Serving people, not institutions: a new direction for The King's Fund

At its heart, our new strategy is about increasing the positive impact we can have to improve people’s health.  

Over the past few months, we’ve taken a step back to reflect – on who we are, what we stand for, and how we can make the biggest difference in health and care.  

We’ve gone back to our roots – our charitable purpose. For over a century, we have existed to improve people’s health. That aim hasn’t changed but the world around us has.  

So we started our strategic review against the backdrop of the need for change and the scale of the challenge we all face to create and sustain good health, deliver high-quality health care in a timely fashion, and ensure everyone gets the care that they need. We asked how we can use and build on our heritage and independence for greater impact in a world with high political, demographic and technological churn.  

The answer lies in focus. We believe we can make the greatest impact by tackling the  big, thorny issues – the ones that don’t have easy answers but matter deeply to people’s lives. And we’ll do this by bringing together our strengths: research, leadership development, convening power, and partnerships. 

We’re shifting our mindset. We won’t just describe problems – we’ll work with others and use our combined policy and practice skills and insights to build solutions. We’ll focus on what it takes to make change happen, and we’ll stay with it until we see real results. That means listening closely to those on the ground, learning what’s working (and what’s not), and helping good ideas stick.  

At the heart of it all is a people-first approach. We’re not here to serve institutions – we’re here to serve people. That means working with communities, not doing things to them. It means being bold, honest, and sometimes uncomfortable – saying what needs to be said, even when it’s not easy. 

We’re also looking outwards. Our independence and heritage give us the freedom to learn from the best around the world, to host disruptive conversations, and to reimagine what good health and care can look like, broadening our focus beyond just health and care services and towards living well and with dignity.  

So what does this look like in practice? We have set four strategic priorities: 

International collaboration and insight will be key to our work: seeking broader perspectives and building communities of practice to tackle shared challenges that affect health.  

We aim to become a ‘futures lab’ for health and care policy and leadership. We will continue to help partners understand the health and care system, providing insight to make sense of trends. But we will do more future-focused work and horizon scanning, understanding how our health and care system, and broader public services that affect health, will need to adapt in the wake of huge digital and demographic shifts. 

We will work in partnership to generate solutions as well as diagnose the problems. 

We will start immediately with a focus on several ‘wicked’ policy and practice issues, and sustain focus until we achieve change.  

We are already putting this into action. Examples of our work will include: 

• a major investigation into the role of the state, individuals and communities in a modern health and welfare system – asking, if Beveridge were writing his defining 1942 report today, what would he propose? 

• a new digital and AI leadership capability offer focused on the human side of change and to help leaders navigate complexity with confidence. 

• a global comparison of social care systems to inspire bold proposals for how we can reimagine our system to better deliver for the millions who rely on it. 

• an international alliance for children’s health, tackling the root causes of poor mental and physical health in young people, shaped by their voices and lived experiences. 

These are just some of the headlines – there’s more in our strategy document. You’ll also see and experience change in our refreshed brand, as well as further developments in the months ahead.  

Our own organisation will change to reflect our new strategy. Our strength is our people, and our value comes from their skills, expertise and commitment. We have updated our values to reflect our bold new direction, and we will develop a stronger ability to assess how policy is landing on the ground, in the real world. 

But one thing is clear: we can’t do this alone. Everything we know from our policy and practice insight is that real hope and confidence for positive change happens in partnership. So this is our invitation to you – to work with us, challenge us, and help us in bold thinking for better health.