Accelerating Innovation Systems (AIS) programme
This programme commenced in December 2024. Seven HINs and ICBs submitted successful bids to take part in the programme. There was £25k awarded as part of the bid which was used differently in each of the seven areas. The ICBs and HINs who took part were:
| Integrated Care Board | Health Innovation Network |
| NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB | Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria |
| NHS Greater Manchester ICB | Health Innovation Manchester |
East of England Consortium (Norfolk and Waveney ICB,
Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB) | Health Innovation East |
| NHS Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire ICB | Health Innovation West of England |
| NHS South West London ICB | Health Innovation Network South London |
| NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB | Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex |
| NHS Dorset ICB | Health Innovation Wessex |
This programme has consisted of the following high-level plan with the majority of peer learning sessions being delivered virtually:
Over nine months, the Innovation Unit met with innovation leads, system leaders and other experts from across each ICB/HIN partnership, as well as key national stakeholders. They also hosted three online learning events, an all-day in-person learning event, and attended various national and in-system workshops and meetings.
The programme in Wessex
As part of this work, Health Innovation Wessex worked closely with NHS Dorset ICB to uncover innovation roles within the system, including areas of overlap and where Health Innovation Wessex is best-placed to support.
During this programme, Health Innovation Wessex and NHS Dorset ICB focused on further developing the functionality of NHS Dorset’s centralised innovation service together with the strategic system partnership – aka the Dorset Innovation Hub.
Over the course of 12 months, there was good progress across the objectives set out in the award agreement:
- Collaborative system approaches strengthened over the grant period with a number of projects deepening ICB and HIN partnerships, including Women’s Health (which influenced national policy) and Ageing Well (which has been presented to the South West and suggested as a blueprint for the region). In addition, there is evidence emerging of partner organisations valuing and owning the strategic system partnership model. This partnership approach has enabled access to specialised knowledge, focus support on system priorities, ‘joining the dots’ on system work to support collaboration and reducing duplication of effort.
- Local priority innovation adoption projects supported include Nutrition in Ageing People work programme, women’s health, ageing well, further implementation of FeNO devices, falls prevention, and strength-based approaches to health and care – ‘Making Change Meaningful’. Case studies can be found on the Our Dorset website here.
- National priority innovation projects included devices under the Med Tech Funding Mandate (MTFM) on which the ICB and HIW work collaboratively e.g. implementation of Thopaz+ at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) and Hybrid closed loop for type 1 diabetes.
- Education programme established with programme of Fundamentals of Innovation Adoption training and Community of Practice events.
The findings of this work highlighted the importance of HIN partnerships with ICBs, citing them as critical to success of innovation adoption. Click here to access the guide produced by the Innovation Unit as a result on this work, which provides advice for driving innovation adoption through strategic commissioning.
