The King’s Fund

The King’s Fund is an independent charitable organisation working to improve health and care in England. Our vision is that the best possible health and care is available to all. We aim to be a catalyst for change and to inspire improvements in health and care by:

  • generating and sharing ideas and evidence
  • offering rigorous analysis and independent challenge
  • bringing people together to discuss, share and learn
  • supporting and developing people, teams and organisations
  • helping people to make sense of the health and care system.

Our work spans the breadth of health and care policy and practice, giving us a unique understanding of the strategic context for health and care now and in the future. We use this understanding to influence policy and practice and to help people navigate the complexity of the systems in which they operate.

Within this, our five-year strategy sets out three areas of focus where we believe we can maximise our impact. We work with people in the health and care system to:

  • drive improvements in health and wellbeing across places and communities
  • improve health and care for people with the worst health outcomes
  • support people and leaders working in health and care.

Underpinning all our work is our broad knowledge of the health and care system and the relationships we hold across the system. We use our independence to speak truth to power, providing independent analysis, explaining key issues and responding to developments across the complex and changing landscape of health and care.


Latest reports

Hospital discharge funds: experiences in winter 2022–23

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at the experiences of hospital discharge funds during winter 2022-2023. Delayed discharges from hospital are a widespread and longstanding problem that can have a significant impact on both patients’ recovery and the efficiency and effectiveness of health and care services. In England, it has become...

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How does the NHS compare to the health systems of other countries?

This report from UK think tank the King's Fund reviewed the academic literature, analysed quantitative data on health system performance, and interviewed experts in comparative health policy. For our research, we reviewed the academic literature on previous attempts to compare health care systems, analysed quantitative data on health system performance, and interviewed experts in comparative...

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Actions to support partnership

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at addressing barriers to working with the VCSE sector in integrated care systems. This report provides an overview of the key actions required to tackle barriers and challenges to better partnership working between integrated care systems (ICS) and the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE)...

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The rise and decline of the NHS in England 2000–20

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at how political failure led to the crisis in the NHS and social care. Multi-year funding increases and a series of reforms resulted in major improvements in NHS performance between 2000 and 2010, but performance has declined since 2010 as a result of much lower...

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Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2022

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at results from the British Social Attitudes survey. The National Centre for Social Research’s (NatCen’s) British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey has been conducted annually since 1983. Each year the survey asks people what it's like to live in Britain and what they think about how...

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Dying well at home

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at commissioning quality end-of-life care. Increasingly people are dying at home rather than in hospital and this trend is set to continue. This raises questions about whether there are the right staff with the right skills to support people in their home at the end...

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Independent health care and the NHS

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at the role of the independent sector in providing health care. Discussion around the role of the independent sector in providing health care often focuses on the ‘privatisation’ of the NHS. Private providers have always played a role in the NHS, and while there was...

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Strategies to reduce waiting times for elective care

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at he strategies that have been used to reduce waiting times in England in the past 20 years. In the face of record high waiting times for elective care, we undertook research to understand the strategies that have been used to reduce waiting times in...

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NHS staffing shortages

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at why politicians struggle to give the NHS the staff it needs. The workforce crisis has been a prominent issue for years, but there has been little concerted action from governments to tackle the challenge. For almost two decades now there has been no clear...

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Cardiovascular disease in England: supporting leaders to take actions

This report from UK think tank The King's Fund looks at delivering a coherent CVD and public health strategy focusing on prevention and management. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes 1 in 4 deaths in England, and is a leading cause of morbidity, disability and health inequalities. The Covid-19 pandemic has added to the urgency of tackling...

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Poverty and the health and care system

This report from UK think tank the King's Fund looks at the role of data and partnership in bringing change. Health and care systems can mitigate, reduce and prevent poverty’s effects on health, but to do this they need to be much better at sharing and acting on data. Our long read with the Centre...

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Why do diagnostics matter?

This report from UK think tank the King's Fund looks at maximising the potential of diagnostics services. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased awareness of the role that diagnostics play in disease detection, prevention and management. Policy-makers have also singled out diagnostics for greater focus in recent years, particularly given their pivotal role in supporting system...

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Interoperability is more than technology

This report from UK think tank the King's Fund looks at the role of culture and leadership in joined-up care. Integrated care systems (ICSs) and provider collaboratives are ushering in a move towards more collaborative working across organisations in health, social care and the voluntary and community sector – and digital health technologies have an...

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Building capacity and capability for improvement in adult social care

This report from UK think tank the King's Fund looks at how local authorities in England improve the quality of adult social care. In this discussion paper, we look at how local authorities in England improve the quality of adult social care. This discussion is timely because the government intends to increase funding for improvement...

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Deaths from Covid-19 (coronavirus): how are they counted and what do they show?

This report from UK think tank the King's Fund looks at how the number of people who have died from Covid-19 is counted. Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is the name given to the disease associated with the virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which led to a global pandemic that began in 2020. This...

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Upcoming events

12 December 2023

Location: Online

Think tank: The King's Fund

How to solve a problem like hospital discharge

This event hosted by UK think tank the King's Fund will discuss how to tackle delays to hospital discharge. Join us for our virtual event to discuss how to tackle delays to hospital discharge. There are currently nearly 13,000 patients in hospitals in England who are clinically ready to be discharged but cannot leave because...