‘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’
From ‘right drift’ to ‘left shift’?
Our Head of Policy, Fraser Battye, looks at the challenges facing the intention to shift care ‘from hospital to community’. He suggests that we have missed a critical part of the explanation for why this ‘left shift’ hasn’t taken place following previous initiatives.
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.
‘NHS 10 Year Plan’: Strategy Unit consultation response
The Strategy Unit’s response to the Government’s current consultation on the ‘10 Year Health Plan’ for England.
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.
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?
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.
Playing our part in conversations about death
“Dad, why are all your ‘peptalks’ about death?” Children can be a source of fundamental insight. They seem to specialise in feedback of the unvarnished, unmediated and fully caffeinated variety. The kind of feedback that cuts straight to it. My youngest daughter, mid-way through our sunny walk down the hill to school, pressed on: “And you wear black all the time. You look like a crow…” Fundamental insight, and now fashion advice. This was quite the school run.
A Picture of End-of-Life Care in England
Working with Macmillan our analysis investigates who is more likely to experience poor outcomes associated with shortcomings in end-of-life care? Are there particular areas in England where those at end-of-life face significant challenges and how might the supply of services in an area be influencing these?
Population health implications of the Covid-19 pandemic
Our new report for The Midlands Decision Support Network (MDSN) presents findings of the effects of the care disruption, from the Covid-19 pandemic, on population health. The in-depth analysis identifies which patients and health conditions should be the focus of future efforts in reducing inequalities caused by the pandemic.
Securing the future of domiciliary care
The Strategy Unit is embarking on an exciting project with WM ADASS, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care Services in the West Midlands to explore the challenges facing domiciliary care and the opportunities that exist to transform and improve the service.
Estimating the impact of the proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act on the workload of psychiatrists
In January 2021, the Government published a White Paper, setting out its plans to reform the Mental Health Act.
Inequities in children and young people’s mental health services
Good mental health during early years and childhood has a great bearing on health throughout life.
How can analysis help clinicians improve services? Interview with Dr Anna Lock
Dr Anna Lock, Justine Wiltshire and Lucy Hawkins reflect on the Strategy Unit's innovative end of life care analysis. How can this work help clinicians to improve services?
Learning from lockdown: support for people experiencing homelessness
There are few clearer measures of societal health than homelessness.
End of Life analysis: what next? A perspective from Catherine Walshe
‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes’.
End of Life analysis: what next? A perspective from Seamus O'Mahony
In this blog, the author of ‘The Way We Die Now’ - Seamus O’Mahony – sets our findings into a broader context. He also examines one topic raised in our analysis: chemotherapy at the end of life.
Mental Health Surge Model
Early in the Covid pandemic, it became clear that people’s mental health would suffer. Whether through bereavement, unemployment, social isolation, not being able to access support services – or a host of other routes – an alarming picture began to emerge and attract attention.
Why are deaths set to rise?
In our recent analysis of healthcare use in the last 2 years of life, we point out an important change that’s taking place to life and death in the UK.
Health service use in the last two years of life
Health and care services get just one opportunity to support people at the end of their life. When this support is compassionate and appropriate, unnecessary suffering can be avoided and grieving can be eased. When this is not the case, harm and distress can result. The difference in these experiences can be profound.