Who are we?
We are health and social care economists from the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York and the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Our full title is the NIHR Policy Research Unit in the Economics of Health Systems and Interface with Social Care. ESHCRU II builds on the research and expertise of ESHCRU which ran from 2010 to 2018.
ESHCRU II is one of 15 Policy Research Units. The 15 units provide a long-term resource for policy research and a rapid-response service to provide evidence for emerging policy needs.
We also work with specialist advisory groups to provide more detailed scrutiny of individual projects (Terms Of Reference).
What's our aim?
The overarching aim is to inform and guide policy-making in the health and social care (H&SC) sectors.
Policy-making in the health and social care sectors aims to improve people’s health and wellbeing. Policy makers must treat people fairly, regardless of their background or where they live, and ensure they secure value-for-money for the tax payer. It is important that decisions are informed by high quality research evidence.
Our special focus is on the interactions between the H&SC systems and the cross-cutting issues facing both sectors. Our research helps ensure that policies are designed to take full account of the impact on patients, families and citizens across the entire health and care landscape, rather than focusing on the effect in one sector in isolation.
Our research
We undertake robust and policy-relevant research, based on the discipline of economics.
Economics is about how to use scarce resources – like staff, buildings and equipment – to achieve particular objectives. ESHCRU II uses economics to help to tackle problems in health and social care. We mainly work with data and numbers (quantitative): we link and carefully analyse large datasets, review existing studies, and use other techniques such as surveys.
We use state-of-the-art tools of economic and statistical analysis to address important policy questions about the funding, organisation and delivery of H&SC services.
Our five-year programme of work covers three broad areas.
- Understanding changes in the demand for H&SC from different population groups and the implications for how health and care services are provided and funded.
- Measuring what is being delivered for the money spent on H&SC to maximise quality of care and improvements in health and wellbeing.
- Designing the organisation of health and care systems to make the best use of resources to deliver joined-up care for the population.
Meet the team
We are health and social care economists from the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York and the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
