Think tanks and health policy in the United Kingdom:The role of the King's Fund

The King's Fund is a long-established health policy think tank involved in work on evidence-based policy in the United Kingdom. There have been few accounts of how think tanks operate. This essay seeks to partially fill that gap by reviewing the work of the Fund between 2010 and 2018, when the author was its chief executive. The essay outlines the history and status of the Fund, its funding and staffing, and the range of activities undertaken. Examples of policy areas in which the Fund was active and its impact on both policymakers in central government and leaders working in the National Health Service are discussed.</p

La Grange Agriculture Opportunities Project

The La Grange Agriculture Opportunities Project was established in 2012 to define the most appropriate water and land use development options, pathways and strategies to support additional irrigated agriculture in the La Grange area, south of Broome, Western Australia. The La Grange area is home to six pastoral stations, two horticultural businesses and the state’s largest remote community, Bidyadanga, and several smaller ‘outstation’ communities. Four interrelated language groups are recognised custodians of various areas across the region, the Karajarri, the Nyangumarta, Yawuru and Nyikina-Mangala people. Three Native Title claims have been determined across the area: Karajarri, Rubibi and Nyangumarta. The Karajarri claim is the largest, overlaying the areas most likely to be suitable for agricultural development. The Karajarri people are currently working through land and water planning processes including development of an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) agreement. They are seeking assistance with both the development of the IPA and longer term prospects for economic development. They also own (in trust) Frazier Downs Pastoral Station and so are pastoralists in their own right, which presents a range of opportunities to participate in the project. The Yawuru people also have an agreement to have Roebuck Plains Station divested to the Yawuru people in the future. Several of the six pastoral stations have had approved, or have submitted development proposals for assessment. Many of these involve irrigated agriculture. The aim is to provide a coordinated and well planned approach to future agricultural development in a manner that will take into account the values and goals of the region’s residents. This project proposes to investigate and report on all of these issues to determine if there are grounds for investment into irrigated agriculture, how and where that is most likely to occur. Government and the regional community can then make further decisions about how to proceed. Chris will be presenting the outcomes of this work and the opportunities and recommendations for the future

Why Is This First? Understanding and Analyzing Internet Search Results

Primarily due to their convenience, online search engines such as Google and Bing are becoming a central location for obtaining information. As a result, societies give search engines tremendous control over the spread of information to the public. Through a high-school-level sample lesson plan, the article was written to promote dialogue with teachers on the importance of teaching the intricacies of search engines. The sample lesson plan begins with fundamental knowledge on the functionality of search engines with emphasis on algorithms. With this instruction, students can understand not only search engines, but also their manipulation potential, which leads to ramifications. Using the manipulation potential as a catalyst, many societal concerns are raised, such as spread of misinformation, oppression of certain groups, and impact on behavior. Through this instruction and dialogue, practitioners will have a resource to integrate search engines into their curriculum in response to this new concern

ENGAGING STAFF AND ALIGNING INCENTIVES TO ACHIEVE HIGHER LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE

The Nuffield Trust is a charitable trust carrying out research and policy analysis on health services. Its focus is on the reform of health services to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, equality and responsiveness of care. Published b

Are we nearly there yet? A study of the English National Health Service as professional bureaucracies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore issues of medical engagement in the management and leadership of health services in the English National Health Service (NHS). The literature suggests that this is an important component of high performing health systems, although the NHS has traditionally struggled to engage doctors and has been characterised as a professional bureaucracy. This study explored the ways in which health care organisations structure and operate medical leadership processes to assess the degree to which professional bureaucracies still exist in the English NHS.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the qualitative component of a research into medical leadership in nine case study sites, this paper reports on findings from over 150 interviews with doctors, general managers and nurses. In doing so, the authors focus specifically on the operation of medical leadership in nine different NHS hospitals.FindingsConcerted attention has been focussed on medical leadership and this has led to significant changes to organisational structures and the recruitment and training processes of doctors for leadership roles. There is a cadre of doctors that are substantially more engaged in the leadership of their organisations than previous research has found. Yet, this engagement has tended to only involve a small section of the overall medical workforce in practice, raising questions about the nature of medical engagement more broadly.Originality/valueThere are only a limited number of studies that have sought to explore issues of medical leadership on this scale in the English context. This represents the first significant study of this kind in over a decade.</jats:sec

Future directions

In this final paper, we summarise briefly the principal conclusions to emerge from the conference. We also review possible future directions in the light of the contributions of different authors and discussions at the conference. The paper argues that changes in the Swedish health services are both inevitable and desirable. The challenge is to maintain the strengths of the existing system while tackling widely acknowledged weaknesses. It is not yet clear what will emerge from the process of reform but the probable outcome is a period of innovation and experimentation leading to greater diversity in service provision. We argue that diversity is most likely to develop within the context of a continuing commitment to equity and comprehensiveness in the delivery of health cars.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29999/1/0000366.pd