AUTUMN 2025 DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 34
NHS & HEALTHCARE
Will the Transformation Fund
deliver the change our NHS
needs? The real £3.25 billion
question
By Erica Hodgson, Change Management Practice Director at Differentis
The NHS isn’t broken because
of who’s been in charge — it’s
broken because of how it works,
and how change has been
managed.
The Government’s latest
shake-up — abolishing NHS
England, reclaiming control
under the Department of Health,
and introducing a £3.25 billion
Transformation Fund alongside a
10-Year Health Plan — has been
described as a bold, once-in-ageneration reform.
On paper, it promises leaner
operations, digital-昀椀rst care,
and more joined-up services.
But unless the root causes of
inef昀椀ciency and complexity are
addressed, it risks becoming
another reorganisation without
reform.
Transformation doesn’t fail
because of vision. It fails when it
isn’t built around people, process,
and behaviour. The NHS doesn’t
need another structural overhaul.
It needs operational clarity, digital
coherence, and cultural change
that works from the ground up.
Here are the 昀椀ve priorities the
Government must get right if
this transformation is to deliver
lasting results.
1. Follow the patient, not the
process
The NHS must stop designing
systems around organisational
silos and start designing them
around the patient journey.
Clinicians cannot treat what
they cannot see. The 10Year Health Plan promises to
rebalance care around patients’
lives, but that vision will only
succeed if digital systems
34
truly connect — allowing data
to 昀氀ow seamlessly between
GPs, hospitals, and community
services.
At Nottingham University
Hospitals, mapping every patient
touchpoint before introducing
electronic prescribing reduced
handover delays, improved
coordination, and enhanced
safety from day one.
This is what intelligent
transformation looks like
— interoperability, not just
integration. It’s not about
consolidating systems; it’s about
making them speak the same
language, so clinicians can make
better, faster decisions with less
cognitive burden.
2. Fix the way people work
before you digitise it
Too often, new technology
is introduced to 昀椀x broken
processes — only to hard-code
inef昀椀ciencies that make life
harder for staff.
Digital tools should amplify
what works, not compensate
for what doesn’t. Before
investing in technology, Trusts
must understand how people
actually work and identify where
breakdowns occur.
That’s where capability
mapping comes in. It helps
visualise work昀氀ows, highlight
pain points, and pinpoint where
digital tools can genuinely drive
change.
Technology should support
transformation — not lead it.
The goal isn’t to automate bad
processes; it’s to design better
ones 昀椀rst.
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3. Stop draining staff to
power broken systems
NHS staff don’t need resilience
training. They need systems that
work.
Transformation fatigue has
become the norm. Change after
change, initiative after initiative —
each demanding more time, more
effort, and too often, delivering
less impact.
The problem isn’t resistance to
change; it’s exhaustion from bad
change. Staff are being asked to
do more with less, to make up for
gaps that systems and structures
should be closing.
Real reform means co-creation,
not consultation. It means
involving staff in shaping change,
continuously gathering feedback,
and iterating improvements
rather than imposing them.
When we work with NHS
Trusts, collaboration isn’t
an afterthought — it’s the
foundation. Transformation
only sticks when people feel
ownership over it.
Because if change is
exhausting, it’s probably bad
change.
4. Trust the people closest to
the patient
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
understand their communities
better than anyone in Whitehall.
They see the pressures, needs,
and digital maturity of their
regions 昀椀rsthand.
If reform is to succeed, local
leaders must be empowered to
adapt solutions to their context
— not just implement national
blueprints. The Government’s role
should be to set clear standards
and guardrails, while giving ICBs
the freedom to interpret and
deliver reform based on local
realities.
Centralisation might look
ef昀椀cient on paper, but care
delivery is inherently local.
The NHS doesn’t need more
oversight; it needs more trust in
the people closest to patients to
lead the change.
5. Rede昀椀ne what ‘good’
looks like
Dashboards don’t save lives —
better decisions do.
If a patient’s journey feels
seamless to the system but
painful for them, the metrics
are wrong. Success shouldn’t
be measured by activity but by
outcomes that matter: faster
recovery, earlier diagnosis, fewer
delays, and greater con昀椀dence in
care.
Data is only valuable when it
leads to insight and action. The
NHS must rethink what data it
collects, why it collects it, and
how it’s used. Transformation
isn’t about gathering more
information; it’s about ensuring
the right information drives
meaningful improvement.
The risk of reform without
readiness
While the Government’s
Transformation Fund places AI
and digital innovation at the heart
of reform, the groundwork is far
from ready.
Many NHS Digital and IT
leaders are cautious — and
rightly so. Without robust data
foundations, governance, and
compliance frameworks,
