Greater Manchester lauded for approach to population health

By Integrated Care Journal

A new report from the King’s Fund had praised Greater Manchester’s progress on improving population health, emphasising the importance of addressing the wider determinants of health.

The King’s Fund has praised Greater Manchester for its work improving key measures of health and health inequalities. The influential national charity has called Greater Manchester “the poster child for devolution” in England and has recognised the time, effort and resources put in place helping people to live good lives, improve wellbeing and prevent illness.

The new report, published this week, shows how health is influenced by wider determinants such as high‑quality and secure housing, a good job and a healthy environment. It highlights the vital link between health, and the communities we live in as well as the value in aligning strategies to ensure improvement of both the economic and health status of the population.

Since 2015, Greater Manchester has had a wide-ranging devolution deal with Government on health which has led to improvements in life expectancy and other measures (see here for information). Greater Manchester’s model was integral to the creation of statutory integrated care systems in 2022 with improving outcomes in population health and health care a key aim.

The King’s Fund report reiterates the importance of population health being a core goal of integrated care systems and the value in different government departments below the national level working more closely together, including at mayoral level. It underpins Greater Manchester’s ‘live well model’ that aims to transform the relationship between work and health.

While this new publication recognises the financial challenges that the NHS and other public sector organisations face, it makes the case for continuing with a population health approach and the strong evidence that improvements in health can have for the economy at large.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester and NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership co-chair, said: “Greater Manchester’s health devolution journey has a simple but fundamental principle at its heart: that more local decision-making can deliver better outcomes for people.

“This report from the King’s Fund sets out clearly the wider social factors that impact people’s health and wellbeing, but also the power of devolution to draw the connections between those issues and tackle them systematically.

“That is the strength of our devolved approach, and the mission of the new Live Well service that we want to pioneer here in our city-region. There are still challenges and pressures that we face. But we’ve made progress already, including on healthy life expectancy, and by bringing together partners and joining up the support offer for residents – whether that’s health and social prescribing, housing advice, or employment support – we can deliver better, more efficient public services, and improve people’s life chances.”

Jane Pilkington, Director of Population Health for NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care said: “The King’s Fund spotlighting Greater Manchester as leading the way in population health is pivotal to re-emphasise the important role the NHS plays in improving the health and wellbeing of residents, by focusing on preventing ill-health in the first instance rather than just treating sickness, as well as relentlessly working to reduce health inequalities.

In Greater Manchester we need to continue to work together with communities and the voluntary sector, local government, and the NHS to help create a place where everyone can live a good life, growing up, getting on and growing old in a greener, fairer more prosperous city-region – focusing on improving both the health and economic circumstances of our residents.”

Lord Hunt: Wound care is pivotal to “tackle some of the malaise in the NHS”

By Fredrik Matre and Ameneh Saatchi

Public Policy Projects’ (PPP) Ameneh Saatchi sat down with long-standing ally the Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Kings Heath OBE, former President of the Royal Society for Public Health and newly appointed Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero. Having been an early and vocal supporter of PPP’s Wound Care Programme, Lord Hunt discussed with Saatchi how his longstanding campaigning has informed the mission to bring wound care reform up on the political agenda.

PPP is continuing its 2024 Wound Care Programme following a successful inaugural year. Their 2023 Insights Report, Going further for wound healing, was endorsed as “excellent” by Lord Hunt, who described it as “essential that Government and the NHS take note and act on the report’s recommendations.” With the new government working to enact its legislative agenda, we reflect on Lord Hunt’s desires for wound care reform and how PPP’s Wound Care Programme is facilitating the necessary discussions about how to build a consistent national experience of wound care.

Recently appointed Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero, Lord Hunt served as President of the Royal Society for Public Health from 2010 to 2018. In 2017, he put wound care on the parliamentary agenda when he called for a debate to ask the government for its plans “to develop a strategy for improving the standards of wound care in the NHS”. He continued his advocacy for wound care reform even after his presidential tenure at the Royal Society of Health, being an early supporter in the establishment of PPP’s Wound Care Programme.

Now in its second year, PPP’s Wound Care Programme is building on last year’s success, further challenging the status quo in wound care provision. Ahead of the Wound Care 2024 Conference, we look back at the conversation between the Director of PPP’s Wound Care Programme, Ameneh Saatchi, and Lord Hunt, discussing what is needed to secure political buy-in for wound care reform.

Need for political recognition

Having raised the issue of wound care in the House of Lords in 2017, Lord Hunt has since pushed for greater recognition of wound care from NHS leaders and policymakers. A lack of political will from the previous government has led to inaction in improving wound care provision.

“If ministers or the top of NHS England are convinced that dealing with wound care would be one of the ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of outcomes of the NHS, then they will devise the method by which you do it. But I don’t think there’s any evidence that they believe that”.

A focus for Lord Hunt in the run up to the general election was to elevate wound care on the political agenda. While Saatchi’s suggestion to establish an NHS England National Clinical Director for wound care is welcomed by Lord Hunt, he argues further that establishment of such a role “is less important than whether you have some political direction or direction from the top of NHS England” convinced of the need to tackle wound care.

The National Wound Care Strategy Programme was set up to provide such direction, though its continued operation is under fiscal scrutiny and buy-in from NHS leaders is required to act on its recommendations. Without such direction, insufficient attention is paid to how wound care is provided across the NHS, leading to major inefficiencies.

“The evidence is pretty convincing that we do a pretty poor job now, [and] that there is enormous cost to the NHS, because we don’t deal with wound care properly.”

The problems don’t necessarily lie in a lack of solutions; “we know what to do,” says Lord Hunt. Rather, he insists, it requires buy-in from government and the NHS to recognise the need to reform wound care.

‘Big spenders’ in health

Lord Darzi’s recent Independent Investigation of the National Health Service in England found that “the NHS budget is not being spent where it should be”. PPP’s Insights from 2023 Wound Care report was accepted as evidence by Lord Darzi. Wes Streeting has committed to being “honest about the problems the NHS faces and serious about fixing them”. Lord Hunt is conscious that the Health Secretary would likely welcome the identification of “a limited number of clinical areas where you could have a big impact on outcomes and finances”. Wound care, he argues, is just such an area.

