This report seeks to bring together the evidence on shared decision making and self-management support, with the aim of providing greater coherence and clarity in debates about person-centred care.

Shared decision making is a collaborative process through which a health care professional supports a patient to reach a decision about their treatment.

Self-management support enables people with long-term conditions to manage their health and wellbeing, day by day, as effectively as possible.

The research team set out to ‘bring together’ the evidence by looking at four different, but interconnected, issues:

• What is the conceptual relationship between shared decision making and self-management support?
• What is the policy context for person-centred care in the NHS, and where do shared decision making and self-management support sit within this?
• What does the empirical evidence say about the outcomes and impacts of interventions to enact shared decision making and self-management support?
• What works in implementing shared decision making and self-management support into mainstream health care services?

The Health Foundation has also produced an ‘in brief’ summary and analysis. This looks at the implications of the research for policy makers and those responsible for providing strategic direction, in order to assist them in moving person-centred care and support from an aspiration to day-to-day, routine NHS practice.