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Our work

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Blog post 09/04/2025

Transforming Hospital Planning with an Open-Source Demand and Capacity Model​

​​We are proud to announce the open-sourcing of a demand and capacity model, developed with the New Hospitals Programme, to transform NHS hospital planning with transparency, collaboration, and efficiency. ​

Blog post 27/03/2025

‘Internal Consultancy’: INSIGHTS from evidence and experience

In this blog, our Head of Policy, Fraser Battye, shares his reflections on a recent ‘SU INSIGHTS’ event on the ‘Internal Consultancy’

Blog post 14/02/2025

Charisma

In this long read, which first appeared in the HSJ, Fraser Battye - our Head of Policy – looks at the role of charisma and innovation in the way that NHS resources are allocated.

Blog post 10/10/2024

Ara Darzi, Wes Streeting and English health policy. Part 2: cutting the knot

Following on from part one, Fraser continues exploring the Gordian Knot of English health policy.

Blog post 04/10/2024

Ara Darzi, Wes Streeting and English health policy. Part 1: the Gordian Knot

Health policy is not at a crossroads, it is in a bind. Strands so entangled, so complex they resemble a Gordian knot. Can this knot be untied?

Old medicine bottles
Blog post 16/07/2024

The risks of risk stratification

Medical history is full of bizarre and gruesome procedures.

Confused man
Blog post 20/05/2024

Want to ease pressure in urgent care? Simply cut community services!?!

What should decision makers do with analysis that challenges deeply held assumptions? In this blog, Fraser Battye reflects on a surprising recent finding about community services.

Blog post 23/06/2023

Exploring the Edge of Tomorrow, Today

Exploring the critical building blocks for a resilient social care system in 2035 with the West Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (WM-ADASS).

Blog post 12/05/2023

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.

Blog post 26/07/2022

Inequalities in access to healthcare - what’s our next move?

Our research, published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe, highlights substantial inequities in access to elective hip replacement surgery. We found no evidence that these inequities reduced between 2006 and 2016.

Blog post 13/05/2022

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.

Blog post 15/09/2021

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.

Blog post 09/09/2021

The impact of social care on demand for urgent hospital care: have we reached a consensus?

The care home COVID crisis and the effects of longstanding staffing and funding shortages has meant that social care has featured heavily in the media over the last 12 months. 

10 min review
Blog post 06/08/2021

Decisions to admit patients are not solely determined by clinical risk

Whether or not to admit a patient is one of the most routine yet important decisions a doctor in an Emergency Department

Blog post 28/01/2021

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.

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

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.

Blog post 08/03/2019

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.

Blog post 18/02/2019

Emerging from the silos: how the NHS can support economic growth

The Strategy Unit has been leading the way on supporting local NHS bodies to consider the wider economic impact of how they operate. Here, David Frith highlights what a shift this is for the NHS, along with the range of opportunities NHS bodies should consider exploring.

Blog post 06/02/2019

They don’t believe you

Continuing our mental and physical health guest blog series, Sophie Corlett the Director of External Relations at Mind provides some perspectives from people with physical ailments who are users of mental health services.

Blog post 09/01/2019

Mind and body: inseparable twins

Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation, reflects on the relationship between mental and physical health and the need for better integration of care.

Pagination

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