Delivering Integrated Health and Social Care

The Design and Learning Centre was initially developed as part of the NHS Integrated Care Pioneer Programme which ran from 2013 – 2018. The NHS Integrated Care Pioneer Programme was a national programme which aimed to explore new and innovative ways of delivering health and social care in an integrated way.

As part of the programme, 25 Pioneer sites across the country were identified, Kent was one of these sites. The Pioneer sites acted as leaders testing a range of new and innovative ways of working which would create a smoother experience for those in receipt of services and to make the best use of resources across health and social care. The Design and Learning Centre for Clinical and Social Innovation was officially launched in 2016. The centre aimed to continue the work completed under the Integrated Care Pioneer Programme as we work towards Making out-of-hospital care safer for both citizens and professionals.

The focus of our work is to reduce frailty, develop safe new services and transform the health and social care workforce by promoting independence and self-care. The centre is working in partnership with health and social care services across Kent and most recently has been recognised as the innovation facility for the Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) with the Kent, Surrey & Sussex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). This partnership known as ‘the Collaborative’ also works with a wider network including the Medway and Swale Centre of Organisational Excellence (MaSCoE), the Kent and Medway Shared Health and Care Analytics Board (SHcAB), the University of Kent and National Institute for Health Research. There are a number of ways to get involved with our work, please see our upcoming events to see the latest activities.