The Health Foundation is an independent charity working to continuously improve the quality of heatlhcare in the UK

Our theory of change: why we do what we do

The challenges and solutions to high quality care

Healthcare is of profound importance to us all, and ensuring high quality healthcare for everyone is one of the greatest challenges we face.

We have identified the key challenges to high quality care and the solutions we believe can help overcome them.

Our approach

Our approach describes how we as an organisation are working to improve the quality of healthcare. Our activities are broad, yet interlinked. We’ve encapsulated it all in the four ‘pillars’ of our approach – they describe the four key aspects of what we do.

  • We identify to prove that change is necessary.
  • We innovate to test new ideas in practice.
  • We demonstrate to turn what works into accepted practice.
  • We encourage to inspire and create advocates at all levels.
Click on a pillar to find out more

  • Identify

    Before we can do anything, we need to prove that change is necessary. We use our wide-ranging expertise to help people understand the consequences of poor quality healthcare at local and national levels.

    We also provide the evidence and highlight the success stories to show that improvement is possible. And by getting people thinking and talking about these important issues, we rally professional support, inspire action and build momentum for change.

    How we do it

    • We build knowledge and stimulate leading-edge thinking on the science of healthcare improvement.
    • We commission new research to pinpoint any gaps between best and current practice and to highlight the barriers to improvement.
    • We bring clarity to existing evidence, by synthesising, reviewing and sharing learning from other sectors.
    • We support the exchange of knowledge about effective methods and practice.
    • We highlight the challenges and potential solutions to high quality care.

    • We commission independent evaluation of our programmes to generate rigorous evidence of improvement.

  • Innovate

    There’s always a different way to work, yet often it’s hard to ignore what you’re used to doing and find the better way. So we help people to take a step back, innovate, and plan the practicalities of change.

    We encourage innovation from across the healthcare system; a good idea is a good idea, no matter how small it is or where it comes from.

    How we do it

    • We provide opportunities for leaders, teams and organisations to think creatively and come up with new ways of working.
    • We support people and teams in the health service to try out their ideas in a way that can be measured and proven.
    • We bring in learning and initiatives that have been shown to be successful elsewhere, and support organisations to implement them in the health service.
    • We design innovative leadership and organisational development programmes to help make change happen.

  • Demonstrate

    Showing people real improvements in health services is the best way to convince them that change is achievable.

    So we put ideas to work and share our learning. And by showing our ideas being implemented on an ever-larger scale, we create excitement about quality improvement, and turn demonstration into accepted practice.

    How we do it

    • We invest in, and work with, healthcare teams and organisations to close the gaps between actual and best practice.
    • We show how barriers to quality can be overcome in everyday practice, and create working models that can be refined and developed at a local level.
    • We share our ideas and the emerging lessons and dilemmas as the programmes develop.
    • We invest significantly in demonstration programmes and improvement collaboratives to show how new ideas can be implemented at a larger scale.

  • Encourage

    From politicians to patients, we work at every level of the healthcare system to create advocates for our approach.

    By inspiring people, giving them the evidence for change and the opportunity to put it into action, we aim to put quality at the top of the health agenda and improve day-to-day practice.

    How we do it

    • We collaborate with others to spread our learning.
    • We support leaders across the health system to build skills and create supportive organisational cultures.
    • We support networks of individuals, teams and organisations to create the space and skills to reflect on and devise new solutions.
    • We engage with professional bodies and the health professions to develop knowledge, skills and approaches.
    • We inform the development of health policy.
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