Lord Hunt emphasises that “one of the ways to tackle some of the malaise in health is to tackle some of these ‘big spenders’ in health”. With 67 per cent of wound care expenditure spent on unhealed wounds, a focus on prevention and early intervention (echoing Labour’s desire for a “prevention first” approach) could make significant savings in costs avoided. Lord Darzi echoes Hunt’s sentiment that “that many of the measures needed to tackle the current malaise are already well known” and what is needed is implementation rather than invention.

By tackling particular clinical areas — with wound care seen by Lord Hunt as an obvious candidate — “in a cohesive way”, major savings can be made, simultaneously improving patient outcomes in a consistent manner across the country. Wound care is, in fact, an NHS ‘big spender’: it’s the third biggest clinical expense across the NHS, only after cancer and diabetes. Health economists have calculated that patient management cost for chronic wounds increased by 48 per cent in real terms between 2012/13 and 2017/18. Since wound care happens across systems (though predominantly in community settings), joined up working for integrated care could improve patient experiences and potentially streamline resource use.

Of the £8.3 billion spent by the NHS on wound management in 2017/18, 67 per cent was spent on managing unhealed wounds. The Prime Minister made it clear in his response to Lord Darzi’s investigation that there will be “no more money without reform”. If wounds are seen to quickly and treated according to standardised best practice, the need for longer and more complex treatment in future can be prevented. While only six per cent of NHS wound care expenditure goes towards treatment products, more than 70 per cent is associated with nurse, doctor, or healthcare assistant visits. Savings here would therefore be both fiscal and temporal, freeing up valuable workforce capacity.

Coalition-building

Wound care is currently, by virtue of affecting patients with a wide range of ailments, underrepresented in patient advocacy. Patients with chronic wounds can be found across health and care settings and are represented by many condition-specific charities. Yet, the lack of an overarching voice to represent wound care patients hinders efforts to bring about policy change. Lord Hunt notes that there is no all-party parliamentary group for wound care and sees the need for a “wound care alliance” representing the estimated 4.6 million people in the UK living with a wound, to rally political attention.

“Building an alliance is one way to get a better voice and also to get some outside external people, prominent external people to perhaps [come onto] the board of trustees or something like that.”

To elevate wound care on the political agenda, Lord Hunt envisages the need for “an alliance of charities looking at it from the point of view of the patient and their family, starting to ask questions about poor outcomes.” PPP is taking on Lord Hunt’s challenge, convening stakeholders to form a “wound care alliance” at its upcoming Wound Care Conference in London on 2 December.

Convening such stakeholders as the Queen’s Nursing Institute, the European Wound Management Association, the Society of Tissue Viability, the Royal College of Podiatry, the Lindsay Leg Club Foundation and more, the future of wound care is being discussed at PPP events with patients alongside. While it’s the patients that Lord Hunt wants to foreground, there are pertinent questions about “how much can be patient-led”.

With a myriad of “quite small charities that have usually been set up by relatives of people affected by a particular condition,” it can be hard to present a cohesive message reflective of diverse experiences. But these patients deserve a voice and should inform the future of wound care, given their lived experience.

The way forward for wound care action

Lord Hunt has been a wound care advocate for many years, and that is unlikely to change. Having “trod this territory some years ago,” he finds the lack of political progress “so frustrating”, but he is not one for giving up:

“The evidence, I think, is convincing, although the work that has been done over the years […] one should never sort of say you’ve ever completed the work. That work always needs updating.”

In Lord Hunt’s own words: “we know what to do”. With a new government in charge looking to rebuild an NHS classified as “broken” by Wes Streeting, there is a significant opportunity to not only save money by reforming wound care; reforming wound care can improve patient outcomes and transform peoples’ lives.

The way forward is clear and defined, as Lord Hunt points out. The political motivation should be obvious and apt for politicians to seize upon, with substantial opportunities for cost savings, improvement in clinical outcomes and patients’ quality of life identified. The potential returns on investment, both financial and social, could alleviate pressures in an NHS already overstretched, thereby supporting Wes Streeting’s mission to fix the “broken” NHS.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is keen to move health policy away from “sticking plaster politics” that implements short-term emergency measures to avoid the breakdown of the NHS, while neglecting the need for long-term reform. As anyone familiar with wound care will know, there’s more to it than a plaster. As the government implements its agenda for healthcare reform, wound care will (as a system-wide action area) need to be addressed.

PPP’s Wound Care programme brings together key stakeholders across the NHS, industry, charity and politics to advance the conversation on reform and innovation of wound care provision in the UK. Building on the foundation of a solid first year that identified the major obstacles, PPP is continuing to gather nuanced insights on possible futures for patients and healthcare providers alike.

On 2 December, PPP will be hosting an all-day Wound Care Conference in London, convening national health and care experts to discuss all aspects of wound care provision and forging a path forward for innovation and reform. Reflecting on the insights presented during the programme and facilitating conversations on the latest developments in UK wound care provision, it is a prime opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of sector developments.

Free to attend for NHS staff and other public sector workers, you can register for the conference here.

For further information about PPP’s Wound Care programme, please contact:
Director of Market Access & Policy – Ameneh Saatchi (ameneh.saatchi@publicpolicyprojects.com)
Programme Executive – Fredrik Matre (fredrik.matre@publicpolicyprojects.com)

Pandemic reflections: What we’ve learned from professional South Asian women in the NHS

By Dr Saleema Kauser and Dr Ana-Paula Figueiredo

Women from the BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) communities working in the NHS faced unique challenges and risks during the pandemic. Dr Saleema Kauser and Dr Ana-Paula Figueiredo interviewed women working in the NHS to hear the challenges they faced.

Ethnic minorities in the NHS encountered unique challenges during the pandemic, underscoring significant systemic issues within the NHS. Indeed, the pandemic served as a magnifying glass, revealing the vulnerabilities of healthcare systems across the world and the particular pressures faced by ethnic minorities within these systems.

For Asian women in the NHS, these pressures included not only the health risks from being on the front line. Their critical role in the healthcare response also positioned them at the intersection of race, gender, and professional risk.

This demanded focused research to dissect these overlapping vulnerabilities, and that is precisely what this project has been doing – researching the key insights and pivotal lessons that can be learned by interviewing professional South Asian women working in the NHS. Our research broke down into seven key areas of insight:

Preparedness and resilience

Many respondents noted that while the pandemic was challenging for everyone, it was particularly severe for ethnic minority women. A key issue highlighted was the inadequate distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE), which disproportionately affected these women, often leaving them on the front lines without adequate protection.

