Health and Social Care Act 2012

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 is widely seen as dysfunctional, getting in the way of the more integrated care it actually seeks to achieve. As the Prime Minister has once again opened the door to changes, this piece identifies some of the current problems and implications of change, and asks how far progress could be made within the existing legislation.

Nicholas Timmins explores the fate of one of the central provisions of the Health and Social Care Act, NHS England, established as a statutorily independent board with the aim of distancing politicians from the day-to-day running of the NHS.

What are health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) and what role could they play in developments such as integrated commissioning and place-based systems of care?

In this article for the Health Service Journal, Helen McKenna discusses the impact of the recent NHS planning guidance.

Our submission to the House of Commons Health Committee inquiry gives our views on the impact of the Health and Social Care Act reforms on public health since 2013.

This report looks at how well the NHS has performed under the coalition government. Using routinely available data, the report creates a conventional 'production path' – describing the financial inputs to the NHS before detailing its outputs, such as hospital admissions and A&E attendances.

The government’s NHS reforms were meant to devolve power away from Whitehall. In practice the health service remains one of the most centralised in the world. Bottom-up change is urgently needed.