We work hard to be grounded in the practical implications of policy-making, working closely with NHS staff and policy-makers to identify solutions to the challenges facing the NHS. As such, we value the opportunity to work with individuals and organisations that are exploring topics of mutual interest. This section outlines how you can become involved in our work and keep updated on our activities.
Working in partnership
We recognise the value of working in partnership with other organisations and are continually looking for opportunities to collaborate and partner with organisations on issues of mutual interest. These may include Government departments, such as the Department of Health; NHS organisations; charities and other not-for-profit organisations; and commercial companies.
We believe that external funding of our work can lend greater legitimacy and influence to our activities, as well as allowing us to expand our programme of charitable activities.
We therefore seek to work with a range of organisations that support our work – whether that is through funding our researchers to undertake specific research projects, joint initiatives with partners, consultancy involving our health care experts, or sponsorship of our events.
However, this is undertaken with careful consideration of our independence and reputation, with the majority of our activities funded from our endowment.
Principles for partnership working
A number of important principles underpin decisions we make about whom we will partner with, accept research funding from, or enable to sponsor our activities, such as events. These are:
- Charitable remit: our guiding principle is that all funding secured from external sources – whether for funded research projects or sponsorship – should further our charitable objectives and be in keeping with our strategic priorities.
- Maintaining our independence: our reputation relies on our independence. Any partnership we enter must not compromise our independence. If it does, then we will consider withdrawing from any such partnership or sponsorship.
- Conflicts of interest: we will not work with organisations when there is a conflict of interest (real or perceived) with our work.
- Editorial control: we will only accept income where we retain control over the activities and intellectual property of the project in question. We will always maintain editorial control over published material.
- Integrity and transparency: we will be transparent about whom we are working with and the nature of the partnerships we are engaged in. All partnerships will transparently set out the benefits to both the Nuffield Trust and the partner.
- Level of financial contribution: the acceptance of research funding and sponsorship will not be determined by the level of financial contribution alone – we will work with organisations as long as they help to further our charitable objectives and be in keeping with our strategic priorities.
- Range of partners and sponsors: we will not become reliant on research funding and sponsorship from any one organisation.
- Marketing: we will not endorse specific companies and/or products.
The John Fry Fellowship is awarded to a senior practitioner or academic to write and lecture on a subject in the field of general practice and primary care. The John Fry Fellowship was set up in 1994 and was established by the late Dr John Fry, a Trustee of the Nuffield Trust from 1957 to his death in 1994, and is continued in his memory. Please note that we do not currently have a John Fry Fellow.
Most recent fellow
In summer of 2010 the Nuffield Trust was delighted to award the John Fry Fellowship to Dr Lawrence P Casalino, Livingston Farrand Associate Professor of Public Health & Chief of the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr Casalino conducted an analysis of commissioning in the English NHS in light of the US experience of handing control of budgets to doctor-led groups. For the past two decades some doctors’ groups in the US have held the equivalent of a commissioning budget, and the US experience highlights some of the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing GP commissioning in the English NHS.
Dr Casalino spent six weeks exploring commissioning in the English NHS and in June 2011 the Nuffield Trust published his personal reflections on the lessons that the NHS could learn from across the Atlantic. His report, GP commissioning in the NHS in England: Ten suggestions from the United States, is available to download.
Ahead of the publication of his report, Dr Casalino recorded a podcast which outlined his thoughts on what GP consortia (later to become Clinical Commissioning Groups) could learn from US physician groups. Listen to the interview with Dr Casalino:
Previous John Fry Fellows:
- 2005 fellow: Professor Trisha Greenhalgh: What seems to be the trouble? Stories in illness and healthcare (Nuffield Trust, Jun 2006).
- 2004 fellow: Professor Mike Pringle: Revalidation of doctors: the credibility challenge (Nuffield Trust, May 2005).
- 2003 fellow: Professor Barbara Starfield: Contributions of evidence to the struggle towards equity (Nuffield Trust, Sep 2004).
- 2002 fellow: Professor Richard Saltman: Primary care in the driver's seat? (Nuffield Trust, Mar 2005).
- 2001 fellow: Professor Angela Coulter: The autonomous patient (Nuffield Trust, Oct 2002).
- 1999 fellow: Professor John Howie: Patient-centredness and the politics of change: a day in the life of academic general practice (Nuffield Trust, Jun 1999).
The Rock Carling Fellowship is awarded to a distinguished individual who is invited to review the current state of knowledge and prospects in a critical area of health care reform. Their research is published in a Nuffield Trust report and they are invited to give a public lecture on their chosen subject. The Rock Carling Fellowship was established in memory of the late Sir Ernest Rock Carling, a Trustee of the Nuffield Trust for many years.
Most recent fellow
A professional economist and physician by training, Professor Alan Garber is Provost of Harvard University and former Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor at Stanford University, where he was also Professor of Medicine and a Professor of Economics and of Health Research and Policy, and directed the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research.
For his fellowship, Professor Garber studied incentives to improve clinical and organisational performance in the NHS, particularly in the area of integrated care. His work, published in the Nuffield Trust Viewpoint: Competition, integration and incentives: the quest for efficiency in the English NHS (December 2011), provides an expert view on the question of how best to balance incentives to promote innovation in the NHS.
Previous fellows
- 2002 fellow: Dr James McKenna: Candles in the dark: Medicine and the troubles in Northern Ireland (Nuffield Trust, Sep 2009).
- 2001 fellow: Professor Theodore Marmor: Fads in medical care management and policy (Nuffield Trust, Oct 2004).
- 2000 fellow: Sir Richard Sykes: New medicines, the practice of medicine and public policy (Nuffield Trust, Nov 2000).
- 1999 fellow: Professor Alain Enthoven: In pursuit of an improving national health service (Nuffield Trust, May 1999).
- 1998 fellow: Sir Michael Peckham: A model for health: Innovation and the future of health services (Nuffield Trust, Nov 1999).
- 1997 fellows: Walter W Holland and Susie Stewart: Public health: The vision and the challenge (Nuffield Trust, Oct 1998).
- 1993 fellow: John Lister: Postgraduate medical education (Nuffield Trust, Dec 1993).
- 1988 fellow: Sir Kenneth Stowe: On caring for the national health(Nuffield Trust, Jul 1989).
- 1987 fellow: Sir Raymond Hoffenberg: Clinical freedom (Nuffield Trust, Dec 1987).
- 1985 fellow: Stephen Lock: A difficult balance: Editorial peer review in medicine (Nuffield Trust, Jan 1985).
- 1984 fellow: Sir Douglas Black: An anthology of false antitheses (Nuffield Trust, Jan 1984).
- 1976 fellow: Thomas McKeown: The role of medicine: Dream, mirage or nemesis? (Nuffield Trust, 1976).
- 1975 fellow: Sir George Godber: Change in Medicine (Nuffield Trust, 1975).
- 1972 fellow: Archie Cochrane: Effectiveness and efficiency: Random reflections on health services (Nuffield Trust, 1972).
- 1964 fellow: Professor W.V Mayneord: Radiation and health (Nuffield Trust, 1964).