This lack of resources was compounded by delayed responses from management, who were slow to implement necessary safety measures. These delays not only heightened the risk of virus transmission but also highlighted a failure in crisis management that left staff feeling vulnerable and undervalued. Nearly all of our participants underlined the need for more proactive planning, robust health systems preparedness, resilience planning and the immediate provision of adequate resources like PPE.

Culture, leadership and behaviour

Many participants discussed a lack of cultural competence in healthcare provision and in managing ethnic minority staff. They called for more diversity in leadership roles within the NHS to provide insights into the lived experiences of different communities and to facilitate fair treatment and prevention strategies.

There is a clear need to integrate cultural competence training across all levels of the NHS. This training should target not only clinical staff but also management teams to ensure that decision-making reflects an understanding of the diverse cultural backgrounds of both patients and staff. The women also emphasised the need for regular assessments and feedback mechanisms to ensure that the needs and views of ethnic minority staff are being met.

Empowerment through awareness and advocacy

Women spoke about how enhancing advocacy could have led to significant improvements in addressing workplace inequalities and ensuring that all staff, particularly ethnic minorities, had the knowledge and tools to advocate for safer and more equitable working conditions.

Many participants emphasised how understanding their legal and organisational protections during the pandemic empowered them to advocate more effectively for themselves and their colleagues, and expressed a desire for more channels to raise their concerns. Some participants also felt there was a need to promote leadership roles for ethnic minorities specifically through leadership development programmes that target ethnic minority groups. This would help diversify the voices in NHS decision-making processes.

Transparent communication and focus on EDI

Clear, consistent, and transparent communication from healthcare leadership is critical during a crisis. The pandemic exposed a number of deficiencies in communication that often left women staff feeling confused and fearful. Many suggested that future strategies should focus on improving lines of communication, addressing staff concerns with empathy, and providing clear guidance on safety measures and operational changes, especially for those in high-risk roles.

Many participants expressed that information often did not reach them in a timely fashion or was not fully accessible, was only selectively shared or, in some cases, not shared at all in instances where white managers did not see BAME colleagues as full team members. They also felt excluded from decision-making processes, particularly those decisions that affected their work conditions directly during the pandemic.

Workforce support and sustainability

The dual burden of professional duties and domestic responsibilities was evident during the pandemic, especially for working mothers. It is crucial for healthcare systems to create and maintain support structures that help women manage this balance without compromising their health and well-being. Recognising and actively supporting the work-life balance during crises is essential in reducing burnout and maintaining high levels of care. Those in high-exposure areas such as COVID-19 wards faced intense pressure to manage work risks and family health.

Providing mental health support systems that are robust during and after crises is also essential. The women in our sample faced increased psychological impacts due to systemic biases and high-pressure roles during the pandemic.

Recognition and response to systemic inequities

Our data highlighted a deeply entrenched lack of recognition and systemic inequities towards South Asian women during the pandemic. The most significant was the systemic inequity around the distribution of PPE and critical resources. Participants often found themselves on the front lines without adequate protection, highlighting a stark neglect in the safeguarding of these workers compared to their white counterparts. Such disparities were not only a matter of resource allocation but also reflected deeper racial prejudices and a failure to recognise the equal worth and rights of ethnic minority workers.

Government and NHS coordination

Many participants discussed the need for a well-coordinated response between the government and NHS, which they felt was lacking. The lack of unity in their responses was a significant concern.

The general view was that in the long-term, healthcare policy reforms should focus on making the system fairer and more inclusive, especially in light of the inequalities exposed by the pandemic. This involves re-evaluating existing policies to ensure they truly serve and protect all healthcare workers, with extra attention given to those who are most at risk or disadvantaged.

Our data indicates that the disparities revealed during the pandemic demonstrated that the normal way of doing things wasn’t effective or fair for everyone, particularly minority women healthcare workers who often faced greater risks and fewer protections.

Our work highlighted the urgent need for systemic changes that promote equity, cultural competence, effective communication, and empowerment. By addressing these key areas, the NHS—and healthcare systems worldwide—can not only better prepare for future crises but also create a more just and supportive environment for all healthcare professionals.

The pandemic underlined the importance of the health and social care workforce, who faced extreme pressures. Ensuring the wellbeing, adequate staffing, and continuous professional development of healthcare workers is vital for sustaining health services during and beyond and future crisis.

*Dr Ana-Paula Figueiredo, Researcher, Alliance Manchester Business School*

*Dr Saleema Kauser, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Business Ethics and Strategy, Alliance Manchester Business School*

Staff urged to sign up for course co-produced with autistic people to improve mental health care

By Integrated Care Journal

November marks the deadline to sign up to the ‘Train the Trainer’ course, to support staff to provide workplace training to improve support for autistic people.

Staff working in mental health services in England are being urged to sign up for a ‘ground-breaking’ series of courses that provide training to improve care for autistic people as it reaches its final months.

The National Autism Trainer Programme (NATP) is delivered by Anna Freud, a mental health charity for children and young people, in partnership with AT-Autism, a non-profit UK autism training, clinical services and consultancy provider, for NHS England. Both organisations share a commitment to creating lasting positive change for autistic people, as well as their families and staff working with them.

The programme – which closes in November – supports staff to deliver training within their own workplaces to improve support of autistic people.

Staff working in mental health and other settings can sign up for NATP here.

Research indicates s even out of 10 autistic people develop a mental health condition such as anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). They are more likely to require mental health services than non-autistic people, but they don’t always get appropriate care. For example:

Mental health problems are often misdiagnosed among autistic adults, who are more likely to be given a sequence of diagnoses for their mental health problems and to disagree with the diagnosis they receive.
On average, autistic adults spend about 5 years within inpatient mental health services once admitted, compared with 39 days for non-autistic people.
Autistic people are up to seven times more likely to die by suicide than non-autistic people.

Since launching in 2023, more than 4,000 professionals across England have been trained through NATP and more than 600 are registered for the remaining places so far. 

The programme has been co-designed, co-produced and co-delivered with more than 110 autistic people to improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of professionals within mental health services in supporting autistic individuals. This includes challenging stereotypes about autism, building understanding of mental health conditions in autistic people and developing neurodiversity and trauma-informed and experience-sensitive approaches to their care.

Staff working in mental health and other settings can sign up for NATP here.

The course is open to eligible NHS England staff who currently work or may work with autistic people, including those without a diagnosis, in inpatient and community mental health services.8 Staff from residential special schools and colleges, and children and young people health and justice services, can also sign up.

