HSJ, in association with NHS Improving Quality, launches a campaign to help the NHS achieve transformational change.

Challenge Top-Down Change aims to identify a series of ideas and solutions to help NHS organisations drive real and sustainable change.

Working with our sister title Nursing Times and our partner organisation NHS Improving Quality, we are inviting the NHS – its workforce and  leaders, as well as patients and other interested parties – to share their ideas and thoughts about:

  • what aspects of the health service could work better; and
  • how we can encourage change processes that include staff at all levels in NHS organisations.

NHS IQ logo

Our conversation begins today via a crowdsourcing platform delivered by our partner Clever Together and will run over the next 10 weeks. All ideas will be shared anonymously and refined by participants.

This work will culminate in March with the publication of an interactive resource setting out how to drive change in the NHS. 

Challenge Top-Down Change

“There has probably never been a previous point in our history where we needed to do this more,” said Helen Bevan, chief transformation officer of NHS Improving Quality.

The growing burden of managing long term conditions, the healthcare deficit and efficiency gap, the rising cost of ill health due to population lifestyle, and rises in accident and emergency attendances and admissions, means NHS leaders are “experiencing challenges like never before”.

As a result, “we have to unleash all the brainpower, wisdom and creativity of our health and care community to find new solutions; engaging frontline staff, patients, public and students, as well as leaders with positional responsibility for delivering performance,” said Ms Bevan.

A recent King’s Fund report into NHS reforms concluded there has been too much reliance on transformation being led from the top down, and too little on supporting staff to lead change and improvement from within.

Peter Thomond, co-founder of Clever Together, said: “Health and care services can be dramatically improved, even transformed, if we tap the collective brilliance of health and social care professionals, the people they serve and the folks who support this sector.”

How will we challenge change?

We are inviting readers and others to join our conversation in three steps.

First, we will ask for your ideas on how to enable meaningful and implementable change in the NHS. All ideas will be shared anonymously.

Next, we will ask you to help us filter the best ideas (by voting them up or down and by commenting directly).

Finally, in March 2015, we’ll publish the best solutions in a free interactive guide.

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