Title: Rapid Service Evaluation Research Team
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: BACKGROUND. Challenges to health and care systems such as increases in life expectancy and multi-morbidities, developments in treatments and technologies, and wider economic pressures have resulted in a drive at national and local levels to develop and accelerate service innovations to benefit patients and public. Currently, innovations do not spread as fast nor have the same degree of impact as in other sectors – particularly in terms of rapidly shaping frontline service delivery. There is therefore a need for new approaches to evaluation that provide robust evidence to meet these needs in a timely fashion. To address this need, the NIHR HS&DR programme has commissioned a Rapid Evaluation Research Team which is a collaboration between researchers from UCL Department of Applied Health Research and the Nuffield Trust. OUR AIM. We will conduct rapid evaluations of health and care service innovations, in close partnership with those who deliver, manage and use these services, and produce timely findings of national relevance and immediate use to decision-makers. THEORY-DRIVEN APPROACH. Our overall approach will combine the questions, ‘What works at what cost?’ with ‘How and why?’. We will draw on a range of theories (including adoption, diffusion, and sustainability of innovations, knowledge mobilisation, and implementation of change). INNOVATIVE EVALUATION METHODS. We will use innovative qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods (e.g. rapid ethnographic techniques) to facilitate timely analysis of innovations. We have substantial experience and expertise in carrying out research of this kind. Further, we have established valuable links with the Health Research Authority and NHS Digital, to ensure that we can access both qualitative and quantitative data as quickly as possible. SHARING LESSONS FOR RAPID IMPACT. Our research approach will enable provision of formative, as well as summative, feedback to people implementing innovations from the beginning of our evaluations onward. We have extensive networks in health and care sectors and an impressive track record in co-producing meaningful research findings and using a wide range of approaches to reach and influence decision-makers. WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP. Fundamental to our programme is that our work should be developed and conducted in close partnership with stakeholders (including clinicians, managers, and patient and public representatives). We will be guided by a Stakeholder Advisory Board who will help identify cutting edge innovations; and in each of our evaluations we will actively involve clinicians, managers and patient and public representatives throughout the research process (including project design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and sharing of findings). CONCLUSION. This funding of rapid evaluation teams is undeniably timely and will help health and care services meet a pressing need to become better at learning from innovative ways of working. We believe this call’s objectives can only be achieved through a programme that prioritises dynamic horizon scanning, responsive topic selection, collaborative research design, rapid data collection and analysis, and active approaches to providing formative and summative feedback. We believe our team’s unparalleled expertise, experience, and networks will enable us to deliver effectively on these objectives.

Lay abstract: The health and care system in the UK looks after an aging population with increasingly complex care needs, but money is tight. This means the NHS needs to develop new ways of providing care and, when a new approach works well, understand and share learning about that success with other parts of the health service quickly. The NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research Programme has funded a research team to rapidly assess new ways of providing care. This team brings together people from a world-leading research unit, the UCL Department of Applied Health Research, and the influential research and policy organisation, the Nuffield Trust, as well as patients and members of the public. We will look at changes in a range of ways and in a rapid manner. We will look at the effect of changes in terms of how well patients do (e.g. how likely patients are to recover, to have a disability, or to die); whether services give people the right care at the right time; and whether services get better results for the money spent. We will also observe how changes are put into practice, and we will interview patients, carers, and staff about their views on how the changes happened and whether they think the changes made a difference. We will work with our partners to identify innovations to evaluate based on their priorities, including how important the service is for patient and families. To ensure we understand changes quickly, we will work closely with services and patients and the public so we can begin research as soon as we can. We will analyse information about the changes as soon as we get it, and use new ways of thinking about changes so we can identify lessons more quickly than in the past. We will share results rapidly with the people who are making changes, so we can have an impact as soon as we can. For each project, we will work with our partners to agree how best to share lessons from our work effectively. We are experts in doing this, and have excellent links with health and care services across the country. We will use user-friendly summaries, blogs and webpages, workshops, present at conferences, and publish research articles that can be read freely by the public. We believe that by sharing findings as they develop we will make sure from the start that our lessons have maximum impact and benefit for patients and the health and care systems. We will involve clinicians, patients, and the public at every stage of our research, both within projects and across the programme as a whole. We will work closely with the funder, and be guided by a board of national experts, including patient and public representatives from a wide range of settings. The board will look at whether we are doing what we set out to do. They will also keep us up to date on the latest service changes, and tell us what they think about our new plans for research. A rapid research team will clearly help the health and care system respond to the need to get better at learning from new ways of working. We believe our expertise, experience, and networks mean we are well placed to form a team that can deliver rapid, meaningful lessons that will benefit patients, public and the health and care system.

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE