Expert Panel: an innovative approach to evaluating government policy commitments in health and social care

While Government policy commitments are often well publicised, comparatively little attention is paid to the quality of commitments made or to assessing progress against those commitments. Here we describe an innovative and systematic method of health policy evaluation and discuss implications for parliamentary scrutiny, leadership, and improvements to health care.

In 2020, the Health and Social Care Select Committee commissioned an Expert Panel to conduct independent in-depth evaluations of government progress using CQC-style ratings. The first evaluation assessed commitments in the area of maternity services and is the first time a government department has been systematically graded against its own commitments. The Expert Panel represents an important new method of scrutiny with the potential to complement and enhance the work of Select Committee inquiries. The implications of this innovation for healthcare leadership and improvement are discussed.