Today, at NHS Expo, we are announcing the creation of a new coalition – the Coalition for Collaborative Care. The Coalition is bringing together a group of organisations who share a commitment to transform the health and care system – so that people with health conditions are more in control and supported to live better with their conditions.

The Coalition’s vision for the heath and care system is one which enables people to work with healthcare professionals to improve how they live with their long term condition; a system which recognises people for their knowledge and actively supports them to manage their conditions. An important part of this is helping people to take the often challenging steps towards long-term behaviour change in areas like diet, smoking and exercise; and to connect people to one another to create powerful networks that support better health.

Bringing together commissioners, providers and patient organisations

Since the People Powered Health summit last year, we have been in discussion with a wide range of organisations across health and care who share this vision. The vision itself represents a systems challenge because getting there requires change across many different domains: both for health and care professionals and for patients. This is why we’re so pleased to be a founding member of the Coalition. Although the Coalition is right at the beginning of its life, it is already bringing together commissioners, providers and patient organisations to work together across sectors. And we are looking forward to welcoming new members who share our commitment not just to campaign, but to take on the hard work needed to transform the wiring of the system, as well as support tangible change on the ground.

Action and large-scale change

This dual focus – on the system conditions and local adoption – makes the Coalition as ambitious as it is determined: committed to improving a whole range of influencing factors from financial incentives for clinicians to the evidence base underpinning the approach; from training for healthcare professionals to developing networks of patient leaders. The focus is on action and on large-scale change – moving collaborative care from the early adopters to the mainstream.

It’s a big agenda but an important one and we’re looking forward to working through the Coalition to help shift the health and care system to become more entrusting, enabling and empowering.

This blog was originally published on Coalition for Collaborative Care. Read the original blog.