Full details on training dates and available settings are on Anna Freud’s website. The charity, which has been supporting children and young people for 70 years, is working to close the gap in children and young people’s mental health. NATP is helping to achieve this ambition by closing the gaps in the skills and knowledge needed to support autistic people of all ages within mental health settings.

Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou, NATP Strategic Co-Lead and Programme Director at Anna Freud and Associate Professor at University College London, said: “Without counting those not formally diagnosed, autistic people are massively overrepresented in mental health services, yet many don’t receive appropriate care. This ground-breaking programme was established to help spread a new understanding of autism across the country. We are training staff within mental health settings to better support and recognise autistic people through experience-sensitive and person-centred care.

“Seeing the changes that the thousands of staff trained through NATP so far have implemented in their own workplaces has been a joy. From recognising and making adjustments for sensory and communication differences to developing environments where autistic voices are listened to and respected, so many working cultures have become more neurodiversity-informed and inclusive.

“After we deliver the final set of NATP courses, we will work closely with experts by experience, NHS England and partners to provide recommendations for a sustainable national model that promotes neurodiversity-informed practices within mental health services.”

Alexis Quinn is an autistic campaigner and author who, after attempting to seek mental health support following the birth of her daughter and death of her brother, was detained in 2012 under the Mental Health Act for almost four years. Alexis – who is also a content developer for NATP – said: “After major life changes, my mental health declined, and troubling autistic sensory seeking and cognitive needs arose. I couldn’t sleep, and I was more sensitive to touch, light and sounds. I also found I needed to move around all the time and became fixated on researching death processes. People around me became worried and I went to my GP for help. I thought I would be able to find somewhere to share my experiences and distress and have these supported.

“Instead, I faced countless barriers to accessing health care services. Some of these were environmental and some were caused by staff not understanding me. For example, I found the GP’s waiting area noisy and tried to move around to cope, but I was told I needed to sit down or leave. On one occasion, the police were called, and I was so overwhelmed, I had a meltdown. Not long after, I was sectioned and labelled mentally ill. I was given medications that caused scary and severe side effects, all of which compounded the distress I was experiencing.

“None of this needed to happen. If you understand autistic people, you can make reasonable adjustments such as providing a double appointment. You can also listen beyond the observation of autistic ‘symptoms’ by truly getting to know the person and their needs. That’s why NATP is so important. The course offers a neurodivergent-friendly approach to thinking about and supporting autistic people. Designed and delivered by the population it seeks to serve, it trains staff to recognise, understand and empathise with difference, and adapt care for neurodiverse people accordingly.”

Ellie Tidy, Child Wellbeing Practitioner at Islington Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) was trained through NATP. She said: “The training provided incredible insights into the experiences of autistic people, including helping us understand the importance of an experience-sensitive approach. We now have a box of sensory tools for face-to-face sessions that young people can access during therapeutic sessions to feel more comfortable, and we have developed a form where they can share sensory and social needs before appointments.

“We have also adapted some resources, including our adolescent anxiety interventions, to better reflect the potential cognitive styles of young people. To achieve this, we incorporated learnings from NATP, including on masking – a strategy used by some autistic people consciously or unconsciously to appear non-autistic – and alexithymia, when a person has difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions. We are also expanding and improving our way of working with neurodivergent children and young people beyond the clinic, including advocating for better adaptations in other settings such as at home and in school.

“In the future, we aim to focus more on co-production. We’re currently working with autistic young people and their families in the service to gather feedback and find out which adaptations work well and what could be changed. Listening to the voices of autistic young people will help us to better support them.”

Staff working in mental health and other settings can sign up for NATP here.  

Universal Care Plan breaks usage records with new integrations and sickle cell care plans

By Integrated Care Journal

More than 5,000 people with sickle cell disease now have a plan on the integrated care platform, covering nearly all of those receiving care for the disease in London.

The Universal Care Plan (UCP), OneLondon’s shared care planning solution powered by Better, has in the last year integrated with the NHS National Record Locator (NRL) and the NHS App, while also extending the care plan support for people with sickle cell disease.

These latest developments within the solution, which spans five integrated care boards across the whole of London and has recently marked two years of existence, are helping to further integrate care, improve patient outcomes, and drive up engagement, in some cases at record-breaking levels.

Introduction of sickle cell care plans

Expanding the UCP to support individuals with sickle cell disease is an important step, following the No One’s Listening report, calling for major changes in sickle cell care. Sickle cell disease affects approximately 15,000 people in the UK. Approximately 60 per cent of people diagnosed with the disease have their treatment in London. With symptoms ranging from anaemia to severe pain episodes known as sickle cell crisis, managing this condition effectively requires comprehensive care planning and prompt treatment interventions.

Since the launch of the care plans, 5,000 people with the disease now have a plan on the integrated care platform, meaning the service is close to supporting everyone who is cared for in the capital.

“I think this is a real game changer for people with sickle cell disease,” said Nick Tigere, Head of the UCP Programme. “They are now able to confidently seek the medical attention they need while in crisis, knowing fully that the services they attend, wherever they attend in London, will be aware of consolidated key information on diagnosis, symptom management, and treatment options.

“Supporting healthcare professionals with immediate access to this critical information is facilitating timely interventions and improved care. It really has been transformative for people’s care pathway.”

National Record Locator integration

With the new National Record Locator (NRL) integration in place, London and out-of-London urgent care services are now able to view a UCP en route to responding to a patient in need. This means that a patient’s care plan, particularly their symptom management requirements, can be delivered immediately as the paramedics make contact with the patient, even when they are away from London. Following the go-live, the number of plans accessed by the Ambulance Service has increased by 20 per cent due to the increased access the integration is providing.

The NRL is an NHS service that allows health and care professionals to find and access patient information shared by other health and care organisations across England to support the direct care of a patient.

NHS App integration

Patients can now also access their UCP in the NHS App, which is another step towards putting patients at the heart of their care planning. It means patients can easily share their plans with healthcare professionals as they move around London and across the rest of the country.
In an emergency, patients may not be able to articulate or communicate their wishes and preferences, in which case they can defer to showing clinicians the plan on the app. The increased accessibility is also empowering patients to take a more active role in managing their information and ensuring it is up to date.

In four months, the app has seen 20,000 jump-offs to care plans, and if a plan isn’t in place, it’s helping to initiate conversations with clinicians to create one, which is in turn contributing to an increase in overall care plans created. During July, the service celebrated a record-breaking 4,200 care plans being generated on the platform.

