Publications

The Health and Care Bill will put integrated care systems (ICSs) on a statutory footing from April 2022. How can social care providers ensure they are involved as new ICS structures develop, to create partnerships that deliver better services and outcomes for local populations?

Simon Bottery and Sally Warren set out a radical but realistic vision of the future of social care, built around four principles of a good care system: availability, personalisation, quality and eligibility.

The Comprehensive Spending Review details the government’s plans for public spending over the coming years. It will clarify which areas of the health and care budget have not yet been addressed by recent funding announcements around the NHS and for social care reform. Here, we set out the challenges and consider steps the government could take to address them.

As a result of Covid-19 waiting times for NHS treatment, already an issue before the pandemic, have grown to historic highs – or have they? Richard Murray compares current waiting times to those seen in the 2000s – and asks what we can learn from the last time the NHS tackled long waits.

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.

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.

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?