Feedback is a vital component of any complex change programme. Without feedback, it is impossible for policy makers, programme and frontline teams to learn, adapt and improve. The Strategy Unit therefore sees evaluation as a vital part of the mix in making large-scale change.

Evaluation is all too often a late – or even an after the event – addition to programmes. Traditionally undertaken as a removed and academic exercise, evaluation has not fulfilled its potential as a tool for change.

Logic models have become a standard tool for planning and evaluation. This short presentation offers a step-by-step guide to assembling logic models for complex programmes.

To support the move to the MCP model of care, Dudley's Partnership Board instituted a series of new schemes. But how well implemented were they? And what outcomes did they achieve?

This report - and the accompanying presentation - summarises the results of a rapid cycle evaluation of these innovations, along with recommendation for the future. 

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 registers, acute healthcare use prior to death, availability of specialist-level palliative care and summarises the results of recent palliative care reviews and audits.

Dementia is a key priority for NHS England and is estimated to affect around 676,000 people in the country.  Our analysis is intended to help understand the need for future dementia diagnosis and treatment services in a specific area and to help commissioners to identify and prioritise interventions.

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 England, extending the scope of the analysis and refining the methodology.

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 neurosciences with the context required to holistically assess, plan and improve these services.

The Strategy Unit is a strategic partner to the Black Country and West Birmingham Sustainability and Transformation Partnership. Our innovative work has built on the local appetite for focusing on transformations that can make a real different to local populations. As well as our national work for NHS England on integrating mental and physical health, initiated by the Black Country and West Birmingham STP, we are also helping to shape work with the West Midlands Combined Authority on the wider determinants of health.

Service change assurance exists to give confidence to the NHS and public that proposals are well thought through, have taken on board a wide range of views and will deliver real benefits. At the heart of the NHS England assurance process are the ‘five tests for service change’ that are in the government’s mandate to NHS England, as updated in Next Steps on the Five Year Forward View. One of these five mandatory tests is that a clear clinical evidence base underpins service change proposals.

Presentation summarising the main findings from Year 1 of the Evaluation

Dudley's evaluation is multi-faceted, containing many discreet and specific pieces of work. This presentation brings together many of these pieces to summarise all findings from the first year of the evaluation. It also looks ahead to consider the use of the evidence and insight as the MCP evolves.