Published May 2024
Why we are publishing ‘Out of the Dark and Into the Light’
“Improvement” remains a key focus of national health and care services as we continue to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and work to create a National Health Service that is ‘fit for the future’.
One huge challenge here is moving from description and diagnosis (what needs to be improved) to effective action (the how of improvement). In undertaking this research with the national Recovery Support Programme in NHS England, the Horizons team recognised that better understanding (and ‘codifying’) how improvement happens in practice is key to sustaining change. We invited the co-authors, Paul and Tom, to use the direct words of CEOs who have led and sustained effective service and organisational improvements. We intend this to be a practical resource, which we will update in response to your feedback and as we continue to learn about how improvement happens at the point of care.
The Horizons team exists to develop new thinking and practice related to large-scale change in health and care. This report is part of our series of publications and resources that explore different aspects of improvement in the NHS and the wider health and care system. Our recent work includes:
- How we define and demonstrate value from continuous improvement in the NHS.
- How to build your confidence and competence to lead change with others, through the NHS School for Change Agents.
- How to design improvements so that they can be scaled and adopted by others.
- The role of leadership in guiding increasingly complex networks.
Interested to learn more and to collaborate with us? Connect with us via email.
Kathryn Perera,
Director of the Horizons team
May 2024