Doctors' vision for change in the NHS

"Despite a growing need for care to be integrated around the needs of patients, doctors are prevented from providing joined-up care by bureaucratic barriers, communication gaps and competing organisational priorities. Working in silos is bad for patients and doctors. Removing obstacles to collaboration can help reduce doctors’ workloads and the unnecessary waste of time and resources."

Caring, supportive, collaborative: Doctors' vision for change in the NHS
BMA
2019

Read more here.

Developing people — improving care

NHS Improvement has updated their evidence-based national framework to guide action on improvement skill-building, leadership development and talent management for people in NHS-funded roles.

Read more here.

Approaches to better value in the NHS

"This report shares learning and insight from three NHS hospital trusts that have developed organisation-wide strategies for value improvement. It draws on interviews, roundtables and site visits with senior leaders in the NHS who are committed to developing better value services."

Approaches to better value in the NHS: Improving quality and cost
J Jabbal, M Lewis
The King's Fund
October 2018

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Challenging health inequalities: Support for CCGs

"Health inequalities are currently estimated to cost the NHS a total of at least £20 billion each year so it is imperative to harness the influence of each CCG to challenge where health inequalities can be reduced and greater equality established."

Challenging health inequalities: Support for CCGs
NHS England
October 2017

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How is the NHS performing?

"This is the 20th report and aims to take stock of what has happened over the past quarter and to assess the state of the health and care system. It provides an update on how the NHS is coping as it continues to grapple with productivity and reform challenges under continued financial pressure."

How is the NHS performing? September 2016: Quality Monitoring report
R Murray, J Jabbal, J Thompson, D Maguire
The King's Fund
September 2016

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Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) explained

"Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) were announced in the NHS planning guidance published in December 2015. NHS organisations in different parts of the country have been asked to come together to develop ‘place-based plans’ for the future of health and care services in their area. Draft plans were submitted in June 2016, and final plans are expected to be completed in October."

Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) explained
The King's Fund
August 2016

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Sustainability and Transformation Plans: What we know so far

"This discussion paper reflects the work in progress from one third of STP areas, as captured in July and August 2016. It shows that the scale of the STP process is large and ambitious, and the speed with which plans are being pulled together is astonishing. So far, the plans are not sufficient to close the funding gap, but, if implemented well and combined with high-quality local efficiency improvement, they would go some way to doing so and would demonstrate the capability of the NHS and social care system to deliver. This paper points to some important trends, ideas to be explored and issues that need to be resolved in order to ensure success."

Sustainability and Transformation Plans: What we know so far
N Edwards
Nuffield Trust
September 2016

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Why the NHS needs a quality improvement strategy: Chris Ham in conversation with Don Berwick

"Don Berwick is an International Visiting Fellow at The King’s Fund. He led a review into patient safety for David Cameron in 2013, and is recognised as an authority on health care improvement. Chris Ham asks him why he thinks that now is the right time for a quality improvement strategy."

Read the Q & A from the King's Fund here.

The NHS if

"‘The NHS if’ is a collection of essays that explores hypothetical scenarios and their impact on the future of health and care. The King's Fund are asking a small number of experts – some of them members of staff at The King’s Fund and others external experts in their fields – to write short essays that consider ‘what if’ questions about health and care in England. We’ll be publishing these essays on this website throughout 2016.

The aim is to encourage new thinking and debate about possible future scenarios that could fundamentally change health and care. The essays cover three themes: the NHS and society; medicine, data and technology; and how the NHS works."

Read more here.

Deficits in the NHS 2016

"This briefing draws on data from our quarterly monitoring reports, secondary research and interviews with health care leaders to consider commissioner and provider finances in the round and to provide an overview of the factors that have led to the NHS going into deficit. It goes on to outline some of the strategies being employed to restore financial balance, before drawing together our thoughts on the implications of these strategies for the NHS this year and in the longer term."

Deficits in the NHS 2016
P Dunn, H McKenna, R Murray
The King's Fund
July 2016

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Patients as partners

"More collaborative relationships among health and care professionals, patients, service users, carers and communities are essential for the future of the NHS, but what helps to build effective relationships? This guide stems from an evolving body of the Fund's work focused on exploring and supporting shared leadership. This work is reinforced by a growing consensus that health services, agencies, patients and communities need to work together more – and differently."

