Bringing you the latest independent views on health and social care from The King's Fund, all of our reports and findings from our projects are available to buy or download.
To order printed copies of our publications, please purchase online or contact publications@kingsfund.org.uk or 020 7307 2568.
Free choice, allowing patients to choose a hospital anywhere in England, begins in April 2008. This briefing summarises the most recent data on choice of referral.
Patient choice has been a major theme of the Labour government's public sector modernisation programme. This briefing looks at the development of reforms to give patients a choice of provider for their planned hospital care.
In this briefing we analyse the 2008/9 Operating Framework, created by the Department of Health as a set of priorities and guidance for running the NHS.
Would an independent NHS board reduce micromanagement and day-to-day political interference in the running of the health service? This paper suggests limitations to this option and proposes several alternatives.
Bringing together the findings from the Caring Choices events and website, this report looks at possible solutions to the problem of funding long-term care.
This briefing explores some of the questions and issues relating to practice-based commissioning in England, examines the pace of implementation and offers some analysis of the impact – current and future – on NHS services.
The King's Fund and Commonwealth Fund sponsored a seminar bringing together leading policymakers, clinicians and academics from England and the USA to share experiences.
This briefing examines the recent debate over hospital configuration in England; describes what changes are currently being proposed together with the main factors driving these changes; and sets out the process by which services can be reconfigured.
This briefing explains how Payment by Results (PbR) works, examines the evidence on whether the system has achieved, or is likely to achieve, the policy aims set for it, and describes the government's current proposals for the future of PbR.
Since the Wanless review of 2002, Securing our Future Health, NHS spending has increased by nearly 50 per cent. Our report looks at where that money has been spent, what it has achieved and whether government policy has promoted effective use of resources.
This briefing analyses and comments on the key proposals contained in the policy document NHS Autonomy and Accountability, which was released by the Conservative party in June 2007.
This briefing analyses the latest figures and data extracted from NHS trust boards, to assess the scale of the challenges to the financial security of the NHS in the future.
Has Agenda for Change achieved its ambitious objectives of reforming pay, developing new ways of working and delivering better care? Using key national informants and case studies in 10 NHS trusts, this paper assesses the implementation.
What next for the NHS reforms? Based on a simulation event and extensive discussions with stakeholders, this paper offers insights into the health system of the future.
Despite receiving widespread support, implementation of practice-based commissioning (PBC) has been slow. This report explores the current situation for PBC and considers how it might be driven forward within the NHS.
In January 2006 the Department of Health published 'Our health, our care, our say: A new direction for community services'. This briefing outlines the main policies.
