The current system for funding adult social care in England has been criticised as unfair, complex and financially unsustainable. There are significant local variations in who is eligible for what kinds of support and a host of complicated local and national rules that apply to the funding of different elements ...
In recent years, NHS boards have often been preoccupied with financial performance, but they also have to engage with the quality of clinical care. A programme of work developed by The King's Fund, in partnership with the Burdett Trust for Nursing, has focused on the role of nurse executives in ...
Primary care trusts (PCTs) provide a broad and complex range of community-based services. However, the commissioning and management of these services have been a challenge for the NHS and in particular for PCTs. As PCTs provide community health services, there is a potential conflict of interest for their role as ...
How can we ensure that patients in hospital are treated with respect and compassion? The Point of Care programme has been set up to transform patients' experience of care in hospital, and to enable health care staff to deliver high-quality care. Based on existing research and qualitative studies with patients ...
This briefing examines the recent history of the quality and safety, financial and economic regulation of health care providers in England. It describes the new regulatory machinery that is being introduced and considers how the relationship between these different regulatory systems may develop in the future. [Introduction]
Practice-based commissioning (PBC) has been a major strand of NHS policy since 2005. There continues to be a high level of commitment to the policy among GPs, but many still remain hesitant about its impact to date and unsure if its potential will be fulfilled. In 2007, The King's Fund ...
The policy of offering patients a choice in where they receive hospital treatment was intended to create competition between providers, encouraging efficiency and responsiveness to patients’ preferences and ultimately to drive up the quality of care. So has the policy met those aims? Since January 2006, patients requiring a referral ...
Workforce planning for the NHS is a large undertaking. The NHS in England employs approximately 1.3 million staff, 70 per cent of recurrent NHS costs relate to staffing, and more than £4 billion is spent annually on staff training. Securing a sufficient number of staff with the appropriate skills and ...
Ensuring that you are measuring the things that matter most to patients is an essential component of a successful strategy for improving patients' experience. It is important to choose methods that are fit for purpose. This paper provides a brief guide to these to help trust boards and other interested ...
NHS spending in England may have more than doubled in real terms since 1999/2000, but the prospects for future funding now look bleak. Although there is consensus that the NHS faces a tough financial future, there is no agreement about just how cold the financial climate will be. Starting with ...