Health & social care explained

The health and social care systems are large and complex. This page provides a useful starting point if you're interested in finding out more but are not sure where to begin.

Toolkit/how-to

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Briefing

Explainer

Data story

This series of interactive charts illustrates key data on health care spending, hospital activity, performance, prescribing, and NHS staffing and other resources, for England and the rest of the UK where comparable data is available.

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Briefing

Blog post

Data story

Here we examine 10 of the most commonly heard untruths you might hear about our health service in the run up to the 2015 election.

Explainer

Sally Gainsbury examines some of the most commonly cited figures about NHS finances, and explains what they really mean.

Comment series

In this series experts from the Nuffield Trust give their take on the data and evidence behind some of the current perceptions of what is happening with the NHS.

Spotlight

Big changes lie ahead for the UK following its vote to leave the EU. No part of society will remain unchanged, including the health and social care sector. Below is a collection of resources about how Brexit might impact the NHS.

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Report

This report assesses the performance of the NHS on the quality of patient care in all four UK countries since devolution.

Read full report
Download the full report [PDF 3.2MB]
Download the summary [PDF 1.4MB]

Spotlight

The performance of the Labour-led NHS in Wales has been a highly politicised subject in recent years. This spotlight brings together a collection of our analysis on the Welsh health service's performance and funding.

We create a wide range of charts and infographics on key issues relating to both the health care and the social care sectors. Many of the charts from our publications our also available in interactive form.

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NHS Digital

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NHS Digital

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Although this report focuses on the social care system in England, UK figures are presented here as the best available comparable data.

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IOTF stands for International Obesity Taskforce.

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Ng and others (2014) Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, The Lancet.

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Office for National Statistics, Vital Statistics: Population and Health Reference Tables.

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OECD health data set 2017.

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NHS England winter daily SitRep 2017-18 data.

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In 2017/18 prices. ‘OBR’ line shows how much would be spent on health in England if spending rose in line with projections by the Office for Budget Responsibility. ‘Long run average’ shows how much would be spent on health if spending returned to the historical average of 4 per cent a year.

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Nuffield Trust analysis of multiple sources; Department of Health annual report and accounts 2016/17; Autumn Budget 2017.

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Nuffield Trust analysis of publicly available NHS data.

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HM Treasury and Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Private Finance Initiative and Private Finance 2 projects: 2016 summary data

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Net agreement/satisfaction = strongly + fairly agree/satisfied minus strongly + fairly disagree/dissatisfied
NB: Results are based on survey responses weighted for trust size and differences in occupational group proportions

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NHS England and Picker Institute (Staff Survey 2016 Detailed Spreadsheets)

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Nuffield Trust calculations

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Office for Budget Responsibility (2016) Economic and Fiscal Outlook: November 2016. Office for Budget Responsibility. p. 17.

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NHS England, KH03 data collection

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Office for National Statistics

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Information Service Division; N.Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

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The data has been adjusted to real terms in 2013 pounds using the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator from HM Treasury.

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England Health & Social Care Information Centre Wales Health Statistics and Analysis Unit, Welsh Government Scotland Information Service Division, Scotland N.Ireland Department of

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OECD (2016) OECD Health Statistics 2016.