November 2021
Inequalities | Policy | Primary, community and social care services
Evaluation of Building the Right Support: Final Reports
Building the Right Support was a national plan to provide better support to people with a learning disability or autism. It said which services and supports are needed to help people whose behaviour challenges services or who have mental health problems. This was because too many people were living…
October 2021
Better use of analysis | Policy
Advancing the analytical capability of the NHS and its ICS partners
The Strategy Unit were asked by the Strategy and Development Team in the Directorate of the Chief Data and Analytics Officer, NHSE/I, to make recommendations for advancing analytical capability across the health and care workforce.
October 2021
Mental health | Policy
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. The Government invited views on the paper and in July 2021, it published a summary of the consultation responses and its plans to address the issues raised. The proposed reforms aim to…
October 2021
Better use of analysis | Elective care | Policy
‘To risk stratify or not risk stratify, that is the question’ (At least, it should be)
Risk stratification tools are ubiquitous in healthcare. The concept is simple and seductive. By predicting the risk of future adverse events, we should be able to target efforts to avoid/mitigate them. Doing so would save both money and misery. But, as Niels Bohr said wryly, “Prediction isn’t…
July 2021
Inequalities | Policy | Public health and prevention
Measuring the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on population health
Measuring the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on population health One feature of the pandemic has been the fast-flowing stream of facts and numbers about the impact of Covid-19. At the same time, we’ve had to absorb the meaning of terms that were previously the preserve of epidemiologists and…
June 2021
Policy | Primary, community and social care services | Public health and prevention
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.
May 2021
Elective care | Inequalities | Policy | Primary, community and social care services
Socio-economic inequalities in access to planned hospital care: causes and consequences
Tacking inequalities in health is a long-standing NHS policy objective. Variation in the experiences and outcomes of different communities during the COVID-19 pandemic served to bring this issue back into focus.
April 2021
Inequalities | Policy | Primary, community and social care services | Public health and prevention
Reviewing the evidence on digital inclusion
Digital technology is a significant part of our daily lives. It has changed the way we interact with each other, the services we use, and the ways we work. The NHS is no exception. Digital technology has begun to change the way health and care services are delivered. And the Covid-19 pandemic …
April 2021
Elective care | Policy | Primary, community and social care services | Public health and prevention
Evidence review: Early diagnosis of cancer
Detecting cancers early is essential to saving lives and reducing the need for invasive treatments. So, in 2019, the NHS Long Term Plan set a national target for increasing the proportion of cancers diagnosed at an early stage. There is room for improvement in current performance. In 2018, 55% of…
March 2021
Policy
A framework for understanding policy change
A new policy, strategic direction or major programme is announced. How do we begin to understand, interpret and explain it? And how can we start the task of analysing and critiquing it? I see three main approaches: 1: Personal views As an individual, we might ask whether we like or agree with the…
February 2021
Inequalities | Mental health | Policy | Primary, community and social care services | Public health and prevention
Learning from lockdown: support for people experiencing homelessness
There are few clearer measures of societal health than homelessness. On this count, and despite its enormous material wealth, England is in poor shape. Relative to the recent past, and any country we might want to compare ourselves to, we have a problem with homelessness. The causes of homelessness…
COVID-19: breaking the cycle of deprivation and ill health
Promoting whole-system action on the wider determinants of healthy life expectancy in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic
September 2020
Better use of analysis | Policy
How can we learn from changes in practice under COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen rapid changes in ways of working. We have seen an increase in collaboration, particularly through digital platforms, the sharing of data, and people describing ‘true system working’. So how do we capture innovations and changes in practice? How do we learn…
Outcomes based commissioning: A framework for local decision making
This local decision-making framework aims to empower systems as they look to design new contracting approaches aimed at improving outcomes.
January 2020
Elective care | Emergency care | Finance and payments | Policy | Primary, community and social care services
How will we know if Integrated Care Systems reduce demand for urgent care?
The implications of a blended payment system are far reaching: Decisions about planned activity levels will determine the total funding envelope for urgent care within a system and will influence the behaviour of healthcare providers and the services they deliver to patients.
December 2019
Better use of analysis | Policy
Opening the ‘black box’ of scenario planning through realist synthesis
Scenario planning is recognised as an effective aid to strategic planning in complex, uncertain conditions. It is an approach that the Strategy Unit is increasingly building into its work with health and care systems and third sector organisations.
February 2019
Emergency care | Policy
Waiting Times and Attendance Durations at English A&E Departments
In March 2019, NHS England is expected to report the outcome of its review of constitutional waiting times targets. This report reviews the factors that have led to the decline in performance against one of these targets - the 4-hour target for Accident and Emergency Departments. The analysis…
February 2019
Inequalities | Policy | Primary, community and social care services
New care models - what's the evidence
High level findings from a series of evidence reviews on new care models.
The Potential Economic Impact of Virtual Outpatient Appointments in the West Midlands: A scoping study
The Strategy Unit was recently approached to examine the case for a shift from traditional outpatient services to the use of virtual and remote access technologies for appropriate outpatient appointments. An essential part of this assessment was broadly scoping the potential socio-economic impacts…
Lessons from the Vanguard: Procurement
Dudley was unique within the New Care Models programme for using a large-scale procurement exercise. This exercise therefore offers lessons for both policy and practice. These lessons are set out in a short ‘lessons from the vanguard’ paper, joint-authored by the Strategy Unit and Dudley Clinical…