Forty-plus years of researching Government and Public Services gives us a slightly unusual view of the market. This is where we unpack the structures, people, terminology and changes behind the data — and explain why they matter.
These are practical articles rather than a news feed. Some explain how Oscar researches the public sector; others unpack structures such as ICBs, academy trusts or publicly owned companies; and some preserve a useful historical snapshot so today's organisations and political landscape make more sense.
For live change, restructures and wider market intelligence, use the Oscar Intelligence Hub. The blog is where we go deeper on the concepts and methodology behind that change.
How Oscar builds, structures and licences public-sector data — and how to turn it into a useful audience rather than a list of job titles.
Why one responsibility can appear under hundreds of different titles, and why Oscar categorises posts by what people actually do.
Read article → Research methodologyFrom public sources and direct research to human verification, structure and maintenance: what happens before data becomes an Oscar record.
Read article → Data licensingA practical guide to licence periods, refresh requirements, CRM records and what happens to Oscar-supplied data when a licence ends.
Read article → B2G growthDefine the market, find the right functions, understand contracts and buying signals, and build relevance before procurement starts.
Read article →The organisations, boundaries and relationships that make Government and Public Services harder to understand than a simple organisation list suggests.
Why formal public-sector classification and practical public-service relevance are not always the same thing.
Read article → Publicly owned companiesHow council-owned and other public-body-owned companies fit into the public-service market — and why parent relationships matter.
Read article → GeographyConstituencies, councils, wards, NHS areas, postcodes and statistical geographies: what each layer means and why they do not all line up.
Read article → EducationHow academy trusts changed the English schools market and why the real decision-maker may sit at trust level rather than inside the school.
Read article →Current explainers for a structure that rarely stays still for long.
What an ICS is, what an ICB actually does, what changed in the 2026 mergers and why England now has 36 ICBs.
Read article → CommissioningPrimary care, specialised services, providers, NHS England, ICBs and the planned 2027 transfer of further commissioning responsibility.
Read article →Structural change and political movement viewed as organisational intelligence rather than isolated headlines.
From the 2024 landscape to Strategic Authorities, devolution and the shifting 2026 local-government reorganisation programme.
Read article → Political intelligenceWhy an election result is only a snapshot — and how by-elections, defections, vacancies and coalitions change council control afterwards.
Read article → Election archiveA preserved analysis of the May 2023 results, now clearly framed as the historical baseline behind later political change.
Read archive →Use the blog to understand the market, then move into Oscar's databases, Guide to Government and Intelligence Hub to identify the organisations, people and changes behind it.