Top Menu

  • GitHub
  • National Analyst Network and Huddles
  • SU Insights
  • Sign up for updates
The Strategy Unit

Main navigation

  • About Us
  • Our work
  • Services
  • Contact
  • Training
  • GitHub
  • National Analyst Network and Huddles
  • SU Insights
  • Sign up for updates
  1. Home

News and Views

Keep up to date with our latest news and blogs. 

  • Better use of analysis
  • Comparative Analysis
  • Elective care
  • Emergency care
  • Problem Structuring
  • Inequalities
  • Learning and development
  • Primary, community and social care services
  • Complex Modelling
  • Futures thinking
  • Policy
  • End of life
  • Evaluation and impact assessment
  • Finance and payments
  • Mental health
  • Public health and prevention
  • News
  • Blog post
  • Fraser Battye
  • Peter Spilsbury
  • Abeda Mulla
  • Alison Turner
  • Shiona Aldridge
  • Mohammed Amin Mohammed
  • Lucy Morgan
  • Andrew Jones
  • David Frith
  • Jane Greenstock
  • Jennifer Wood
  • Karen Bradley
  • Mike Woodall
  • Paul Seamer
  • Richard Ward
  • Jonathan Spencer
  • Mahmoda Begum
  • Paul Mason
  • Zaheera Teladia
  • Bethany Mitchell
  • Chris Beeley
  • Claire Maynard
  • David Callaghan
  • Jake Parsons
  • Katie Davies
  • Katie Spanjers
  • Romaana Kapadi-Cooper
  • Sally Thompson
  • Andriana Vinnitchok
  • Anna Parry
  • Ashionye Aninze
  • Carol Raaff
  • Clare Humble
  • Douglas McKelvie
  • Dr Patrick Aldridge
  • Ellie Jones
  • Jacob Lant
  • James de Lacy
  • James Sandy
  • Kathryn Rogers
  • Marya Mobeen
  • Natasha Stephenson
  • Nigel Edwards
  • Professor Kiran Patel
  • Rachel Caswell
  • Rachel Illingworth
  • Sheila Ali
  • Tom Marshall
  • Tom Poustie
  • (-) Steven Wyatt
  • (-) Simon Bourne
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.

Emergency room entrance sign in a street outside of a hospital 12/08/2026
News

Emergency Departments worked better during the strikes. But why?

New research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine explores why emergency departments worked better during strikes.

emergency fire exit sign hanging from the ceiling 11/05/2026
News

Discharge before noon

Can data on discharge times help us to improve hospital flow?

Blue rectangular sign mounted on a brick wall, with a large white left-pointing arrow above the white text ‘your local GP Surgery’ 25/03/2026
News

Big GP practices: light work or spoilt broth?

Larger GP practices may deliver more appointments, but are they the most efficient way to provide good care?

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.

26/09/2025
News

The decline in care continuity is not inevitable

Relational continuity of care, the extent to which patients have an ongoing relationship with a specific clinician in their GP practice, is perhaps

Sarah Cumbers (RSS) presenting Florence Nightingale Award to Strategy Unit staff Tom Jemmett, Jac Grout, YiWen Hon & Chris Beeley 16/07/2025
News

Strategy Unit demand model wins prestigious Florence Nightingale Award

Our open-source demand model, developed in collaboration with the New Hospital Programme, has been named the 2025 winner of the Florence Nightingale Award for Excellence in Health and Care Analytics.

Hospital building 08/04/2025
News

Our role in the New Hospital Programme

​​Learn how the Strategy Unit’s innovative model is transforming hospital planning by providing a consistent, data-driven approach to forecast future demand and evidence-based decision making.

18/04/2024
News

Need, demand, and supply of GP services: an old lens on an ever-present problem

About 20 years ago, I attended a lecture given by Andrew Stevens, a rather formidable and austere Professor of Public Health at the Un

26/03/2024
News

Part-time GPs and the decline in continuity of care: a cause or a symptom?

In our recent paper we explore why levels of care continuity have been declining and what might be done to turn things around.

19/03/2024
News

Two sides of the same coin

Hospital demand arising from GPs not seeing patients, is eating into the resources that they would use to manage down the elective backlog. In turn, this is creating more demand for GPs.

12/03/2024
News

Are GP consultation rates rising or falling? Who or what should we believe?

If the "data suggests" GP appointments are substantially higher than pre-pandemic, then what is behind patients reporting recieving fewer appointments?

04/03/2024
News

GP services: new analysis and fresh insights

In our latest analysis for the Midlands Decision Support Network (MDSN), we explore the long standing problem of access to GP practice consultations we consider the implications, and explore potential solutions.

Strategy Unit and The Health Foundation logos 07/11/2023
News

A collaborative partnership with the Health Foundation

The Strategy Unit is collaborating with the Health Foundation to help address key health and social care issues by combining our expertise in data analysis.

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.

05/01/2023
News
Better use of analysis

Analysts, we need to talk about…….

The future looks incredibly promising for ana

Insight 2022 Day 4 Analytics 24/11/2022
News

Insight 2022 - Day 4 - The future of healthcare analytics

The future of healthcare analytics.

Insight 2022 - Day 1 21/11/2022
News

Insight 2022 - Day 1 - ICSs working together to be intelligence-led organisations: lessons from history

ICSs working together to be intelligence-led organisations: lessons from historyHow can Integrated Care Systems (ICS

04/08/2022
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.

Pagination

  • Next page Next
The Strategy Unit
NHS Logo

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Our work
  • Contact
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility statement

The Strategy Unit 

Copyright © 2025 | Website design by NHS Midlands and Lancashire / NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands.

Accessibility

100%
100%
Scroll to top