Health and social care systems do not make best use of existing analytical talents and resources. Analysts are often frustrated and de-skilled; decision-makers don't always make good use of analysis.

If this is true, then what should be done? What is the agenda for analysts? What are the skills, attributes and ways of working that they need to develop? How can they pool resources and expertise? And what about decision-makers? What could they do to make better use of insights from analytical work? What should the future look like?

NHS-R Community's Annual Conference was a big success!

It’s harder than ever to be a leader in health and care, moving through a rising storm of changes. The ask of STPs and their constituent organisations is evolving as experience of system working grows. Working in systems means dealing with complexity, so steering in one direction can lead to unpredictable results. Coaching is well-placed to deal with the ambiguities of the health and care system today. Coaching allows individuals to step out of the storm into a ‘safe space’, one which isn’t subject to the usual constraints of the day job. We have developed our coaching offer to set out the support we can provide at a high level. It also describes the ways in which we can apply a ‘coaching approach’ to increase the effectiveness of team development, training and programme workshops.

The value of R and its use within the NHS

Often regarded as one of the best healthcare systems in the world, the NHS was launched in 1948 with the guiding principle of being free at the point of delivery – a kind of crowd funded open-source freeware equivalent of healthcare.

The Strategy Unit have been selected to be part of the latest round of the Health Foundation's Advancing Applied Analytics programme.

The programme aims to improve analytical capability in support of health and care services. In this third round of the programme, the Health Foundation is providing funding to 10 teams in the UK that are working on innovative projects that demonstrate the value of improving analytical capability in health and care. Each project will run for up to 15 months and will start in September 2019.

The Population Health Management (PHM) Analyst Development Programme will introduce analysts from the Midlands CCGs, NHS Trusts, CSUs, Local Authorities and national bodies (NHSE&I; PHE) to the concepts of PHM. It will equip them with the conceptual frameworks, knowledge and skills required to play a central role in the development and deployment of PHM within STPs/ICS.

On Tuesday 28^th May we held our System Leaders Symposium on Population Health.

The Strategy Unit is leading a partnership providing support on population health management (PHM) for Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs).

What could NHS policy makers learn from the European Union?

There is a fundamental tension at the heart of European policy making: when should actions be led at the European level and when should they be led locally? And, where actions are led locally, what support could European agencies provide to add value to these local efforts?  

Over the decades, the European Union (EU) has developed principles and practices to manage this tension. This blog suggests that the English NHS could learn from these experiences.

In particular, it suggests that the NHS could:

With the end of the New Care Models programme there is an opportunity to reflect on what has been learnt at local level. The Strategy Unit has worked closely with Dudley throughout its programme. So we were invited to present our reflections at Dudley’s recent conference. Our headline? Culture over contracts.