PURCON 2032- East of England Anchor Institute- Evaluation Consultancy

NHS England (formerly known as Health Education) East of England has invested in six Higher Education Institutions, to maximise utilisation of academic expertise in the adoption and uptake of emergent Integrated Care Systems, working as Anchor Institutions.

Integrated Care Systems are driven by the largest legislative changes introduced by NHS England, who have established 42 Integrated Care Boards across England, from 1st July 2022 in line with it's duty in the Health and Care Act 2022.

In the East of England, each HEI's engagement as an Anchor Institute is focused across their local Integrated Care System(s).

At baseline, there is no universal model, or shared understanding across the 6 HEIs, as to what an Anchor Institute (AI) is or should be, with each undertaking separate workstreams to align these with local context and priorities.

Further, there is no consensus on a regional theory for change for the AIs, and their contribution potential to workforce and system transformation.

Therefore, at the heart of this evaluation is a commitment to co-production, capturing contribution narratives with people and communities so that broad stakeholder engagement is achieved, from setting the strategic direction to adapting innovations to the local context, through to evaluation of regional impact.

A focus is on co-creating the evaluation for enhanced shared learning in terms of innovation adoption strategies.

For example, new and emergent roles being developed in response to new service models associated with health and care integration, as a sustainable approach to the spread of local innovations impacting workforce and system level transformation beyond the East of England.

The overarching objective is to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the facilitation of ANCHOR Institutes across the east of England