We have several publications identifying our collective goals, knowledge and recommendations on a range of issues and policy areas.
Reform for people: a joint vision for integrating care
Many of us will be watching closely as the NHS Bill begins its journey through Parliament and will be seeking to ensure that it meets the needs of the people we support. However, while the Bill represents an exciting opportunity, previous NHS reforms have taught us that legislation alone is not enough to improve people’s health and lives. For these reforms to be a success, and make a real difference to people and communities, we need to go further. We need to improve cultures, change behaviours and capture hearts and minds.
The Richmond Group of Charities, Age UK, the King's Fund and National Voices have joined together, with input from a range of health, local government and voluntary sector partners, to produce a shared vision of what the new reforms could achieve. This joint vision - ‘Reform for people’ - aims to lay out a shared ambition of what integrated care and improved ways of working could mean for people and communities and in doing so motivate the workforce as we embark on the long transition period.
Please share and support the vision statement on social media using the hashtag #ReformForPeople.
If you are interested in finding out more or would like to express your organisation’s support for the statement, please get in touch with Callum Boyd (cboyd@macmillan.org.uk).
Author The Richmond Group of Charities, Age UK, the King's Fund, National Voices
Published July 2021
How has Covid-19 shaped experiences and views of health and care?
We have been working with opinion research experts Britain Thinks since 2014 to understand what people have been experiencing, thinking and feeling in the health and care landscape. Now, as the second wave of Covid-19 takes hold, we are publishing the latest output from this collaboration: the first report from a series running into 2021 to understand the impact Covid-19 has had on people with significant health needs, the wider public and frontline professionals.
It makes sobering reading. As this report reminds us, before the NHS Long Term Plan was written people were already developing a sense that the NHS and social care were reaching a point of crisis. While it's too early to draw final conclusions, this new report suggests that 2021, the year in which new NHS legislation is expected, may see very significant levels of concern for the future from people and professionals alike, unless funding and staffing pressures are tackled visibly and the plan is put firmly back on track.
This report also shares insights into how the changes to service delivery during the pandemic have gone down, and what might or might not stick.
There are hard messages in this report but one thing shines out: the gratitude and admiration people contiune to have for the way health and care staff have persisted selflessly in their efforts to provide professional support to people who desperately need it.
Author Britain Thinks
Published November 2020
"Just one thing after another": Living with multiple conditions
"Just one thing after another": Living with multiple conditions explores how it feels to live with multiple long-term health conditions. The report shares learnings from ten in-depth interviews with people living with multiple long-term conditions from a wide range of demographics and locations across England. It showcases their everyday experiences and own perceptions of their quality of life as well as the changes they’d like to see. This research was commissioned by the Taskforce on Multiple Conditions and conducted by Revealing Reality. Also included in the report is a response from the Taskforce which reflects on the ethnographic research and outlines some potential activities for the Taskforce to undertake to address some of the issues surfaced.
We have been working with opinion research experts Britain Thinks since 2014 to understand what people have been experiencing, thinking and feeling in the health and care landscape. Now, as the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out continues to gather pace and we look to the future, we are publishing the latest output from this collaboration: the second report in a series aiming to understand the impact Covid-19 has had on people with significant health needs, the wider public and frontline professionals. As did the first report in November 2020, this makes sobering reading but also provides important pointers for those developing the new NHS landscape in 2021 and beyond.We have been working with opinion research experts Britain Thinks since 2014 to understand what people have been experiencing, thinking and feeling in the health and care landscape. Now, as the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out continues to gather pace and we look to the future, we are publishing the latest output from this collaboration: the second report in a series aiming to understand the impact Covid-19 has had on people with significant health needs, the wider public and frontline professionals. As did the first report in November 2020, this makes sobering reading but also provides important pointers for those developing the new NHS landscape in 2021 and beyond.
This is a summary of our ‘Agenda for the next government’ setting out the five priorities we believe the next government must work towards to help people with long-term conditions.
In England, there are at least 15 million people living with a long term health problem, more than 1 in 4 of our entire population, and they need and deserve good quality health and care.
The 15 million people we represent are the core user group of health services and major users of social care: only when these services get it right for this group, can they be said to be serving their proper purpose.
Our ‘Agenda for the next government’ sets out the five priorities we believe the next government must work towards to help people with long-term conditions, and outlines why these issues are so important, and our calls to action for tackling them.
