
Things can only get better (?)
Introducing a new online tool to help local health and care service planners think differently about healthy ageing.

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.

Our collective responsibility to share evaluation findings
The Strategy Unit is increasingly being commissioned to undertake evaluations on the pre

Why can’t I prove my programme is effective?
Evaluation blog series continues with Impact Evaluation Lead Mike Woodall looking at how programme designers can maximise the chances of success.

The merry-go-round of evaluation recommendations
A blog series and short reports sharing how to design projects to best support evaluation.

‘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?

Inclusive Elective Care Recovery
These case studies present the key features and learning from local initiatives which championed inclusive approaches to elective care recovery.

No more suffering in silence, we want to talk about the menopause
To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, Karen Bradley, Principal Consultant at the Strategy Unit, and Susan Blakey, Senior People Consultant at MLCSU, two advisors involved in the recent project, ‘Menopause and the NHS Workforce’, discuss its significance and share what they want to see happen as a result of the published report.

Helping ICSs to reduce inequalities in access to planned care
Are there inequalities in access to planned care? If so, what are they? Which groups ‘gain’ and which groups suffer? And what could be done to address any inequalities? In pursuing their objective of reducing inequalities, what could Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) do? What strategies and approaches are likely to be successful?

Strategies to reduce inequalities in access to planned hospital procedures
In our 2021 report, we described how people living in more deprived areas have poorer access to planned hospital care than their more affluent counterparts.
Analytical Collaboration for COVID-19
Between March and December 2020 the Health Foundation; King’s Fund; Nuffield Trust; and the Strategy Unit collaborated to provide
Lessons, Evaluation and Learning from the Dudley MCP
Learning from Dudley MCP
Learning and Development of Problem Solving Techniques
What is innovation?

Tools & templates: Problem structuring
Problem trees and driver diagrams can help you to understand the causes and effects of your problem.
Knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is vital for sharing good practice, enabling adoption and spread of innovations, and preventing people from making the same mista
Pre-mortem
The pre-mortem technique was developed by Klein (2007) using ‘prospective hindsight’ to identify risks at the outset of a project.

Tools & templates: Other points of view
Use Edward deBono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ or consider a wider point of view, to approach a problem or potential solution from different perspectives.

Tools & templates: Breaking the rules
Generate new ideas to solve a problem – by identifying the underlying assumptions, unwritten rules and thinking that maintain the status quo.