Concluding on the new integrations and sickle cell care plans, Nick Tigere added: “The UCP platform has become a well-established tool for health and care professionals and is helping to ensure people have their care wishes and preferences respected. Our role is to enable all parts of the system to quickly access relevant patient information at the right place and right time. I am proud that we continue to enable this for people and our health services with these latest developments.”

Darren Ransley, Managing Director UK & Ireland at Better, said: “By expanding access to patient data through the NHS National Record Locator and NHS App, we are advancing interoperability and making healthcare data available anywhere, anytime. These integrations mark a significant step forward in delivering person-centred care and ensuring equitable access to healthcare services.

“By leveraging innovative technology and a person-centred approach, the UCP continues to redefine care delivery standards, setting a new benchmark for integrated healthcare solutions.”

At the end of 2024, the UCP will be transformed into a personalised care and support plan with the introduction of new forms and data fields to create a richer picture of the person receiving care. The new information will cover the PRSB ‘About Me’ standard, living arrangements, medical devices, communication and accessibility requirements, and daily activities and support needs.

Social care monitoring tech could free up two million bed days and save over £1.2bn for the NHS, new report finds

By Integrated Care Journal

New report highlights major potential of lifestyle monitoring technology to address immediate system-wide crisis across health and social care, finding that thousands could avoid hospitalisation from earlier detection of illness, avoiding more expensive residential care.

The NHS could save more than £1.2 billion through widespread use of new non-intrusive lifestyle monitoring technology in social care according to a new independent report. More than two million hospital bed days could be saved, and the extra capacity created in social care able to fund the equivalent of 10,000 additional full-time carers in the system by 2035.

These findings are part of new analysis commissioned by health-tech company Lilli to make the case for urgent digitisation across the health and social care sector. The report uses data from multiple local authorities across the UK who are currently using the AI-driven monitoring technology to address the growing care deficit and mounting social care crisis.

Entitled From passive to proactive: How monitoring technology can help to solve the health and social care crisis, the report follows recent social care promises from the new government to accelerate the adoption of technology in health and care and highlights the ‘domino effect’ that proactive monitoring employed in social care can have not just on council resources but also the NHS and patient outcomes.

It identifies hospital discharge as a key area that can see a significant impact from the technology. Earlier discharge would amount to 2.3 million additional bed days and almost £1.2bn in savings for the NHS, due to reduced costs of providing beds for patients over the next ten years – enough to pay the salaries of 2,000 nurses over the period. It would also lead to better health outcomes for the many thousands of people experiencing delayed discharge every day, with extended stays linked to higher risk of infections, adverse drug reactions and readmissions to hospital.

The report also finds that adopting monitoring technology now would save councils £3bn by 2035 by supporting people to live independently at home for longer and preventing thousands of people entering more expensive care settings, such as residential care. The productivity benefits would help to address the workforce crisis in care, by generating additional capacity equivalent to 94 million hours of carer time across the UK, or to having 10,000 extra care workers. These productivity benefits would be worth an estimated £1.8bn to councils, allowing vital resources to be redistributed to where they are most needed.

Lifestyle monitoring technology works by tracking patterns of behaviour and key indicators of health, such as movement, eating and bathroom activity, and alerting carers to any changes. This allows care professionals to quickly make accurate care assessments, and safely monitor people’s health at home remotely, while being on the front foot to proactively spot signs of health decline before conditions require hospital treatment. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) have been identified as a key area where monitoring technology can help prevent hospital admissions, and the report estimates that the NHS could make savings of £1.8m each year through reduced hospital admissions from UTIs, due to earlier intervention, which could pay for half a million hours of nursing time.

Rebecca Andrew, Service Improvement Manager from Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “The rollout of remote monitoring technology across Nottinghamshire allows our social care staff access to real time data, giving insights into a person’s behaviour over a period of time. This helps them to build a clear picture of what is going on in a person’s life and draw their attention to any potential change in their social care needs. This ensures we can put appropriate care and support in place that is personalised to the individual, and respond quickly to prevent crises, meaning fewer ambulance call outs and hospital admissions.”

According to the report, produced by economists at Policy Points, “there is strong evidence that lifestyle monitoring technology can generate essential, big-ticket savings for both the NHS and for social care, creating a digital dividend by protecting scarce hospital resources at the same time as boosting the productivity of carers”.

Kelly Hudson, Chief Executive Officer at Lilli, said: “Right now, the people who need care are not getting the help that they should, and the problem will only get worse as the population ages. The numbers in this report speak for themselves. The savings and productivity figures highlight the profound difference that an investment in technology now would have not just on the system but on the lives of people up and down the country.”

Lifestyle monitoring technology from Lilli is currently being used by multiple councils across the UK, including Islington, Nottingham and Reading, to enable people to live safely and independently at home.

The report goes on to explain how over the next ten years, the older population will ‘grow by millions’, increasing demand for its services, and for the health and care system to be sustainable, a commitment to overhauling the system at pace and scale is urgently needed. The alternative is a broken system that will continue to be reactive and is unable to meet the care needs of those who need it most.

Kelly Hudson adds: “We are supportive of the new Health Secretary’s ambition for a ‘different politics on social care’ and we urge the new government to tackle the current crisis proactively as they have pledged, by addressing the root cause of the issue. We are urgently calling for more support for the sector to adopt a technology led approach to better support the people in need, reduce wasted costs and deliver better outcomes.”

News, Thought Leadership September 9, 2024

From fragmentation to integration: Lessons for the NHS from New Zealand

By Gabriel Blaazer

When David Meates became CEO of New Zealand’s Canterbury District Health Board in 2009, he took charge of a system that was “broken and fragmented”. 11 years later, the system’s fortunes were transformed. At a recent event, Meates shared his experiences and lessons from Canterbury’s transformation, offering vital insight for the NHS as it continues its own journey from fragmentation to integration.

On 14th August, Public Policy Projects (PPP) held a dinner for a group of carefully selected stakeholders to share lessons from international and devolved nations on the delivery of integrated care. Speaking to the assembled guests was David Meates, who, while current interim CEO of Rowing NZ, was CEO of New Zealand’s Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) from 2009-2020. During his tenure, Canterbury DHB undertook an ambitious series of reforms aimed at integrating the fragmented elements of the health service, which turned the ailing system into one of the most integrated health systems anywhere in the world.

