The challenge

CoCreate was engaged to support the work of the leadership group responsible for developing a more integrated health and care system across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Becoming an ‘Integrated Care System’ is a hugely complex task, which requires bringing together multiple organisations (in this instance upwards of 20), agreeing local health priorities, defining collective strategies and building cohesive new ways of working. In addition, there is the question of agreeing new ways of managing and distributing hundreds of millions of pounds to services already stretched to the limit following years of cuts.

The programme

Through several sessions the CoCreate team facilitated a process that built the quality of trust and relationships, raised awareness of the strengths and areas of development of the group, and helped them make progress on key priorities relating to system reform.

Our first step was to focus on building interpersonal trust, enabling leaders to relate to one another as people. This broke through some of the stiff formality, and enabled us to facilitate a series of conversations that raised understanding of the challenges each leader was facing in their specific area of the system.

As we moved through the sessions we focused on building systems leadership, supporting a shift from leading an organisation to taking ownership for the broader system. It was a challenging journey for many, yet also essential given the health challenges facing local populations.

By the close of our work, the members of the Executive Leadership Team were able to make collective decisions from a position of much greater trust, system thinking and collective strategic insight.