Transformation is placed at the heart of the UK government’s drive to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and improve outcomes across the NHS. This is reflected in the New Hospitals Programme in England, which represents a significant investment in the NHS estate and infrastructure, aimed at enabling delivery of new service models.

Healthcare providers need to understand the impact of service transformation on the scale and scope of services that will be needed in the future, to ensure that new hospital facilities are ‘right-sized’. Capital investment needs to reflect the wider strategic objective of delivering care in the most appropriate location at the right time.

As an example, the James Paget University Hospitals (JPUH) Change Framework provides a programmatic approach to collating and evaluating the impact of system-wide transformation programmes and prioritising programmes that are required to deliver local and system objectives. The approach provides assurance that the new models of care and activity assumptions driving the scope, scale and size of capital investment plans are supported by operational plans. It also supports understanding of the achievability of other objectives that are delivered as part of wider programmes of work – digitalisation, net zero carbon, improved working environment, etc.

The benefits of the programmatic approach include:
– Operationalising local and system strategic goals
– Quantifying and measuring the impact of programmes on strategic objectives and providing assurance on deliverability of plans
– Enabling system-wide coordination and implementation of transformation programmes
– Strengthening system-wide governance, accountability and integration
– Facilitating a whole system approach to data analysis and population health management
– Identifying interdependencies to maximise use of resources across the system

This presentation will describe the progress JPUH (supported by Currie & Brown) has made, the challenges we have faced and the opportunities identified through taking a programmatic approach to system-wide transformation.