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.

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 Midlands Decision Support Network exists to support health and care leaders generate insights from high quality analysis and evaluation and move these into action – better, evidence-informed strategic decisions in Integrated Care Systems.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general, famously said in the early days of the COVID pandemic: “We’re not just fighting a pandemic; we’re fighting an infodemic”.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories have become endemic and teams within health and care systems have seen the impact on local communities. So, how do we tackle  misinformation? This session heard from a range of speakers sharing their experiences and reflections on the challenges of addressing misinformation and building health literacy.

The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year.[1] In 2017/18, the estimated cost of this care was over £9 billion – or 8% of the total NHS England budget. So, isn’t it strange how little we know about outpatient activity and, in particular, the purpose, or function, of appointments?   Without this knowledge, we will surely struggle to ensure that the billions spent on outpatient services are delivering the best value for the patient, and for the public.

So we’ve gathered all the data and evidence, we understand the problem and we know what we think the best solution is…so how do we actually make a change?

We all know that change is hard, things might improve for a while but then people just drift back into old habits, others just never seem to get on board!

At this session we were joined by Dr Judith Dyson from the Improvement Academy, and Birmingham City University, to talk about her work on behaviour change and how we can implement evidence based interventions.

This session debated the ethical challenges around addressing health inequalities. We heard from our expert panel as Insight 2021 looks at the ethical and practical challenges of reducing health inequalities.

Death is certain, yet our planning doesn’t reflect this. At the individual level, conversations and preparations are frequently missing or patchy. And at the population level we also don’t plan well for what is coming.

So how do we improve this? How can we make better use of data and analysis that shows what populations need? How can we make best use of individual stories and experiences to inspire change? And what are the best ways of combining data for the head with stories for the heart?

Death is certain, yet our planning doesn’t reflect this. At the individual level, conversations and preparations are frequently missing or patchy. And at the population level we also don’t plan well for what is coming.

So how do we improve this? How can we make better use of data and analysis that shows what populations need? How can we make best use of individual stories and experiences to inspire change? And what are the best ways of combining data for the head with stories for the heart?

We heard discussions from experts from the NHS, NICE and academia (Andi Orlowski, Gwyn Bevan, Deborah O’Callaghan, Peter Spilsbury) on the challenge of finding value through efficiency and allocating resources appropriately.

Andi Orlowski, from the Health Economics Unit was joined by this exceptional panel as they discussed different approaches in getting the best value in health and care.