LHC Demonstrators - Introduction

What is the ISIP LHC Demonstrators Programme?

The Department of Health is committed to supporting service transformation in the NHS to underpin both the commissioning and provider modernisation agendas. This, in turn, is supported through the NHS Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs).

The NHS Integrated Service Improvement Programme (ISIP) is working with the SHAs to underpin the change agenda by supporting local health communities (LHCs) with delivery of service transformation. There are 135 LHCs across England, each of which brings together primary care, acute care, mental health and ambulance services through which seamless care services are provided to those that need it.

The LHC Demonstrators programme are working with sixteen local health communities, who will each undertake benefits-led, integrated change programmes to deliver tangible, sustainable improvements in health and social care.

These are not pilots; the expectation is that they will have transformed delivery of care, at pace, and will be operating new models of both commissioning and provision. Commissioners, Providers and Patients will be involved in the transformations. Demonstrators will share their learning of both the journey and the outcomes with the wider NHS.

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Want to discuss the LHC Demonstrators Programme? General questions about the programme or specific questions about individual demonstrators can be posted on the  LHC Demonstrators discussion forum .

Conference: Seize the Moment: Successfully Managing Complex Change
4 October, Royal Horticultural Halls, Vincent Square, London
This conference has been organised to share the most recent experience and future expectations of healthcare reform.  Experts will share their insights and recommendations for creating environments where tradition can be challenged and modernisation can become a reality. 16 Local Health Community (LHC) Demonstrators, that have been supported by the NHS Integrated Service Improvement Programme (ISIP), will share knowledge gained from their transformational change programmes. For more information, please contact events@nhs.net

Commissioning Workshop - May 2006
On 24 May the ISIP LHC Demonstrator Programme hosted an interactive workshop titled ‘Commissioning for Integrated Service Improvement’. This gave delegates the opportunity to explore the latest policies and strategies related to commissioning for better healthcare. Speakers, including Anthony Kealy, Sir George Alberti, Prof David Colin-Thomé, Dr Mo Dewji and Sebastian Habibi, were asked to address some of the complex and challenging issues emerging out of the LHC Demonstrator Programme. 

Why is it being done?

Last year the Integrated Service Improvement plans received from local health communities showed that 80% of priorities for service change were grouped in the areas of urgent care, scheduled care, long term conditions, with a strong emphasis on improving commissioning.

Many organisations have experience in learning and using tools and products that could be of wider use. ISIP has also developed tools and knowledge that is useful for local change programmes. ISIP is committed to sourcing and sharing this broad range of knowledge in support of integrated service improvement.

Our role is to work with local communities in applying wider knowledge, incorporating emergent national thinking and providing access to national initiatives in workforce, process and technology reforms. In this way we can help the NHS to optimise local service transformation and rapidly communicate learning.

Who's involved?

In addition to the Demonstrator communities and the central ISIP team the programme will work with and engage key organisations such as the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, NHS Connecting for Heath, the ten SHAs, key DH policy teams and a range of Workforce organisations.

When did the programme start?

The programme commenced in late October 2006 when 16 successful sites were selected as demonstrator sites from over 40 expressions of interest. The range of demonstrators are broad in theme (LTCs, scheduled and urgent care, commissioning) and context (urban, rural, diversity of provision) and clearly focus on safety, quality, value and sustainability. These demonstrators will emphasise commissioner driven whole health system change and improvement, rather than organisation-specific provider efficiencies.

Those sites who expressed an interest but were not successful in securing demonstrator status will form part of the wider demonstrator learning community. Intensive support to the demonstrators began at the end of November. This programme will complete by September 2007.

Where can I get more information?

The main source of information on the Local Health Community Demonstrators is contained in each Demonstrator home page. This has both summary information about each community and access to the Demonstrator Diaries; fortnightly installments about the real life experiences of the Demonstrator communities on their journey towards Service Transformation. Find these using the links in the left-hand column on this page.

If you would like more information about the Demonstrator communities programme you can contact the ISIP Demonstrator central team (details below) or respective local change consultants (details on each Demonstrator page).

Central team