/2018
Blog post
Better use of analysis | Problem Structuring

Part of the solution or part of the problem? Management Consultants and the NHS

I was quoted in a recent Guardian newspaper article which described a London Clinical Commissioning Group’s wasteful use of external

13/07/2018
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.

Pagination

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