Many of the issues Canterbury faced have parallels within the NHS, and as such, it provides valuable lessons for UK health and care transformation. Prior to Meates’ arrival, Christchurch Hospital (the district’s largest) was regularly ‘gridlocked’ due to a shortage of beds, while a fragmented system and growing demand for services were damaging staff morale and the system’s ability to deliver effective healthcare.

Meates took charge of Canterbury DHB in 2009, and noted that by 2007, leaders had already realised the system was unsustainable and needed change. He described it as “broken and fragmented”, siloed by profession, dominated by providers and lacking clear purpose. Exponential increases in funding over preceding years had led to little-to-no improvement in service delivery, productivity or patient outcomes.

Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand

Without reform, the system would have required another 600-bed hospital, a 23 per cent increase in GP practices, 2,000 more aged care beds, and 9,000 additional healthcare professionals (HCPs), simply to meet demand. Meates remarked that even with the necessary funds, the workforce to do this was simply not available. What was needed, Meates determined, was a new blueprint for delivering healthcare to Canterbury’s more than half a million residents, as well as a burning platform that would inspire substantial change.

First steps: identifying the vision

Much of Canterbury DHB’s early work – under the umbrella of Project 2020 – focused on understanding the shared challenges that affect large and complex systems in other sectors, and how these insights could be applied to a healthcare environment. One key initiative was Xceler8, an eight-week experiential leadership development programme that involved 1,500 doctors, nurses, and allied healthcare professionals from across the Canterbury system. Participants, convened in cross-disciplinary groups, spent time with leaders in other sectors to understand their challenges. At the end of the programme, these groups presented ideas for system improvements to a chief executive, with some being subsequently implemented. Beyond the positive changes this brought about, the programme also helped to embed principles of system thinking among the workforce and demonstrated that each part of the system has a role to play in broader system improvement.

Other programmes included Particip8 (a six-week night-school course focusing on change management techniques), and Collabor8 (a short course focusing on skills management).

These programmes also sought to familiarise staff members with Lean and Six Sigma methodologies – prioritising customer value and continuous improvement – as well as chaos theory – the idea that beneath the apparent randomness of complex systems, there are underlying patterns and constant feedback loops that can be quantified, measured and understood.

Through these initiatives, system leaders began identifying commonalities and principles that extended beyond traditional approaches to healthcare system transformation, such as the concept of ‘value.’ While ‘value’ in other sectors might refer to profit or market capitalisation, it was determined that in a healthcare context, creating ‘value’ could be understood as not wasting patients’, and by extension, the system’s, time. This realisation led to the establishment of three strategic goals, forming a framework for “a connected system, centred around people, that aimed not to waste their time”.

People take greater responsibility for their own health
Prioritising the development of services that support people and families to stay well and take increased responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.
People stay well in their own homes and communities
Prioritising the development of primary care and community services to support people and families in community-based settings, close to home, and to provide a point of ongoing contact and continuity – for most, this is in general practice.
People receive timely and appropriate care
Enabling the freeing-up of hospital-based specialist resources which can be responsive to episodic events and the provision of complex care and specialist advice to primary care.

These initiatives also led to a realisation that regardless of how fragmented a system may seem, all components form part of the same ecosystem. Shuffling patients around to meet ‘activity’ targets benefits the system little, whereas prioritising the patient’s best interests—minimising their time spent while achieving the best possible outcomes—benefits both the patients and the entire system. This insight gave rise to the principle of “One system: One budget”, which became the foundation for all subsequent reforms within Canterbury DHB.

One system: One budget

These guiding principles informed the first series of practical changes that Canterbury DHB implemented to better integrate the system and create better value both for patients and the wider system.

A crucial development was the creation of the community-based HealthPathways, aimed at improving the interface between secondary and primary care. This programme was initiated by clinicians who, after reviewing a backlog of referrals, identified that many common issues could have been prevented through better communication between hospitals and primary care providers. General practitioners and hospital specialists were then brought together to agree on optimal management and referral pathways for specific conditions. These pathways were subsequently presented to larger groups of hospital doctors, GPs, nurses, and HCPs for their input. Meates reflected on the traction that HealthPathways was gaining as an approach in the Northern hemisphere, with systems in England and Wales adopting the methodology as the operating system for their integrated systems.

A key lesson from Project 2020, as Meates has argued, is that “too often, we confuse activity with progress,” a criticism frequently directed at the NHS’s Payment by Results tariff system. To better align incentives across the Canterbury system, this approach was abandoned in favour of the newly established Canterbury Health System Outcomes Framework. This change supported the principle of “One System: One Budget,” ensuring that the various components of the system would now be rewarded for achieving the best outcomes for the system or the patient, rather than merely moving patients around and being compensated for this ‘activity.’

Another change was the establishment of the Canterbury Clinical Network – a collaborative of HCPs, health system users and cross-sector partners using a principles-based framework to decide how, when and where health services are provided. These principles included taking a whole systems approach to ensure the integration and sustainability of services, ensuring that people and communities were at the centre of any changes, enabling clinically led service development, and the system operating within its financial means. Crucially, while commissioners were involved, their role was to support the process and then work out how to realise the objectives, not to prescribe the objectives themselves.

An important step towards service integration was also made by the establishment of a connected data platform – HealthOne – an electronic shared care record combining GP, hospital and community pharmacy records, along with laboratory and imaging results. Since this was not replacing existing systems, but drawing on them, its implementation was relatively non-disruptive and enabled the scope of the records to be increased over time. Citizens could opt out of all or part of the system, with the process led by the system’s Consumer Council, while regular “dynamic” automated privacy audits ensured that patient privacy was always prioritised.

Reflections

In reflecting on Canterbury DHB’s transformation journey, Meates was wary of simplistic quick fixes to complex, systemic problems, and the importance of taking a holistic and long-term approach with any proposed solutions. “You need a whole system to work for the whole system to work – focusing on part of the system will not effect the change required,” he told the assembled guests. Considering this, during its transformation Canterbury DHB paid special attention to the language it used to refer to the system and its workforce, emphasising the use of “we” in official communications, and deliberately halting the use of language which went counter to the narrative of a single system.

The principles of integration and collaboration must also be reflected in the redesign of services and pathways by actively involving relevant stakeholders and ensuring their voices are heard. Meates emphasised that “change happens at the speed of trust,” which requires meaningful engagement with frontline teams, as well as input from the clinicians who will deliver the services and the communities who will use them.

