Time to focus on our neighbourhoods

Health Innovation North West Coast co-delivered a one-day ‘hackathon’ to provide North West neighbourhood teams time and space to find solutions to tricky issues impacting their services.

The event, called Neighbourhoods First: Transforming Local Health and Care Together, welcomed 12 enthusiastic teams from Oldham, Stockport, Sefton, Wirral, Manchester, Trafford, Cheshire East, Cheshire West, Blackburn with Darwin, Hyndburn, Salford, and NHS Cheshire & Merseyside ICB.

Half of the teams looked at development of their neighbourhood teams and neighbourhood working in general. The other half looked at specific challenges, such as ‘frailty’, better non-urgent and primary care, and health promotion and prevention. A walk around the room indicated that some of the teams were just getting started, while others were maturing their services.

To begin the day, a panel of system leaders shared a number of inspirational insights. Panellists included:

• Dr Gunjit Bandesha, Director Healthcare Public Health, NHS England NW 
• Katie Egan, Integrated Care System Lead, Change Grow Live
• Mike Rose, Chair of Maundy Relief, Lancashire
• Cllr Keith Cunliffe, Portfolio for Health and Adult Social Care, NW and Wigan
• Mark Palethorpe, Chief Executive, St Helens Council
• Philippa (Pip) Morrant, Director of Community Services, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Jen Kohan, Head of Programmes for the Coaching Academy, at Health Innovation North West Coast, designed and delivered the hackathon itself, providing teams with direction, resources, tips and words of encouragement. There were also a number of experts drafted in from other organisations and specialties, such as organisational development, digital and communications, who floated around the room offering teams advice.

Jen said: “We immediately felt a warm and welcoming environment as soon as participants arrived. People left their ‘organisational hats’ at the door, which I think really helped them be open up to new ways of thinking and perspectives coming from the table and the wider room. We want to model this as the North West Collaborative. We are from six different organisations but it shouldn’t feel this way.”

View a video summary of the day and a visual representation of the day's outputs. 

The Hackathon as a whole was delivered by the North West Collaborative, which includes MIAA North West Employers NHS Clinical Leaders Network NHS North West Leadership Academy Advancing Quality Alliance (Aqua). The day’s space and refreshments were graciously provided by Liverpool John Moores University at the beautiful Student Life Building in central Liverpool.

Sharon Senior, Executive Director, North West Employers, said: “This event highlighted the real value of creating the space and time for shared thinking, learning and doing. People made connections and generated some practical actions to take away. What was also very powerful, was the realisation of who wasn’t “in the room” and who else needed to be involved in taking this valuable work forward.”

Suzanne Douglas, Senior System Lead, NHS North West Leadership Academy, said: “The brilliance of the Neighbourhood First Hackathon lies not just in the ideas generated, but in the power of true collaboration that made it possible. This wasn’t just an event—it was a demonstration of how strategic, community-led thinking can drive meaningful system change. I’m incredibly proud of the collaborative, whose role-modelling, focus, and shared purpose brought this vision to life.”

It was apparent even before the event that future Hackathons would be planned. Places were booked up immediately, with more teams on a waiting list. Post-event there were a lot of lessons learned for the Collaborative and the teams themselves.

Jen reflects on a number of recurring themes that could improve the experience next time, such as teams:

• doing more preparation work going into the day
• making sure all the right people were at the table, and that there were enough people there for ‘co-design’ 
• ensuring inclusion of voices from the charity sector, social care, front line and residents.

A number of teams walked away with actions around better use and alignment of data, and how to take their ideas into pilots.

What’s next

Teams were encouraged to stay connected to each other to keep the conversation going. The Collaborative will be discussing an opportunity for a virtual follow up event around six months later where teams can share how they have progressed their ideas.

They were also invited to join the collaborative’s Leading for System Change programme, starting in September (applications close 11 August).

Learn more

You can also register for the North West Collaborative Masterclass series, which is a running programme of excellent, topical leadership and system working sessions for the public sector. 

Read this webpage and Jen’s blog for more information on how the Collaborative can help your organisation or to explore running a hackathon of your own. You can also email: collaborativenw@gmail.com.