The problems facing health and care services are so well known as to be documented in the media most days. These problems arise from a mismatch between need and provision: a mismatch where there is no reason to assume fundamental change. So innovation – in both product and process – is needed.

Yet innovation doesn’t just happen. It must be encouraged and nurtured. It must also be supported with evaluative tools and disciplines: evidence is needed to inform decisions as to whether innovations are scaled, stopped or refined.

Nottinghamshire has been an early mover in the transition from Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STP) to Integrated Care Systems (ICS) within the NHS in England. As part of that transition, it made a conscious commitment to prioritise the transformation of mental health and wellbeing across the system, through a process involving the whole range of system partners – NHS organisations, Local Authorities, voluntary and community sector organisations and, above all, people with lived experience of mental ill health.

Use Edward deBono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ or consider a wider point of view, to approach a problem or potential solution from different perspectives. This will support you to better understand the problem faced or to provide constructive challenge to a potential solution.

Dudley was unique within the New Care Models programme for using a large-scale procurement exercise. This exercise therefore offers lessons for both policy and practice. These lessons are set out in a short ‘lessons from the vanguard’ paper, joint-authored by the Strategy Unit and Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group.

This short paper sets out learning from Dudley on the above topic. Its fundamental argument is simple: that NHS commissioners should be allowed to award an ‘Integrated Care Provider (ICP) contract’ to an NHS provider without having to undertake a large-scale procurement process. This would enable the system to reap the potential benefits of this contractual form while removing the costs of procurement and related concerns around privatisation.

Following on from the Design Summit in May, the Strategy Unit has continued to work on how Intelligence-driven health and care can improve outcomes for patients and local communities. The project, commissioned by MLCSU, aims to explore the emerging intelligence needs of the health and care sector as it moves towards place-based and integrated care systems.

The Strategy Unit led the evaluation of the Dudley Vanguard programme. This is the final system-wide report from that work. It draws on in-depth interviews with over 20 strategic level stakeholders from the Dudley system. The report looks at both the large-scale procurement process and the development of new services within the Vanguard programme. It provides an update on progress, but it also draws out lessons for both practice and policy.

This is the final system-wide report from the evaluation. It draws on in-depth interviews with over 20 strategic level stakeholders from the Dudley system. The report looks at both the large-scale procurement process and the development of new services within the Vanguard programme. It provides an update on progress, but it also draws out lessons for both practice and policy.   

For any additional information or queries, please contact Fraser Battye (Fraser.battye@nhs.net) 

Generate new ideas to solve a problem – by identifying the underlying assumptions, unwritten rules and thinking that maintain the status quo. Then ‘break the rules’, to support development of potential solutions.

The Strategy Unit wants to support Neighbourhood Working. We want to help make a success of different services – health, social care, voluntary sector (etc) – coordinating their efforts to improve health outcomes for local populations. To do this, we have initiated a learning network. 

We held held our first Neighbourhood Network event on Tuesday 17th July 2018 (please find below the summary write-up of the event).