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Publications

Independent research and analysis on health and social care

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  • Health and care services
    • (-) Adult social care
    • Community services
    • Emergency care
    • (-) General practice
    • Hospital care
    • Mental health
    • New models of care
    • Public health
  • Leadership, systems and organisations
    • Clinical commissioning groups
    • Clinical leadership
    • Equality and diversity
    • Health and wellbeing boards
    • (-) Integrated care
    • Local service design
    • Quality improvement
    • Sustainability and transformation plans
    • System leadership
    • Voluntary and community sector
    • Workforce and skills
  • Patients, people and society
    • Carers
    • Health inequalities
    • Patient experience
    • Patient involvement
    • Population health
    • Public opinion
    • (-) Technology and data
  • Policy, finance and performance
    • Access to care
    • Brexit
    • Commissioning and contracting
    • General election 2019
    • Governance and regulation
    • Health and Social Care Act 2012
    • NHS finances
    • NHS five year forward view
    • NHS long-term plan
    • Performance
    • Productivity
    • Social care finances
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EMH teaser
Long read

The health of people from ethnic minority groups in England

This explainer examines the differences in health outcomes for ethnic minority groups, highlighting the variation across groups and conditions, and considers what’s needed to reduce health inequalities.
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By Veena Raleigh et al - 17 February 2021
Long read

The next steps towards integrated care

This explainer considers NHS England and NHS Improvement’s proposals to further integrate health and care services and describes the associated proposals for legislative change.
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By Richard Murray et al - 9 December 2020 11-minute read
Long read

How Covid-19 has magnified some of social care’s key problems

The Covid-19 pandemic has not changed the fundamental problems facing social care, but it has exacerbated some of them, says Simon Bottery.
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By Simon Bottery - 25 August 2020 22-minute read
Long read

The road to renewal: five priorities for health and care

Covid-19 is the biggest challenge the health and care system has faced in living memory; it's essential that lessons are learned from this experience. So how can the system build on this learning to bring about positive change and renewal? This long read sets out five priorities to help guide the approach to renewal across health and care. 
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By Anna Charles et al - 16 July 2020
Long read

Community pharmacy explained

Community pharmacy is a critical part of primary care in England, but its role and relationship to the wider NHS is often poorly understood. This explainer looks at the community pharmacy sector in England, explaining how pharmacies are contracted and funded, the types of services they provide and future trends in the sector.
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By Beccy Baird et al - 16 December 2020
Long read

Primary care networks explained

A key part of the NHS long-term plan, primary care networks (PCNs) will bring general practices together to work at scale. But what are they? How are they funded and held accountable? And what difference will they make? Beccy Baird explains the latest form of GP collaboration.
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By Beccy Baird et al - 20 November 2020
Red stethascope teaser
Long read

The 2020/21 update to the GP contract explained

NHS England and the British Medical Association’s general practice committee have negotiated an update to the five-year GP contract framework published in January 2019. This explainer outlines the changes and explains what they mean for the future of general practice.
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By Beccy Baird et al - 19 November 2020
Digital long read teaser
Long read

The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen many health and care services turn to digital technology to continue meeting patients’ needs. But beyond remote consultations, what are the key technologies to look out for in the future?
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By Pritesh Mistry - 13 November 2020
Long read

What is social prescribing?

Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing. But does it work? And how does it fit in with wider health and care policy?
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By David Buck et al - 4 November 2020
GP contracts explainer figure 1
Long read

GP funding and contracts explained

This explainer sets out how general practices are contracted and paid in England, looking at the services they are contracted to deliver, and the different streams of funding they receive.
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By Jake Beech et al - 11 June 2020 9-minute read
Two people standing outside a nursing home
Long read

Social care 360

Updated with 2018/19 data, our 360 review outlines and analyses 20 key trends in adult social care in England over recent years. Using a variety of publicly-available data, it provides a uniquely rounded – ‘360 degree’ – view of the sector.
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By Simon Bottery et al - 6 May 2020
Long read

Integrated care systems explained: making sense of systems, places and neighbourhoods

Integrated care services represent a fundamental shift in the way the health and care system is organised. This explainer looks at how these bodies are structured and the progress made before the Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak took hold.
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By Anna Charles - 8 April 2020
First 100 days of new government
Long read

Health and care: the first 100 days of the new government

We provide a record of the progress made towards meeting the government’s manifesto pledges and campaign commitments during its first 100 days in office.
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By Jonathon Holmes - 27 March 2020
How to build effective teams in general practice
Long read

How to build effective teams in general practice

This guide draws on insights from our research, policy analysis and leadership practice to outline ways in which practices can create and sustain effective teams, as they come together to form primary care networks.
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By Beccy Baird et al - 9 January 2020
Long read

Why can't I get a doctor's appointment? Solving the complex issue of GP access

Public satisfaction with general practice is lower now than it has ever been, while the number of people reporting difficulties in booking appointments continues to grow. We run through the proposed solutions to issues around GP access and consider their potential effectiveness.
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By Beccy Baird et al - 21 November 2019
Long read

Health and wellbeing boards and integrated care systems

In the last several years there have been significant changes in how the NHS works across different services and with external partners such as local government. Richard Humphries explores how this has impacted health and wellbeing boards, and what the future holds for them.
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By Richard Humphries - 13 November 2019
What's your problem, social care? The eight key areas for reform
Long read

What’s your problem, social care? The eight key areas for reform

Different people have different ideas about what’s ‘wrong’ with social care. This long read outlines the eight key issues and the options cited to tackle them.
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By Simon Bottery - 5 November 2019
Long read

Five numbers to sum up the Spending Round for health and social care

Siva Anandaciva takes a look at the key numbers mentioned in the Spending Round (and those that weren’t) add up, and the implications they have for health and social care.
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By Siva Anandaciva - 6 September 2019
Improving population health
Long read

What does improving population health really mean?

Everybody in NHS policy seems to be talking about population health. But what does it really mean and how can we improve it?
29 March 2019
Long read

The NHS long-term plan explained

On 7 January, the NHS long-term plan was published setting out key ambitions for the service over the next 10 years. In this explainer, we set out the main commitments in the plan and provide our view of what they might mean, highlighting the opportunities and challenges for the health and care system as it moves to put the plan into practice.
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By Anna Charles et al - 23 January 2019
Long read

Community health services explained

Community services play a key role in keeping people well, treating and managing acute illness and long-term conditions, and supporting people to live independently – and yet they are poorly understood compared to other parts of the NHS. In this explainer we set out what community services are, the challenges faced and how they're changing.
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By Anna Charles - 14 January 2019
Long read

Shared responsibility for health: the cultural change we need

We believe that the relationship between the public and the NHS, and between patients and the staff who care for them, needs to be transformed. As well as ensuring that the resources (funding and workforce) needed to deliver care are available, national and local leaders must work to fully engage patients and the public in improving health and care.  
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By Professor Sir Chris Ham et al - 23 November 2018
Long read

Joined-up listening: integrated care and patient insight

In this article, we articulate the opportunity that integrated care presents for using insight from people and populations to design services that meet their needs and reflect their priorities.
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By Dan Wellings et al - 30 August 2018
Long read

The NHS 10-year plan: how should the extra funding be spent?

The government has announced increases in NHS funding and has asked the NHS to come up with a 10-year plan for how this funding will be used. After eight years of austerity, there is now an opportunity to tackle the issues that matter most to patients and communities and to improve health and care.
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By Professor Sir Chris Ham et al - 12 July 2018
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Health and care explained: How does the health and care system work? How is it changing?

This selection of content aims to make sense of the health and care system – including videos, articles, illustrated summaries and more.

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