Marcus Powell joined The King’s Fund in 2016 as Director of Leadership and Organisational Development, having spent his whole career outside the NHS in the private sector. This paper contains his initial observations about leadership in the NHS.
The aim of this discussion paper is to give the reader an understanding of the issues involved in rationing in the evolving context of the contemporary NHS in England. Our paper is not intended as a primer: we provide no advice about how rationing decisions ought to be made. Nor ...
This paper explores the coalition government’s record on NHS reform by describing the situation it inherited when it came to power in 2010, the policies it has pursued, and (where available) evidence of their impact. It takes the stated aims of the reforms
as the starting point and reviews progress ...
This report, the second part of 'The NHS under the coalition government', looks at how well the NHS has performed under the coalition government. The report acknowledges that assessing the performance of any health service is an inexact science for many reasons, but using routinely available data, the report creates ...
The unprecedented slowdown in the growth of NHS funding in England since 2010 has meant that the NHS has had to pursue the most ambitious programme of productivity improvement since its foundation in order to close the gap between need and available funding.
This report describes how six trusts have been ...
The general election will come at a pivotal time for health and social care. An unprecedented funding squeeze has left the NHS on the brink of financial crisis, while reductions in local government funding have led to significant cuts in social care services.
This report, published in partnership with NHS Providers, draws on the views and experiences of twelve departed or departing chief executives, or those changing jobs within health care. It aims to illuminate the realities of leadership in today’s NHS. The interviews illustrate both the positives of the job and its ...
In November 2011, The King’s Fund invited academics, practitioners, policy-makers and representatives from patient and voluntary organisations to discuss the care of very old frail people with complex health problems. Mindful of the work of others (NHS Confederation, the Local Government Association and Age UK 2012; The Mid Staffordshire NHS ...
In light of the high number of board-level vacancies in the NHS and an increasing reliance on expensive locum and agency staff, NHS organisations need to have effective strategies in place to develop future leaders. This paper helps boards and other NHS leaders to decide which processes and systems need ...
This paper seeks to identify the skills, knowledge and behaviours required of new system leaders and to learn from systems attempting to combine strong organisational leadership with collaborative system-level leadership approaches. The paper draws on three years' development work with leaders in health care systems in north-west England, undertaken by ...