Blog

In the past, attempts to bring about change in general practice has focused on targets and financial levers. However, as we found in our work to support the Fuller ‘stocktake’, approaches that focus on culture, and efforts to cultivate bottom-up change that empowers frontline staff are far more effective in bringing about positive change.

With health and social care conspicuously absent from the Conservative leadership race, Richard Murray considers what can be done to begin to fix the current crisis in the sector.

Women occupy less leadership space in the health and care sector than men and continue to be under-represented in leadership positions, despite making up 78 per cent the workforce. Mandip Randhawa and Simon Newitt describe The King’s Fund’s re-imagined leadership development programme for women who want to change that.

As integrated care systems become statutory bodies, Anna Charles and Richard Murray consider the early signs that will indicate how they are developing, and the risks they will need to avoid.

GP trainees Dr Ree'Thee Bhatt and Dr Devina Maru share their experiences of working in health policy roles and outline why an understanding of policymaking is crucial to enabling clinicians to influence change in the health and care system.

What might help a wider range of professionals take on leadership roles in primary care? Kiran Chauhan and Beccy Baird suggest starting with thinking through issues around expectations, support and practical constraints.

As The King’s Fund launches its new animation explaining how the health and care system works, Sarah Murphy explains how people and communities, at the heart of the health and care system, are also at the heart of our animation.

Jo Vigor explains how the ABC framework of staff wellbeing can help trusts understand their NHS Staff Survey results.

How well is the government’s reform programme tackling the eight key problems in adult social care? Simon Bottery marks the government’s score card and finds it wanting.

Now the Health and Care Act has been passed, Richard Murray reflects on the negotiations that went down to the wire, what didn’t make it and what’s needed to ensure the reforms are successful.

Will the target of 50,000 more nurses in the NHS by March 2024 be enough to meet the level of demand? Jonathon Holmes and David Maguire look at the story behind the data.

Social prescribing link workers are on the front line of the fight for population health. They know it, but need more support to deliver on the promise of their roles, as Laura Lamming explores.

The public has grasped what people who use social care already knew: it doesn’t provide all the support they need. Laura Schlepper, from Nuffield Trust, and Simon Bottery explore the data from the British Social Attitudes survey.

Oliver Standing, Director of Collective Voice, and colleagues from the Alliance Group, explore the opportunities offered by England’s new drugs strategy, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

In a recent roundtable, local health leaders identified five relationships that need to be strengthened to successfully manage elective backlogs.

How has the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on health services affected public perceptions of the NHS? The results of the 2021 British Social Attitudes survey reveal an unprecedented drop in public satisfaction with health services.

Despite no big announcements on NHS spending, the Spring Statement did contain some details for the health service to pay attention to. Siva Anandaciva outlines how inflation, the health and care levy and aims to improve efficiency will all have an impact.

Funding for local public health has been getting more complicated, making it harder for directors of public health to plan, and for transparency for anyone looking on, seeking to understand what is happening. David Buck looks at the different pieces of the jigsaw.

The National Audit Office has judged the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out has been value for money, but what next for the vaccine programme? Nicholas Timmins outlines the challenges that lie ahead.

The Messenger review of health and care leadership won’t be able to give social care the time and attention it deserves, says Simon Bottery. It’s time to look specifically at the unique set of skills required in the sector – and how best to support their development.