Foreword
Over the past year, we have seen a change in government and with it, a new political and fiscal landscape. Policy changes and announcements such as the NHS 10-Year Health Plan, the new Industrial Strategy and related sector plans which will outline strategies for economic growth and sectoral development, continue to shape the environment in which we operate. It is clear that innovation has a vital role to play in the vision the government has for our health service. The upcoming changes to how the NHS is governed and the significant financial constraints it is operating under mean our mission will remain the same and the work we do with our regional healthcare systems will be more important than ever.
Building an NHS that is fit for the future is one of the government’ s five missions. Its mandate to the NHS set out an ambitious plan to transform healthcare delivery and improve patient care, with an immediate focus on cutting waiting lists and driving productivity, echoed regionally in our Integrated Care Boards’( ICBs) priorities. Health innovation is the engine behind the transformation that is needed, not only because it improves service delivery – it also drives economic growth. But this is not an invention challenge. An NHS fit for the future must focus on adopting innovation that works, everywhere. But even more importantly, it needs to focus on implementation.
Our work over the 2024-25 period aligns with the government’ s three shifts for healthcare and its mission to drive economic growth. This report highlights some of the key pieces of work we have led this year to help support these priorities. We have continued to work with our health systems, innovators and academia to spread the adoption and implementation of solutions that can help to increase
NHS capacity and improve patient outcomes. Our innovation hub model( see page 9) allows us to adapt our approaches to effectively meet the needs of our three Integrated Care Systems( ICSs), supporting them in their ambition to drive and scale innovations that help address local priority areas and improve outcomes for local people.
Innovation can transform and relieve the pressure on high-volume care pathways at scale by enabling diagnostics, monitoring, self-management and treatment in other care settings or at home. In South Yorkshire, we are working with partners to deliver a real-world health economics evaluation of a ground-breaking digital therapeutic app. Daylight offers a structured cognitive behavioural therapy programme through a dedicated app, to help patients manage anxiety. This approach aims to improve access to anxiety treatment, reduce waiting times and the use of medication. To date, 1,436 people have signed up, with 884 enrolling and beginning first-line treatment as an alternative to medication( see page 7).
2 Transforming Lives Through Innovation