Evaluation of the Common Ambition Programme

The Health Foundation launched the Common Ambition programme in 2020. It aimed to support partnerships between the VCS, NHS and other organisations to develop collaborative communities where people, families, carers, health care professionals and researchers could work together to improve health care. The programme was also designed to contribute to the evidence base on how the public can take part in developing and delivering a learning health care system.

Four partnerships each received up to £0.5m for a three-year project:

  • Brighton and Hove Common Ambition: Bringing together people with lived experience of homelessness, front-line providers and commissioners through co-production to improve health care systems, services and outcomes for people experiencing homelessness in Brighton and Hove.
  • Common Ambition Bristol (CA-Bristol): Working with African and Caribbean heritage communities in Bristol to reduce late HIV diagnosis, stigma and generally improve sexual health.
  • AWARE-IBD: Redesigning inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) services, shaped by those who use them.
  • Believe in Us: Taking a radical new approach to redesigning health services together with people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

The evaluation

In November 2020 the Health Foundation commissioned SQW, an independent research consultancy, to conduct an independent evaluation of the Common Ambition programme. The theory-based evaluation ran for 3.5 years alongside programme delivery, to report on learning from the process of implementing the programme and what the programme achieved.

Key findings

The partnerships successfully involved community participants in collaborative decision-making alongside health care professionals, with each adopting a different approach to collaborative decision-making.

Two of the partnerships implemented health care service changes, with early evidence indicating positive feedback from patients and service users, and potential for making a difference to health outcomes. The other two partnerships improved (or are expected to improve) services through influencing health and care professionals’ behaviour and practice in engaging with community members, influence on partner organisations and local commissioners, and wider influence on the sector.

The evaluation generated good practice learnings for others seeking to undertake community collaboration. It also generated a series of recommendations for the Health Foundation, other potential funders, and for those interested in progressing community collaboration.

These - alongside detailed insights and examples - can all be found in the report, which has been published by the Health Foundation here.

Contact

If you'd like further information about the Common Ambition programme evaluation, please contact Diane Redfern-Tofts at the Health Foundation via Diane.Redfern-Tofts@health.org.uk, or Lauren Roberts at SQW via lroberts@sqw.co.uk.