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News and Views

Keep up to date with our latest news and blogs. 

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  • Sheila Ali
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  • (-) Abeda Mulla
  • (-) Andrew Jones
16/09/2026
News

Despair now accounts for one-sixth of all years of life lost

Deaths from drug misuse, alcohol use and suicide, often referred to as deaths of despair, are on the rise.  New research, by the Strategy Unit and the Health Foundation, show how deaths rates vary by sex and socio-economic deprivation, and how these rates changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

**Alt text:** Line chart showing casemix-adjusted odds of admission from April 2025 to January 2026. Values fluctuate around 0.9–1.15 from April to August, then rise sharply from September and remain mostly between 1.2 and 1.5. The series peaks at approximately 1.56 in January 2026. Dashed horizontal lines show reference and control limits for the earlier and later periods. 19/08/2026
News

Tracking Hospital Admission Thresholds Within Emergency Departments: A Feasibility Study

This new analysis explores the concept of hospital admission thresholds and assesses the feasibility of tracking these thresholds within emergency departments.

Colorful watercolor brush stroke on transparent background 06/05/2026
News

Adopting the Core20PLUS5 approach: different strokes for different folks?

This blog describes the headline findings from the first phase of the national evaluation of the Core20PLUS5 approach

Overhead view of a busy city intersection with wide white zebra crosswalks filled with dozens of pedestrians walking in different directions across the asphalt. People carry bags and backpacks, and some pull rolling suitcases, creating a dynamic crisscross pattern against the bold striped crossings. 13/02/2026
News

A journey into intersectionality

A practical exploration of intersectionality, testing theory through quantitative analysis of hospital readmissions.

05/11/2025
News

Strengthening ethnicity data across the NHS: developing the national improvement plan

Our analysis and stakeholder engagement supported NHS England to develop the national Ethnicity Recording Improvement Plan.

30/01/2025
News

Our collective responsibility to share evaluation findings

The Strategy Unit is increasingly being commissioned to undertake evaluations on the pre

03/12/2024
News

Evaluating NHS England’s national approach to tackling healthcare inequalities

NHS England have commissioned the Strategy Unit to evaluate the national Core20PLUS5 approach for reducing healthcare inequalities.

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.

18/10/2022
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?

15/10/2021
News
Better use of analysis | Comparative Analysis | Elective care | Finance and payments | Problem Structuring

Strategy Unit devises a new method for classifying outpatient appointments

The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year.

12/02/2021
News
Evaluation and impact assessment | Learning and development | Public health and prevention

Share your good practice in increasing vaccine uptake

The Strategy Unit will undertake a rapid qualitative project to identify, collate and share, good practice across England in increasing COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

09/12/2020
News
Elective care | Emergency care | Evaluation and impact assessment | Mental health | Primary, community and social care services

Evaluating Artificial Intelligence: a significant new win

The Strategy Unit, the Health Economics Unit and Leicester Clinical Trials Unit have been announced as evaluation partners to support success in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Awards.     

Thumbnail 08/03/2019
Blog post

Time to act for sex and gender parity in health and care

On International Womens Day 2019, Abeda Mulla from the Strategy Unit reflects on our gendered society that has led to poorer health outcomes in women.

13/07/2018
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

Thumbnail 19/03/2018
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.

Thumbnail 22/12/2017
Blog post

Want to have better access to general practice appointments?

Here’s how we can support practice staff to improve access.

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