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.

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.

Menopause and the NHS workforce
The impact of the menopause on the NHS workforce. The Strategy Unit and Health Economics Unit report on their mixed methods findings.

Learning about what works in urgent community response
The initial report from the national urgent community response (UCR) evaluation, along with an economic modelling tool to help service providers and systems understand the impact of UCR, is now available.

The NHS as an anchor institution: addressing fuel poverty
The number of households in fuel poverty in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (SSoT) is higher than the national average. As anchor institutions, NHS organisations can use their assets to influence the health and wellbeing of their local communities. The Strategy Unit was asked by the Midlands NHS Greening Board to evaluate a cross-sector initiative in SSoT to help alleviate fuel poverty using savings generated through solar panels on NHS buildings. The project is called Keep Warm, Keep Well.

MDSN: Decision-making by senior leaders to support recovery from COVID
This paper summarises experiences of Integrated Care System leaders in making strategic decisions to support recovery of services from
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

Urgent Community Response – What Works?
The Strategy Unit, with our partners Ipsos, has been commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) to provide a long-term national evaluation of the Urgent Community Response programme rolled-out across England. The programme aims to shift resources to home and community-based services as part of the NHS commitment to providing the right care, to the right people, at the right time. And there are a range of outputs from the early work that provide learning for local systems as they develop their services.

We don’t just need to hear ‘you are more affected’ - what’s the action?
The experience of minority ethnic people symptomatic for COVID-19 in the first UK wave of the pandemic.

Strategy Unit devises a new method for classifying outpatient appointments
The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year.

Learning the lessons of Long Covid in real time
Round table event, 12 July

Increasing vaccine uptake
The purpose of this work was to identify the key features of local initiatives which encourage vaccine uptake in different population groups, and share these for others to learn from.

Reviewing the evidence on digital inclusion
Digital technology is a significant part of our daily&nb

Evidence review: Early diagnosis of cancer
Detecting cancers early is essential to saving lives and reducing the need for invasive treatments.

Making sense of evidence
It's time to celebrate World Evidence-Based Healthcare (EBHC) Day. In a world dominated by COVID-19 and the associated infodemic, this day arguably has more resonance. Closer to home, EBHC Day also coincides with our Insight 2020 festival and the launch of the Midlands Decision Support network. What better opportunity to ask, 'what does evidence-informed decision making actually mean'?
Measuring what matters in systems – A call for person-centred intelligence
The Strategy Unit and Ipsos MORI launch guide to implementing Person-Centred Intelligence.

Exploring Mental Health Inpatient Capacity
This report explores the pressures on inpatient mental health services across Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships in England, drawing on a wide range of datasets, published research and interviews with staff working on mental health services. The report was commissioned by and includes a response from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

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.
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