The King’s Fund reports councils are draining reserves to cover rising adult social care costs, boosting care access but ...

Following the abolishment of Healthwatch, we explore what must be considered when designing what comes next for patient voice ...

In a rapidly changing landscape, does the health and care system have the analytical capability it needs – and a plan to ...

Why is this indicator important? Without greater public prioritisation of the need to reform adult social care, it is less of a focus for politicians and so reform is less likely to be introduced. In ...

‘Previous experience shows that a focus on cutting costs makes collaboration – key to strategic commissioning – harder’ Lillie Wenzel It appears that ICBs’ role as commissioners will be the main ...

The pattern of quality ratings in April 2024 was very similar to that in April 2023: 4% of services were rated ‘outstanding’, 78% were ‘good’, 16% ‘requires improvement’ and 1% ‘inadequate’. However, ...

What was the annual change? Due to a change in the data source and methodology, it is not possible to compare the number of requests for 2024/25 with previous years. In 2024/25, there were 2.0 million ...

The vacancy rate is an important indicator of providers’ capacity to deliver social care services. Staffing also affects quality: higher staff-to-bed ratios in care homes correlate with higher CQC ...

Why is this indicator important? Although total expenditure is not a perfect proxy for the amount and quality of care arranged by local authorities, it is currently the best overall indicator ...

The number of places in residential and nursing homes (collectively called ‘care homes’) is an important measure of social care capacity and usage. However, it is only a partial measure because social ...

This was originally published on 29 October 2025. It was updated 2 April 2026 following the publication of the Neighbourhood Health Framework. The government has put a ‘neighbourhood health service’ ...

This report considers the potential of place-based partnerships to improve population health and support truly integrated care, and highlights principles to guide their development and the support ...