The value of this network has been evident throughout the year but the last few weeks have been particularly busy.

We welcomed two new members to the council, Holly Health and HealthNet Homecare (UK) Ltd

A warm welcome to their fabulous teams, I look forward to working more closely together.

I also want to say thank you to two of our more established members, TeleTracking UK and Lilli, for putting on such interesting events this week.

It was a privilege to spend time with the TeleTracking team, especially those who travelled to London from the US.

The evening was a great networking opportunity and generated interesting discussion. It really got me thinking about how we, as a collective, are well placed to overcome the challenges in the system.

Money, money, money

As ever, we heard the assertion from NHS colleagues that there just isn’t enough money in the system to fund innovation.

But we know that there is money, it’s just that choices are being made about where it goes.

There is a growing sense that little will change in terms of productivity or quality of services until different decisions are made.

Are systems set against innovation?

In many areas we’re hearing about structures introduced to encourage work across geographical areas and organisational boundaries serving to stifle innovation.

Provider Collaboratives, ICB workstreams on all aspects of finance and performance, and constant reporting to regional NHS representatives have created an environment where decisions are deferred.

Every partner wants to have a part in the approval process, so nothing gets approved.

Learning and sharing

It is possible for providers and their local partners to get decisions made. A great example is the ‘digital front door’ work being explored in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

We will report back soon.

Bringing people to the table

Congratulations to Lilli, who kindly invited me to talk at an online event on Tuesday about the shift from passive to proactive enabled by digital health and care.

What really impressed me was not only how they’d managed to get virtual ‘bums on seats’, but how they’d managed to get operational leads in social care and NHS discharge to assess teams.

I’ve asked Clearview to get in touch to see how DHC can harness their targeted approach for the benefit of all our members.

Coming up

Looking ahead to our conversation with Paul Corrigan in November, there is reason to be cheerful.

It’s through conversations like this, where we speak with a powerful collective voice, that real progress is made.