As a recent report from the NHS Confederation stressed, “for the NHS and the wider health and care system to survive and thrive for the benefit of its users, innovation at every stage and in every aspect is not only desirable, but necessary”.
NHS England is committed to supporting the adoption of innovation. It hosts the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) bringing together the key players in health research and innovation in the UK to support the uptake of proven innovation.
The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) is an AAC programme which supports health and care staff to develop the commercial skills, knowledge and experience needed to successfully develop and spread innovation, for the benefit of patients, the public, and wider NHS. The programme offers a range of support including direct education, mentoring, networking, and access to exclusive opportunities, expertise, and resources.
In 2020, the NHS CEP was commissioned out to Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) with a commitment to expand the programme. This included recruiting 18 NHS partners to form a system capacity building pilot programme – now known as the NHS CEP InSites Pilot Programme. This testing and evaluation model was developed by Mid and South Essex (MSE) ICS, who are acting as the coordination hub for the NHS CEP InSites Programme.
In its first year, the programme led to 23 projects in evaluation or contracted projects with another 29 projects in initiation phase.
This collaborative and co-designed programme has four aims:
- Evaluating AAC supported innovations in real-world settings, generating evidence of their effectiveness and impact (e.g. on NHS priorities such as health equity) and understanding the mechanisms for their successful implementation.
- Developing the organisational capability and infrastructure of 18 NHS partners to help inform the rapid adoption, evaluation, and scaling of impactful innovations.
- Supporting the NHS’ ability to develop the health and care workforce talent pool inclusively and thus stimulating an innovative culture.
- Informing NHS England’s policy and strategy on the effective spread and adoption of innovation nationally through sharing learning and a framework (including standardised processes and documents) for implementing innovation.
The 18 sites span across England and are working with the NHS CEP and AAC initiatives to align processes, share intelligence on implementation, build capability within their sites and test/evaluate innovations to meet the needs of their populations.
Key partners
- Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC): NHS CEP InSites Programme is funded and commissioned by the AAC.
- Anglia Ruskin University (ARU): ARU were appointed as delivery partners for the NHS CEP in December 2020.
- Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE FT): MSE FT is a partner of the NHS CEP and lead the Programme Management Office / Coordination Hub for the NHS CEP InSites Programme.
18 Innovation Sites: 18 NHS sites across England have partnered together to design and deliver the first phase of the NHS CEP InSites Programme.
The original 10 innovation sites include:
- Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT
- Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS FT
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS FT
- Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership
- Leeds Academic Health Partnership
- Milton Keynes University Hospital
- Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS FT
- Northumbria Healthcare NHS FT
- East of England Ambulance Service
- Torbay & Devon
The Year Two New Innovation Sites include:
- Alder Hey Children's Hospital
- Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- NHS Norfolk & Waveney ICB
- North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
If you have any questions about the programme, please contact the InSites Hub team, email mse.cepinsites@nhs.net.
ome Grown - developing our staff innovation