Publications

The National Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme is working to improve the safety, outcomes and experience of women and babies using maternal and neonatal care services across England. The programme contributes to the National Maternity Transformation Programme.

The National Patient Safety Improvement Programme (NPSIP) is in a unique position to identify and support the spread and adoption of effective evidence-based practice across England. This workstream facilitates and accelerates the pace of adoption making sure that the whole system can benefit from these interventions.

The National Patient Safety Improvement Programme, delivered regionally by the 15 Patient Safety Collaboratives across England, is the largest safety improvement initiative in the history of the NHS.

This guidance is a supporting document to Section 3.4 of the 2019/20 National Tariff Payment System which sets out the national approach to supporting the adoption of innovation using the Innovation and Technology Payment.

The 15 AHSNs cover the whole of England. Individually, we serve the regions and care systems within which we work, while collectively we ensure that transformative innovations become available as widely as possible, as quickly as possible. Our work drives improvements in quality of care and supports economic growth through our support for evaluation, adoption and spread of innovation.

The work of England’s AHSNs is transforming lives through innovation – delivering better health outcomes, improving patient experience and safety, driving down the costs of care and supporting economic growth.

This document refreshes the 2018/2020 Innovation Agency Business Plan, describing how we will achieve the updated 2019/20 national programmes, with highlights from the first year. The NHS Long Term Plan names the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), as integral to its delivery and we were relicensed for a further five years, with an additional commission from the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) to deliver Innovation Exchanges, which will support the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) and the spread of Rapid Uptake Products (RUP).

We deliver the national Patient Safety Collaborative programme in the North West Coast, in collaboration with the AHSN Network and NHS Improvement. The focus has been on three areas: early identification of deterioration; maternal and neonatal health safety; and a culture of continuous improvement. In addition, we help to introduce and spread innovations which improve patient safety

Our support for local businesses has had a measurable impact on economic growth – creating jobs and securing investment, as well as helping NHS providers to reduce costs and improve care.

Our involvement with national digital initiatives means we are well placed to support partners in our region with their own digital transformation projects.

Preventing strokes has been a flagship programme for the Innovation Agency since its inception and we are very proud of the impact of our work, in particular identifying unknown cases of atrial fibrillation.

We involve patients and public in all our work programmes – testing tech and apps; providing feedback and helping to shape plans and projects; and as volunteer AF Ambassadors.

As new networks and systems evolve in our region, our teams are delivering programme management support and helping to introduce innovations which are improving care.

Our calendar includes many events to support our partners and different programmes of work. Last year was a special one for the Innovation Agency, marking our fifth birthday, the NHS’s 70th – and a new five year licence from our national NHS commissioners. Here are some of the highlights.

PIONEERING NEW WAYS TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE. Connected Health Cities is a Government funded, North of England initiative using NHS data and technology to improve health care.