The European Evaluation Society (EES) is excited to announce the Evidence and Evaluation Forum; a new initiative designed to strengthen the use of evidence and evaluation in European public policy-making. This Forum will bring together evaluators, researchers, and policy-makers to: • Identify and share evidence • Identify knowledge gaps • Co-create insights to guide better policy-making First Series: Evidence for Policy-Making – Addressing the Health Sector Productivity Crisis in Europe The European Evaluation Society (EES) is partnering with RAND Europe in our first series of the Evidence and Evaluation Forum. This Forum will focus on a critical public policy issue: Increasing productivity in the health sector in Europe, with particular attention to:
- evidence for policies to boost the productivity of the workforce, and
- evidence for policies for strengthening innovation to drive productivity in the design of health services.
The Forum aims to consolidate the evidence already available to policy-makers, what gaps need to be filled, and how to apply this knowledge in policy-making. It will highlight existing evidence, especially from evaluations, and also from research. It will inform a publicly available paper intended to assist decision-makers in Europe in policy-development. It may also identify specific areas of focus where further evidence and possible evaluations are needed. The forum reflects the EES commitment to strengthening the use of evidence and amplifying the value of evidence and evaluations in the development and monitoring of European public policy. The ultimate audience for the Forum is decision-makers, and responsible actors in European institutions, industry, member states, trades unions and patient and public representatives. Format of the Forum This is a pilot series entitled, ‘Evidence for Policy-making – addressing the health sector productivity crisis in Europe’. In this series, RAND Europe will prepare a Briefing Paper ahead of the sessions, outlining the key challenges and summarizing available evidence and sources. This will be followed by two focused online sessions:
- Session # 1: Promoting innovation to strengthen productivity in the European Health sector
- Session # 2: Boosting workforce productivity in the European Health sector
Each session (90 minutes) will feature presentations of evidence from evaluators and researchers, followed by participant discussion. The sessions will be co-chaired by EES and RAND Europe. The two sessions will bring together and establish the strength and reliability of existing evidence from evaluations and research. After each session, there will be a Call put out on social media to collect any further evidence. A final hybrid event (online and in-person in Brussels) will then bring together policy-makers to reflect on the usability and relevance of the evidence presented. Presenters from the earlier sessions will be invited to attend. Register here for Session #1 Promoting innovation to strengthen productivity in the European Health sector Speakers:
- Professor Anita Charlesworth CBE, co-chair of the Health Foundation’s Commission on NHS productivity and acting chair of North-West London NHS Integrated Care Board
- Karen Taylor, IPFA, OBE, Director – Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
- Discussant to be Confirmed
Speakers Bios: Anita Charlesworth 
Anita Charlesworth is co-chair of the Health Foundation’s Commission on NHS productivity and acting chair of North-West London NHS Integrated Care Board. Anita is a council member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), a member of DWP’s Labour Market Advisory Board, the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s expert panel and the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) Advisory Panel. Anita is a member of the Council of the Royal Economic Society and University of Bath, Institute for Policy Research Advisory Board. She is Honorary Professor in the College of Social Sciences at the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham and at the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York. At the Health Foundation, Anita founded the REAL Centre and was director of research for 8 years. She has a background in government and public policy. She had roles as Chief Analyst at DCMS, Director of Public Spending at the Treasury and worked as an Economic Advisor at the Department of Health. Anita was specialist advisor to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on the long-term sustainability of the NHS in 2016/17. Anita has an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York. She is a Trustee for Tommy’s, the baby charity, and Health Data Research UK and chair of the Office of Health Economics. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2017 Birthday Honours List for Services to Economics and Health Policy. In 2024 Anita was made a fellow of the Academy of Social Science. Karen Taylor. IPFA, OBE 
Director Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions Karen established Deloitte UK’s Centre for Health Solutions in November 2011. The Centre is the independent research arm of Deloitte’s Public Sector Health and Life Sciences and Health Care (LSHC) practices, providing a trusted source of relevant, timely and reliable insights on emerging trends, challenges and solutions. The Centre combines creative thinking, robust research and industry experience to develop evidence-based perspectives on some of the biggest and most challenging issues facing our life sciences and healthcare clients to help them to improve efficiency, cost-effectiveness and, importantly, healthcare outcomes. Most of our research over the past few years have focussed on how innovation and advanced technologies can transform care delivery, improve productivity and people’s experience and outcomes of care. The Centre’s latest thought leadership comprises a series of 10 healthcare and life sciences predictions of what the health ecosystem might look like in 2030 – Accelerating the future: Life Sciences and Healthcare Predictions 2030. In 2024, Karen built on Deloitte’s Global Future of Health campaign by exploring the challenges and opportunities facing European Healthcare systems as we look to 2040 culminating in a report on the Future of healthcare in Europe. This built on her report on The future of diagnostics in Europe. In addition to thought leadership reports, Karen writes and curates others contributions to provide a weekly blog on topical issues affecting different parts of the health ecosystem Thoughts from the Centre | Deloitte UK. Karen is a member of the Institute of Chartered Public Finance and Accountants and has extensive experience in leading research into healthcare and life-science issues in the UK and internationally. Prior to joining Deloitte, Karen was the Health Value for Money Audit Director at the National Audit Office for 13 years, where she reported to the UK’s Committee of Public Accounts on the economy, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of government spending on health and social care. Karen was a Non-Executive Director (NED) at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust from 2011 to 2021, and since 2022 Karen has been a NED at Kent Community NHS Foundation Trust where she chairs the Audit Committee. A briefing paper will be shared with registrants prior to the session.