Meates also cautioned that in any large-scale system transformation, facilitating cultural change among the people involved is as crucial as any change in process or structure. With the introduction of integrated care systems and their emphasis on collaboration over competition (a significant departure from the previous way of commissioning services), this is a point the NHS could do well to acknowledge. “You can’t expect the same people that have worked in a competitive environment and who have seen their success tied to the success of their organisation to suddenly collaborate,” said Meates. This is a case of both instilling that necessary cultural change, but also of facilitating systems to be collaborative, such as by realigning incentives towards system outcomes as opposed to individual organisational sustainability.

The cultural dimension is also highly relevant to funding issues, as “too often, these involve win/lose discussions” where different parts of a system manage their activity levels to safeguard their budgets and maintain status within the broader system. While outcomes-based remuneration is undoubtedly a key solution, it is equally important to embrace the idea that the best outcome for patients is also the best outcome for the system and its individual components.

On a practical level, Meates emphasised that although reforming contracts can be the most challenging area, it is perhaps the most critical. Contracts significantly limit what healthcare providers can do and how they operate, making them essential enablers of any strategic change. “While the goal is integration,” Meates argued, this is undermined if “existing contracts and reporting requirements continue to move in the opposite direction. Contracts give you all the reasons why you can’t change what you are doing.”

Conclusions for the NHS

The transformative journey of Canterbury DHB under David Meates offers critical insights for the NHS as it continues its transitions towards integrated care. The success of Canterbury’s reforms, driven by a commitment to collaboration, system-wide integration, and a focus on patient-centred outcomes, illustrates the importance of addressing systemic fragmentation holistically. According to Meates, people in Canterbury were “30 percent less likely to be admitted medically unwell compared with the rest of New Zealand” because of these reforms.

Canterbury DHB’s experience shows that applying process and quality improvement techniques like Lean and Six Sigma to complex systems such as healthcare is no simple task; it demands a long-term vision and strong commitment from leadership to act. For too long, the NHS has been consumed by day-to-day pressures, and the introduction of ICSs has not been accompanied by the necessary cultural changes that can only clear, top-down strategic direction can bring.

Additionally, while the NHS has sought to place greater emphasis on citizen-centred care, it still often fails to adequately engage marginalised communities and provide co-designed, holistic care services that meet their needs. The establishment of community diagnostic centres is certainly a positive step in this regard, more needs to be done to ensure that these services are accessible and tailored to the unique challenges faced by marginalised and underserved groups. This includes overcoming language barriers, addressing cultural sensitivities and ensuring that services are easily reachable for those most in need. Citizen-centred care required continuous engagement with these communities, fostering trust and enabling them to have an active role in shaping their own health outcomes.

Key lessons from Canterbury DHB include prioritising cultural change, realigning incentives to emphasise system-wide benefits, ongoing community and patient engagement and leveraging technology like shared care records to enhance communication across care settings. By adopting these principles, the NHS can achieve meaningful, sustainable reforms that deliver value for both patients and the wider healthcare system.

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Labour urged to support and protect NHS’ temporary healthcare workforce

By Integrated Care Journal

The UK’s temporary healthcare workforce needs championing and protecting, suggests the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), as it launches its people-first ‘Voice of the Worker’ campaign.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is urging the government to champion the UK’s temporary healthcare workforce, with the launch of it’s people-first ‘Voice of the Worker’ campaign.

The campaign comes as the new government is pushing on with its Employment Rights Bill within its first 100 days in power.

The move has sparked robust debate regarding recruitment and employment, because highly regulated agency work already offers employment rights and in-work progression. There are fears that anticipated changes to employment rules could put the temporary worker market at risk.

Further, the new government’s launch of Skills England will also create more opportunities for temporary and contract workers to upskill as the Apprenticeship Levy is reformed. Although not confirmed, the government is expected to expand the Apprenticeship Levy into a ‘Growth and Skills Levy’, allowing companies to use 50 per cent of their levy contributions to fund training via routes other than apprenticeships.

Temporary healthcare work is key in helping the NHS deal with disparate and fluctuating demand, and with the right regulations in place, enable workers greater flexibility in work and control over their work-life balance.

Neil Carberry, REC Chief Executive, said: “Flexibility at work is something to feel optimistic about. It is working for millions of people. Individual choice and employers’ need for a versatile workforce can be brought together to deliver better careers and higher productivity. The government must ensure new rules support temps and that means having a real understanding of their lives.”

REC’s campaign aims to show how and why temping can work for many individuals by placing the real-life stories of temps, including those working in healthcare, at its heart. The campaign urges government, employers and unions to collaborate more closely to support the UK’s growing temporary workforce.

For the campaign, REC commissioned Whitestone Insight to interview 520 temp agency workers across different sectors – not just health – in Britain in June 2024, to hear their thoughts about agency work and why it matters to them. Polling found:

Almost eight in 10 temp agency workers (79 per cent) said their work provides an important need for flexibility.
More than two thirds of temp agency workers (68 per cent) said that their work provides a greater work-life balance.
More than half of temp agency workers (53 per cent) believed that this is the right kind of role for their current stage in life – an active choice.

REC says it hopes its ‘Voice of the Worker’ campaign will prompt far more discussion about reform of the public sector, with public services clearly struggling with demand. Temporary workers are critical in enabling the NHS to deliver services, helping to retain skilled people in the workforce and provide solutions to NHS trusts. But NHS policies for frameworks and banks have reduced the attraction of working for the NHS for medical staff – and forced trusts to use more and more emergency shifts. By reforming frameworks, their rates and the approach taken to permanent staffing, the new government could reduce costs and get better results for patients and the Treasury. But a proper partnership is needed to achieve this, the REC argues.

Neil Carberry added: “Government has repeatedly made the same mistakes in NHS staffing for almost a decade – trying to pay agency staff less year-on-year than they pay substantive staff. And pretending that Banks are cheaper to the exchequer. The result of this is that there are more emergency shifts as medics reject shifts, and spending overall has gone up. Moving on from demonising agency nurses and doctors and other clinicians – and the agencies that supply them – and working in partnership with the sector on a new approach to procurement will give the new government a unique opportunity to build a sustainable supply of short-term staff, at high quality and value for both patient and taxpayer.

“Good and lasting workforce changes that are effective for workers and employers, happen when employers and government work together to determine what works for everyone. Our case studies show the difference talented agency and contract staff are already making in our health service.”

