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Have cuts to public spending on social care for older people led to more emergency hospital admissions?
Cuts to council social care budgets are often cited as a cause of pressure on NHS urgent and emergency care services. Much of the evidence supporting this link, however, is anecdotal. We set out to try and quantify the effect of cuts to social care on older people’s use of emergency healthcare services, and our research has just been published in BMJ Open.
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**
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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’.
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Simple tools for improving healthcare - Tool 2: A clear theory of change
At heart, the Strategy Unit has a very simple belief.
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
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.
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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.
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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.
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Scenario planning – an antidote to the false certainties of forecasts and grand plans
The resurgence of uncertainty
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HSJ Article - Why are A&Es feeling the strain?
Article published by HSJ on 3rd November 2017.