Patients as partners: Building collaborative relationships among professionals, patients, carers and communities
B Seale
The King's Fund
July 2016

Read more here.

Making IT work

"The goal of digitisation of health systems is to promote what has become widely known as healthcare’s Triple Aim: better health, better healthcare, and lower cost. These aims are consistent with those of the NHS’s 2014 Five Year Forward View, which called for improvements in quality and service, as well as £22 billion in efficiencies. The Advisory Group believes that trying to achieve the aims of the Five Year Forward View without giving highest priority to digitisation would be a costly and painful mistake."

Making IT work: Harnessing the power of health information technology to improve care in England
R Wachter
Department of Health
September 2016

Read more here.

2016 Health Profiles

Public Health England has published the 2016 Health Profiles. The Health Profiles provide a snapshot of health and wellbeing for each local authority in England using a range of charts and text. They pull together existing information in one place and contain data on a range of indicators for local populations.

Access them here.

The evolution of devolution in the English NHS

"This report considers the potential implications for health and care outcomes of health care devolution in England and how policy could best evolve. While the wider devolution agenda includes many public services, which could all have an impact on health outcomes, the focus of this report is primarily on devolution in the NHS."

Catalyst or distraction? The evolution of devolution in the English NHS
F Dormon, H Butcher, R Taunt
The Health Foundation
April 2016

Read more here.

Privatisation and independent sector provision of NHS healthcare

"The British Medical Association’s first report on privatisation in the health service is published today and calls for Government and health bosses to implement a series of recommendations aimed at protecting the NHS from being destabilised."

Privatisation and independent sector provision of NHS healthcare
British Medical Association
April 2016

Read more here.

Patterns of maternity care in English NHS trusts 2013/14

"This is the second report that the RCOG has published describing patterns of maternity care practice and outcomes within the English NHS using data routinely collected by NHS hospitals. The first report presented a set of clinically relevant and technically robust indicators, developed by a panel of clinical and methodological experts. It revealed that NHS maternity units in England were achieving similar outcomes but that there were large degrees of variation in some areas of practice. This second edition revises and extends the suite of indicators, thereby aiming to improve the quality of information available to NHS maternity services to use for performance assessment and quality improvement."

Patterns of maternity care in English NHS trusts 2013/14
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists
March 2016

Read more here.

Improving quality in the English NHS: A strategy for action

"Improvements in the quality of care do not occur by chance. They come from the
intentional actions of staff equipped with the skills needed to bring about changes in care, directly and constantly supported by leaders at all levels. They do not come free and will require a substantial and sustained commitment of time and resources."

Improving quality in the English NHS: A strategy for action
C Ham, D Berwick, J Dixon
The King's Fund
February 2016

Read more here.

Public satisfaction with the NHS in 2015

"Overall public satisfaction with the NHS fell by 5 percentage points in 2015 to 60 per cent. At the same time, dissatisfaction with the service rose by 8 percentage points to 23 per cent, taking dissatisfaction back to the levels reported between 2011 and 2013."

Public satisfaction with the NHS in 2015: Results and trends from the British Social Attitudes survey
J Appleby, R Robertson
The King's Fund
February 2016

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Behavioural insights in health care

"The appeal of nudging remains ‘self-evident’ given that it offers simple, low-cost forms of intervention that are often more acceptable than traditional policy instruments. However, the evidence for the application of nudge-type interventions in health care is highly variable in terms of quality, relevance and impact. What evidence there is indicates that there is much innovation and development in this area and there is evidence enough to suggest that nudge-type interventions have considerable potential to change health care behaviours that drive inefficiency and waste."

Behavioural insights in health care: Nudging to reduce inefficiency and waste
C Perry, K Chhatralia, D Damesick, S Hobden, L Volpe
The Health Foundation
December 2015

Read more here.

Spending Review 2015: what it means for health and social care

"Care services in England remain on the brink of collapse despite the extra investment in social care. None of the measures outlined in the Spending Review will plug the funding gap in social care expected over the course of this Parliament."

Spending Review 2015: what it means for health and social care
Nuffield Trust Parliamentary Briefing
December 2015

Read more here.