The Kings Fund is an independent charity working to improve health and care in England. They have been calling for transformational change to respond to the growing pressures and demands in the health and care system. They believe that this transformation is best brought about ‘from within’, led by frontline staff and service users, collaboratively.
Rob Trimble, Chief Executive of the Bromley by Bow Centre, talks about the importance of community ownership in order to respond to the needs of the local population.
The Bromley by Bow Centre has been recognised by The Kings Fund as one of four sites demonstrating successful transformation initiatives in the healthcare sector.
The new report asks ‘what makes a transformational change programme successful?’ and presents stories from the Bromley by Bow model and others in the field, including:
- Birmingham and Solihull NHS Mental Health Trust: a multidisciplinary mental health service that has been transforming liaison psychiatry across the acute hospitals in Birmingham.
- Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: a purpose-built facility that opened in 2015 to transform emergency care across a large geographical area.
- Buurtzorg Nederland: a novel care model that has received international acclaim for transforming community care through its nurse-led, cost-effective approach.
The stories of Bromley by Bow, Birmingham, Northumbria and Buurtzorg illustrate that transformation is multi-layered, messy and fluid. It is not merely about changing how a service operates, but also about shifting mindsets, relationships and power. The stories in this report show that transformational change requires the use of methods that centre around a core purpose of improving people’s lives, allowing models and plans to develop around the people that the systems are built for.
