Regulation in other areas of public need has protected customers’ interests and ensured long-term sector stability. Health and social care also have unique characteristics, including the complexity of the conditions, treatments and payment systems. Our combined knowledge of regulatory best practice elsewhere and of healthcare delivery is second to none.

Our advice is crucial to many different health and social care bodies on how to regulate the sector, how to contract with different NHS organisations and how to drive improvements in care.

We have also:

• Advised NHS Improvement and its predecessors for over a decade on one of its most important tasks: pricing strategy
• Modelling of cost structure of health and care providers, for example the extent of economics of scale and scope in provision to inform payments and service design
• Benchmarking and efficiency analysis
• Interaction between clinical and economic regulation
• Advised on GP contracting and the economics of GP and dental practices
• Advised commissioners on pricing and supply
• Helped develop strategy in integrated care

We have worked on similar issues across Europe, most recently for the French healthcare regulator.

Read more on our regulation work.

We evaluate policies, pilots and trials.  With our deep understanding of the health and social care sector, we are able to deliver thorough and practical advice to government, regulators, independent sector reviewers, commissioners and providers.

We have:

• Worked with governments and regulators on matters relating to both physical and mental health, including access to healthcare services, integration of care, the appropriate role for choice and competition, and the impact of policy change on all stakeholders.
• Advised on models for integrating health and social care services.
• Worked with many organisations to design frameworks for evaluating health services, including the national lead of evaluations of new technologies in healthcare and behaviour change measures..
• Provided evidence for senior policy makers on issues of public interest, such as actions to reduce obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption.
• Assessed the impact of high cost area supplements in how health staff are paid for NHS Staff Council.
• Worked with third-sector organisations to understand their impact on well-being, productivity and wider outcomes alongside health.

Read more on our public policy work.

We have been at the forefront of thinking about transforming health and care systems for many years. We know that there are many different ways in which services can be improved, and understand the nuances.

We advise trusts, commissions, national bodies and governments on:

• Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
• Development of policy frameworks
• Choice and competition
• Developing new care models
• Integration of services within healthcare, and between health and social care
• Approaches to population health and the institutional changes that are required
• The role of self-care and ‘patient activation’
• Potential for technology to transform services
• Long term financial sustainability

Successful transformation of services requires combining economic, institutional, legal and cultural factors. We regularly work with others to build models of health and care delivery that meet the needs of patients and the public.