The challenge

We believe that the overarching aim for health and care systems should be about maximising wellbeing and independence, and allowing people to live ‘ordinary lives’ closer to their homes and communities. For that to happen, a person’s needs should be addressed by the entire system. However, while there is a lot of fluidity, health and care are often set up as a series of silos. Focusing on what happens within hospitals, and how that work can be done better, more efficiently and at lower cost, cannot by itself maximise wellbeing and independence.

Our approach

Our focus is on improving the outcomes that matter most, by taking a practical approach to complexity. That starts by avoiding hospital admissions in the first place. Where admissions are necessary, people should be discharged safely and supported to settle back at home, avoiding readmissions.

Leaders within the health and care system are often forced to frame problems too narrowly and only deal with the aspects of care that they directly control. Effective working in complex systems requires a mindset shift – towards a focus on outcomes and working across organisational and system boundaries – and tools that make it easier to manage complexity and produce lasting, positive change. Our EDGEWORK approach provides both, and enables our partners to:

• Identify new opportunities for the NHS and local authorities to build capacity and ultimately manage demand better – saving money
• Create real confidence in seizing these opportunities – by enabling frontline teams to drive performance change
• Deliver capacity or savings at scale across places and systems
• Create more resilient places by investing in skills transfer and team enablement

We focus on applying EDGEWORK in three main areas:

• Building behaviour-based approaches to better outcome discharges – our Valuing Home methodology
• Designing and driving joint commissioning outcomes
• Implementing place-based models of care built around demand management, especially for older people

Our approach not only results in better outcomes for people using the health and care systems, but also supports an improved professional and clinician experience, with a more manageable workload. Our team members have sat on both sides of the interface, appreciate the sensitivities involved, and know how to make it work better.

How we are different from other health consultancies

Our focus is on the problems that sit outside of the hospital which have dogged systems for years. Our reputation is based on our ability to solve those problems and deliver change at scale.

• Our focus is simple – securing better outcomes that matter, at lower cost
• Our number one ambition is improved wellbeing and avoiding unnecessary institutional care
• We get the interface – we are professionals who have worked on both sides, and know how to make it work. Changing behaviours and culture is at the heart of what we do.
• We are passionate about leaving our clients more resilient and enabled than when we started
• We are specialists in whole system complexity. We understand that this is most keenly felt at the interface of health and care, and have the tools and experience needed to deliver lasting change

Working in partnership with teams in the NHS, across local government, and the voluntary and community sector, we have defined, identified and delivered better outcomes for neighbourhoods, places and systems.