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’…
Primary, community and social care services
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).
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.
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.
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…
Better use of analysis | Inequalities | Mental health
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.
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
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…
Elective care | Inequalities | Primary, community and social care services
Modelling the impact of covid on waiting lists for planned care
Working with the national collaboration to coordinate covid-related analysis, and the NHSE/I Midlands region, the Strategy Unit has produced a ‘systems dynamics’ model of waiting lists for planned care. The model is freely available for non-commercial use across the NHS. Here, Steven Wyatt and Mike…
How can Integrated Care Systems collect and use more ‘person-centred intelligence’?
Working with our partners Ipsos MORI, we have produced detailed guidance and an offer of services to address this question. This webpage contains information about the work, and all the products from it. Please get in touch if you would like to improve your use of person-…
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.
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.
Better use of analysis | Primary, community and social care services
Clinical Workforce Scenarios for the Black Country
The future is highly uncertain. Unless we consider the diverse factors that could affect health, our plans will lack creativity and sustainability. The challenges facing NHS systems are headline news: NHS structures are frequently the subject of organisational change; new policy directives; funding…
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…
Better use of analysis
Intelligence-driven health and care: phase two
Following on from the Design Summit in May, the Strategy Unit has continued to work on how Intelligence-driven health and care can improve outcomes for patients and local communities. The project, commissioned by MLCSU, aims to explore the emerging intelligence needs of the health and care sector…
Elective care | Emergency care | Policy | Primary, community and social care services | Public health and prevention
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…
Primary, community and social care services
Dudley MCP Scenario Analysis
Dudley is one of fourteen vanguard sites nationally developing the Multispecialty Community Provider (MCP) care model. The MCP involves the implementation of new organisational relationships that are intended to result in new system dynamics, incentivising the actions that can improve population…
Integrated Impact Assessment for Major Hospital Reconfiguration
The Strategy Unit worked as a strategic partner of the NHS Future Fit Programme in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin from its initiation and until it was able to move to public consultation. A key output was a comprehensive Integrated Impact Assessment of acute hospital options that enabled…
Scoping the Future (CRUK)
Within the context of rising demand for diagnostic services and concerns about capacity, Cancer Research UK commissioned this project to explore the issues for endoscopy services, to inform national strategic recommendations.
Elective care | Emergency care
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…