We are proud to announce that the Leicestershire Partnership and Northamptonshire Healthcare Group has been selected by NHS England as one of only nine participants in a new national innovator scheme.

The NHS England Provider Collaborative Innovators Scheme will connect national policy and support directly to the partnership working we deliver in our systems. This will accelerate our vision for creating high quality, compassionate care and wellbeing for all.

Only nine participants were chosen by NHS England from applications across the country to take part and receive support in this scheme, and we were the only collaborative to have been successfully selected in the East Midlands, demonstrating the strong collaboration both organisations have developed and our potential to achieve more.

The key benefits of becoming a provider collaborative innovator are:

  • Support from NHS England to us and our partners, to develop better collaborations, faster
  • We can influence national service transformation and national policy
  • A network of nine innovators who we can learn from to improve care

We will use this opportunity to accelerate partnerships in Leicestershire, Leicester City & Rutland, in Northamptonshire and with our partners across the East Midlands.

We submitted an expression of interest as the Leicestershire Partnership and Northamptonshire Healthcare Group in December, which was supported by our Integrated Care Boards and many partners across the East Midlands.

David Williams, Group Director of Strategy & Partnerships, said: “We knew there would only be nine successful innovators, applying as a group has meant we have secured support for LPT, NHFT and our systems.  Our chance of success would have been lower if we hadn’t worked together. This is a great recognition of the strength of partnership working in LPT, in NHFT and with all our partners.  It really recognises how far our organisations have come and how much we have achieved.

“The work we can do through this innovator approach will enable us to break down some of our local barriers to moving forward and will provide learning that can be replicated for many other systems.”

Mark Cubbon, Chief Delivery Officer, NHS England said: “We look forward to working in partnership with the Leicestershire Partnership and Northamptonshire Healthcare Group. Provider Collaboratives play a critical role in helping systems deliver better care and I want to thank all of those working tirelessly across the NHS to harness the benefits of collaboration to improve patient outcomes.”

An in-person event to mark the launch of the scheme will be held in London in March with the NHS England CEO and representatives from each of the chosen innovators, ahead of the formal start of the support in April.

You can find out more about the scheme here