We place a high value on sharing our work – here, you’ll find some examples of reports and other project outputs which demonstrate the work we do.  If you’re interested in topics which aren’t listed here, please get in touch.

 January 2020 Secondary care | Integrated Care

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.

November 2019 Mental health services | Secondary care | Capacity and Demand

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…

 February 2019 Secondary care | Capacity and Demand

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…

November 2018 Impact assessment | Secondary care | Service configuration | Service improvement | Capacity and Demand

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…

 June 2018 Secondary care

Risk and Reward Sharing for NHS Integrated Care Systems

Risk and reward sharing is a simple and attractive concept, offering a commissioner the opportunity to co-opt and incentivise a provider to moderate growth in healthcare demand by sharing in the savings or cost over-runs.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a US government agency…

 June 2018 Secondary care | Integrated Care

Horizontal or Vertical: Which way to integrate?

In 2011, Primary Care Trusts faced a difficult choice. The Transforming Community Services policy required a complete break of commissioner and provider functions. But what should PCTs do with the community health services they delivered; vertically integrate with an acute trust, horizontally…

 April 2018 Secondary care

Palliative and End of Life Care Report for Children and Young People

Commissioned by NHS England, this report describes the the characteristics and levels of resource required by children and young people (CYP) (0-25 years) with life limiting conditions and/or life threatening conditions (LLC). The scope of this report does not attempt to explain or address the…

November 2017 Secondary care

Identifying Potential QIPP Opportunities - Dudley Example

Given the pressures within the NHS, being able to identify opportunities for efficiencies and improvements is vital to inform commissioning intentions.  This report is an example of analytical work which to support commissioners.  The objective of this report is to provide information to support…

 October 2017 Secondary care | Capacity and Demand | Primary Care

Palliative and End of Life Care in the West Midlands

Commissioned by NHS England, this report describes the status and context of palliative and end of life care services in the six Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships in the West Midlands. The report contains data on trends and forecast numbers of deaths, place of death, palliative care…

July 2017 Secondary care | Capacity and Demand

Changes to Admission Thresholds

This analysis builds on a paper, Changes in Admission Thresholds in English Emergency Departments, which explores changes in the casemix of patients attending emergency departments (EDs) and the propensity of EDs to admit patients.  The report incorporates additional analysis commissioned by NHS…

 July 2017 Secondary care

Scoping the Strategic Analytical Requirements for Clinical Neurosciences in England

Neurosciences encompasses a large number of services and interventions, delivered to individuals with a wide range of conditions by numerous providers in many settings. Describing the full range of patients, interventions and services will provide those who work in and support NHS commissioned…

May 2017 Mental health services | Secondary care

Making the Case for Integrating Mental and Physical Health Care - Full Report.

An analysis of the physical health of people who use mental health services: life expectancy, acute service use and the potential for improving quality and using resources more efficiently.  The Strategy Unit, inspired by earlier research published by the Nuffield Trust, has created a ground…

 December 2015 Secondary care | Capacity and Demand

The Effect of Demographic Change on Acute Hospital Utilisation

Recognising that the effect of population ageing can be overstated, we set out to ask what effect an older population will have on demand for health and care services.  Here, we explain why typical approaches ‘overlook the fact that rising life expectancy makes … older people “younger”, healthier,…

 July 2015 Secondary care | Capacity and Demand

Modelling Patients Flows under Potential Configurations of Emergency Centres with Specialised Services

Onsite, 24/7 access to complex vascular surgery, hyper acute stroke services and primary percutaneous coronary interventions are expected to be a pre-requisite for a hospital to be designated as an emergency centre with specialised services. This paper sets out the patient access and patient flow…

June 2015 Secondary care

Using logic models in evaluation

Logic models are increasingly being used to support the design and evaluation of complex change in the NHS. This briefing provides a brief introduction to logic models and how they can be used to support evaluation of change.