In England, there are at least 15 million people living with a long term health problem, more than 1 in 4 of our entire population, and they need and deserve good quality health and care.
The 15 million people we represent are the core user group of health services and major users of social care: only when these services get it right for this group, can they be said to be serving their proper purpose.
We gathered real life case studies from Richmond Group member charities to show why data is so critical for good healthcare and the tangible benefits which can be gained from its use. Our case studies demonstrate how better data sharing empowers patients and their care teams to work collaboratively and make better decisions, whilst better collection and use of data supports system-wide improvements. However, the healthcare system is currently not set up to enable this, and too often good data use is happening in spite of the system, rather than because of it. The report highlights the significant barriers to good data use we face – including technological barriers, uncertainty around information governance, and a lack of public trust – and calls on everyone responsible for healthcare data across the health and care system to help us realise the true potential of this invaluable resource.
In summer 2016, working in collaboration with the British Red Cross and Royal Voluntary Service, we commissioned The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust to undertake a series of interviews with individuals with experience of using social care services. The aim of this work was to complement and add value to a wider piece of research being undertaken by The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust to examine the future sustainability of the social care system, Social Care for Older People: Home Truths.
The personal experiences of people needing care and support and their carers outlined in Real Lives powerfully illustrate the key issues and challenges facing local authorities, policymakers and – most of all – those who depend on services.
In January 2015, we commissioned an in-depth research project to try to understand the future trends for the most prevalent long-term health conditions in the UK, specifically how many people are either dying early from these conditions, or living with continued disability and poor health. We also wanted to identify interventions that could prevent or reduce the incidence of these long‑term conditions that could be applied to the whole UK population, focusing on major lifestyle risks which contribute to those conditions. The Living Longer, Living Well overview report summarises the results of this study, which used the ‘25 by 25’ goals from the World Health Organization (WHO) as a benchmark against which to measure UK trends. The full research findings of the longer study are also available on our website under the title 'the PROMISE study.'
In January 2015, we commissioned an in-depth research project to try to understand the future trends for the most prevalent long-term health conditions in the UK; specifically how many people are either dying early from these conditions, or living with continued disability and poor health. This was undertaken by the British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention. We also wanted to identify interventions that could prevent or reduce the incidence of these long‑term conditions that could be applied to the whole UK population, focusing on major lifestyle risks which contribute to those conditions. The Living Longer, Living Well overview report also available on our website summarises the results of this study, which used the ‘25 by 25’ goals from the World Health Organization (WHO) as a benchmark against which to measure UK trends, and this document contains the full research findings. The technical appendix is available on request.
This report is intended to offer a clear strategic direction to achieve the transformational change that is so urgently needed. We have worked with The King’s Fund to translate our themes into outcomes for patients and set out the most important priorities for action to achieve these outcomes.
This publication outlines the five key themes we believe the health and social care system must embrace to be sustainable and to ensure quality, based on The King’s Fund’s independent analysis of evidence submitted by each Richmond Group member. These are: co-ordinated care; patients engaged in decisions about their care; supported self management; prevention, early diagnosis and intervention; and emotional, psychological and practical support. The report explores each of these themes in depth, highlighting the constituent elements and also providing case studies where addressing these themes have led to tangible benefits in outcomes and use of resources.
This report brings together the data we all individually hold about how our beneficiaries, the 15 million people in England with long term conditions, experience their use of health and care services. This unique evidence shows that there are some worrying gaps in long term conditions care which lead to many preventable problems. Too often people are not supported to look after themselves, and their emotional and practical needs, and those of their carers, are frequently ignored. This not only leads to distress and complications for people living with long term conditions, but also means that avoidable pressures on the NHS are increasing.
This infographics sheet accompanies the main Vital signs report and summarises some of the key statistics relating to how our beneficiaries currently experience their use of the NHS.
This report outlines our ambition relating to the prevention agenda, setting out what we believe is required from leaders across government and the health and social care system in order to achieve the World Health Organisation’s 25by25 targets. It makes clear that prevention must occur in every part of people’s lives, across the life course and across the disease pathways. It can then reduce the risk of developing an illness in the first place or help manage an ongoing medical condition. This approach will help to minimise the risks of exacerbation or reoccurrence and ensure that a diagnosis of one condition does not unleash a chain of events leading to many others.
