Blog post reminding innovators of the need to consider the present or the past.  Innovation is about making ideas real to create value for people.  No matter how revolutionary your idea is, it has to work in the real world to create value, and both of those depend on understanding the present and the past. To innovate, we need to be able to imagine a better world.  But at the same time, we have to be aware of what has come before.

Blog post that describes the social physics view of organizations which focuses on patterns of interaction acting as a kind of “idea machine” to carry out the necessary tasks of idea discovery, integration and decision making. Leaders can increase its performance by promoting healthy patterns of interaction within their organizations (including both direct interactions, such as conversations, and indirect interactions, such as overhearing or observing). It suggests ifwe start thinking about organisations primarily as idea-processing networks, then a lot changes about how we should go about our operations and the need to focus on the flow of ideas through our organisations, not the stock of ideas we control.

The DH stakeholder perceptions survey report provides:

• an overall impression of perceptions of the Department
• its performance in managing relationships with stakeholders
• ways to improve how we work with our partners

This independent survey was undertaken in July 2013, shortly after major changes to the health service in England came into effect. The findings of the survey, shows that we are improving relationships with our partners and becoming more effective in how we work with external stakeholders generally.

IPPR report that identifies the number of older people in need of care is expected to outstrip the number of family members able to provide informal care for the first time in 2017.The average annual cost for an older person who pays for a typical package of care has increased to £7,900 a year, an average £25,000 for home care and an average £36,000 for a nursing home.By 2030, an estimated 230,000 older people in England who need care of more than twenty hours a week could be left without family to help. The number of people aged 65 and over without children to care for them will almost double before the end of the next decade and that by 2030, there will be more than 2 million people in England without a child to care for them if needed.

It recommends:

1. New neighbourhood networks to help older people to stay active and healthy, help busy families balance work and care and reduce pressures on the NHS and social care.
2. Care coordinators providing a single local point of contact, to replace the ‘case management’ currently provided by adult social services in every area by 2020, for all but the most complex cases of care.
3. Option of a ‘shared budget’ to enable those using community care to arrange this collectively.
4. Stronger employment rights for those caring for people who need more than 20 hours of care a week, to make it easier for family members to combine work and care.

The atlas provides interactive maps of geographical variations for a range of health conditions and environmental agents at a neighbourhood (small-area) scale in England and Wales.

These maps have been developed as a resource for the public, researchers and anyone working in public health and policy to better understand the geographic distribution of environmental agents and health conditions in England and Wales. The health outcome maps show the relative risk so there must always be some wards above average and some wards below average.

This spring, Implementation Science published two papers describing the evaluation of Stroke 90:10, a quality improvement collaborative that aimed to improve stroke care in 24 hospitals in northwest England. The collaborative, based on IHI’s Breakthrough Series model, was funded by the Health Foundation and led by Dr. Maxine Power, Director of Innovation and Improvement Science at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, and a former IHI Fellow.  To find out more click here.

Highlights research that demonstrates the clear link between appropriate patient staff ratios and patient mortality and details results of a survey of almost 3,000 nurses from across the UK highlights the pressures staffing levels in the NHS. The survey reveals that 65% of staff said that they did not have enough time with patients and 55% reporting that as a result care was left undone.

The NHS Commissioning Assembly was born out of a vision to develop a community of commissioning leaders – the ‘one team’ that would work together to focused on improving outcomes for patients.

Initially established in November 2012, the Commissioning Assembly has focused on bringing clinical leaders – including Clinical Commissioning Group clinical leads and National Clinical Directors – together with NHS England Area Team Directors and National Directors to share their experience, develop solutions to issues and generate ideas to improve patient outcomes.

Blog post looking at tools to deliver innovation:

• How GE Plans to Act Like a Startup and Crowdsource Breakthrough Ideas
• Gmail Offers Surprising Innovation Lessons for the Fortune 500
• The Future Workplace is Now: How Etsy Makes 30 Innovations Per Day

The plan has been developed following an assessment of the 4 critical themes of organisational effectiveness: performance; efficiency and innovation; capability; strategic risk and leadership of change. It sets out where the department is currently, what it has achieved, where it needs to be in future and the improvements that the department needs to make to get there.