This autumn, the REC will highlight video and written case studies of temporary workers, in which they explain the reasons for wanting flexibility and the benefits of temp working, across a variety of sectors.

Labour needs a preventative health strategy to transform public health

By Tina Woods

Business for Health Founder and CEO, Tina Woods, discusses the crucial role that business can play in improving the nation’s health, and calls on the Labour government to adopt a shift towards evidence-based prevention.

As the new Labour Government enters its early stages in power, it is increasingly clear that the party has inherited a sick workforce, rising levels of economic inactivity and unsustainable pressure on the NHS.

Tackling our current broken health system requires a long-term, multifaceted approach that shifts the UK’s societal attitude from reliance on the NHS to a culture of prevention. Going forward, creating a comprehensive preventative health strategy should be Labour’s focus.

Laying the foundations for a ‘prevention first’ revolution

Labour’s Health Mission in their manifesto states the aim to “deliver a ‘prevention first’ revolution”, and with the right partners and a clear strategy, this vision can become a reality.

While the ambition to halve heart attacks and strokes, create a smoke-free generation, and reduce health inequality are commendable, translating these goals into tangible policy and action will be crucial.

A preventative health strategy must go beyond individual behaviour change and address the wider determinants of health. This includes creating healthy environments, reforming the food system, and ensuring good work and housing for all. Crucially, it requires coordinated action across government departments, and wider businesses.

Easing pressures on hospitals

The UK’s poor public health is placing immense pressure on the NHS, resulting in many hospitals having far too many patients, with far too long waiting lists.

Despite over 95 per cent of the NHS budget being spent on treatment, with little ring-fenced for prevention, preventable conditions like obesity, heart disease, and lung cancer account for a significant proportion of hospital admissions and healthcare costs.

The government should set a target to allocate a specific percentage of the total health budget to evidence-based prevention programmes within 5 years, rising by 2030. Moving more pathways of care into community health will alleviate pressure on hospitals and create a more sustainable healthcare system. To support in setting and managing these targets, Business for Health has partnered with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to deliver an enhanced ONS Health Index which will be vital in tracking against the Government’s health and wellbeing plans.

Business is essential in prevention

Alongside the NHS, businesses also have a crucial role to play in this agenda, and the Labour government must work to cultivate meaningful partnerships with the private sector.

By creating incentives and frameworks for improving health, small and medium-sized enterprises can be encouraged to do more; exploring legislation, such as making workplace health reporting mandatory for larger companies, is another driver. To support businesses in creating these strategies, the next iteration of the ONS Health Index will include additional data and tools which businesses will be able to use to understand the health of their workforce and customers better.

Looking ahead, business leaders and employees alike will be eager to see legislation and clear targets from the Labour government, accompanied by investment to support a prevention economy. Businesses are essential partners in creating healthy workplaces, promoting active lifestyles, and tackling issues like obesity and mental ill-health.

A prescription for the future

Ultimately, Labour’s health agenda must move beyond short-term fixes and invest in long-term system change. This will require bold political leadership, a willingness to tackle vested interests, and a collaborative, cross-party approach bringing together government, business, communities and individuals. Only then can we build a healthier, more prosperous future for the nation.

*Tina Woods, CEO and Founder, Business for Health*

ONS and Business for Health partner to enhance the ONS Health Index

By Integrated Care Journal

The Index will capture a wide range of health inputs, including wider societal and economic determinants, to fill the evidence gap on the interplay between health, business and work and encourage businesses to take responsibility for their impacts on health.

Business for Health and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have announced a collaboration to develop the next iteration of the ONS Health Index – a tool to support businesses, local authorities, integrated care boards, and government on decisions to ‘invest for health and economic growth’ and inform the Treasury on the economic case for prevention.

The ONS Health Index, last published in summer 2023, measures health in its broadest terms and seeks to understand how it is changing over time. It tracks health in clinical terms (i.e. the prevalence of certain conditions), but also looks at the wider social, economic and environmental drivers of health, together with personal circumstances.

Building on these measures, the enhanced ONS Health Index will include additional data and tools relevant to businesses and their practices. These could range from capturing direct health impacts on employees and customers, to environmental impacts of a company’s products. This will increase the understanding of the interplay between health and business and work life and fill an important evidence gap. For example, it could be used at a local level to help measure corporate progress against key health and wellbeing aims.

More broadly, the additional business themed metrics will inform strategies around the link between health and wellbeing and workforce productivity, and the role of health within the Environmental Social and Governance discussion.

Business for Health, a business-led social venture, in collaboration with Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), have identified demand from businesses and organisations for the continuation and enhancement of this tool to define their role in the economy and wider society.

They will engage with businesses to develop the next iteration of the Index that provides high-value data on the health and well-being of the nation, including the workforce. One of the key goals will be to encourage businesses to understand and take responsibility for their impacts on health. To this end, the next iteration of the ONS Health Index will seek to bring businesses into its core audiences and provide health-relevant data to the public that measures the impact of businesses on population health.

These additional data will aim to highlight key determinants influencing employee health, and in doing so, inform business decision-making and support organisational and corporate culture with health at its core.

With the UK’s general population currently facing significant health challenges, leading to long term economic inactivity and pressures on the health system, the enhancement of the ONS Health Index will enable focus on facilitating system change to improve health and wealth outcomes. This is vital for enhancing the health and economic resilience of the nation.

Tina Woods, CEO and Founder of Business for Health, said: “There is a clear need from businesses to receive better data on the role of health within wider workforce planning. The link between corporate culture and individuals’ physical and mental wellbeing is irrefutable and our role on the new ONS Health Index will act as a crucial tool in understanding how businesses can improve, report and measure their impact on health linked to economic growth.”

Lord Bethell, Former Health and Innovation Minister and Chair of Business for Health, said: “We are delighted to be working with the ONS and LCP to develop the next iteration of the ONS Health Index, which will differentiate itself by allowing companies to understand and define their social purpose alongside measuring their economic contribution.”

Jonathan Pearson Stuttard, Head of Health Analytics at LCP, said: “There is a need for employers, businesses and industry partners to work collaboratively with the government to ensure that long-term health challenges are tackled with the urgency that is required.”

Dr James Tucker, Deputy Director of Health, International and Partnerships, Office for National Statistics, said: “The importance of high-quality data to inform strategies and reporting on the health of our workforce is crucial. Working with businesses as core users of the next ONS Health Index will be key in accessing granular data from businesses to feed into the index and provide relevant health data.