It is time to think differently about health and social care. Although good progress has been made in improving NHS performance in the past decade, the health and social care system faces unprecedented funding pressures and significant future challenges. Fundamental change is needed to respond to the needs of an ageing population, the changing burden of disease and rising patient expectations.
Time to Think Differently is a programme of work from The King's Fund aimed at stimulating debate about the changes needed for the NHS and social care to meet the challenges of the future. By engaging others and promoting discussion, we hope to generate new thinking about innovative ways of delivering high-quality care and support health and social care leaders in their decision-making.
Project content
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The future is now
Featuring the voices of patients, volunteers, clinicians and managers, our new digital report explores future ways of changing health and health care for the better.
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NHS buildings: obstacle or opportunity?
The first in a series of four papers that aim to crystallise ideas for change in the future of health and social care. This paper re-thinks the way that the NHS could use its estate to c...
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The NHS workforce: how do we balance cost-effectiveness with safety?
Professor James Buchan explores how NHS reforms have affected the health and social care workforce, and the importance of maintaining the balance between safety and cost-effectiveness.
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Could NHS buildings become tools not temples?
In a guest blog for our Time to Think Differently programme, Barrie Dowdeswell gives an international perspective on how the NHS could be utilising one of its prime assests - its buildin...
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Being an Active Patient
Havi Carel shares how she became an 'active patient' by harnessing her own resources and those of health professionals to live well despite – or rather, with – her illness.
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How can we deliver the fundamental change needed to meet the challenges of the future?
For our Time to Think Differently blog, Mark Newbold proposes six changes to help us meet the challenges of the future, as we move away from an acute care model to one based on the manag...
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It's crept up on us
As part of our Time to Think Differently programme, writer and commentator Roy Lilley considers the impact that technology has on our lives, and asks why health care is still lagging beh...
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Breaking down the boundaries in health and social care
How can breaking down professional barriers help us to deliver better care in the future? Viv Bennett, Director of Nursing, Department of Health and Public Health England, blogs for our ...
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The future of health and social care timeline
Our timeline looks at the wide range of factors that will have an impact on the way that health and social care is delivered in future.
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Broader determinants of health: trends
We explore how the complex interaction between individual characteristics, lifestyle and the physical, social and economic environment is changing.
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Demography: future trends
We look at the changes in the size and make-up of the English population, as well as trends in life expectancy, changing households and health inequalities, over the next 20 years.
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Disease and disability: future trends
This article looks at disease in the population and how this is likely to change over the next 20 years.
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Economic pressures: future trends
In this section we look at the current economic context and explore past and future trends in health care spending in the UK.
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Healthy behaviours: future trends
We explore some of the most significant health-related behaviours, their impact on our health and wellbeing, and how they are changing over time in England.
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Information technologies: future trends
In this section we look at trends affecting the future of information technologies and their wider use in health care.
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Medical advances: future trends
We review some of the key areas for medical advances over the next 20 years, including pharmaceutical, surgical and regenerative medicine.
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Public attitudes and expectations: future trends
In this section we look at public expectations of health and social care services and how these may change in the future.
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Sustainable services: future trends
We summarise some of the ways in which the health care system of the future is likely to be affected by climate change.
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Workforce: future trends
In this section we look at the future health and social care workforce.
The second phase
In 2012/2013 we had an incredible response to our Time to Think Differently work, with thousands of visitors to our comprehensive analysis of the trends that will influence the way health and social care is delivered in future, hundreds of comments on our guest blogs and a far-reaching debate that explored the future of health and social care in England.
The next phase of the programme focused on crystallising the ideas for change. We produced perspective pieces focusing on NHS estates and the workforce and spoke to commentators to gain new perspectives on the issues facing the future health and care system.
In 2013, we set up the independent Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England. The commission, which was born out of the Time to Think Differently programme, carried out a fundamental review of the way that health and social care entitlements, benefits and funding are currently organised and assessed the scope for better aligning them to meet the needs of 21st-century patients and service users. The commission published its final report in September 2014.
The second-to-last publication in our Time to Think Differently programme of work, Reforming the NHS from within: Beyond hierarchy, inspection and markets, challenges the dominant approaches to NHS reform over the last 20 years. It draws on experience from high-performing organisations here and abroad to analyse how best to meet the challenges facing the NHS. Rejecting top down approaches to change, it makes the case for ‘reform from within’ - investing in staff, encouraging innovation and establishing the continuity of leadership needed to develop new models of care.
With testimony from patients, volunteers, clinicians and managers, our Future is now report draws to a close two years of work under our Time to Think Differently programme, generating ideas, debate and hope about the future of health and social care.
Resources
Our Time to Think Differently programme has made the case for change and highlighted the trends that will influence the way health and social care is delivered in future.
To help you explore and share this work, we have created a series of downloadable slidepacks. We hope that they will inform your thinking and discussions about the future of care.
NHS and social care workforce slidepack The case for change slidepack Changing professional roles infographics Empowering patients and service users infographics Funding health care infographics Improving the health of the nation infographics Rethinking the location of care infographics The changing patient infographics
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