www.england.nhs.uk

Key points for healthcare

improvement leaders

• The NHS is at a crossroads in its improvement journey

• NHS improvement work is often under conceptualised and lacks

reflection and analysis

• Most ideas that underpin NHS improvement have been based on

mainstream organisational studies (organisational development,

quality improvement etc.)

• However, large-scale change in organisations relies not only on

‘external drivers’ but also the ability to connect with and mobilise

people’s own ‘internal’ energies and drivers for change

• Social movements frameworks may be helpful in understanding how

to mobilise improvement efforts inside, as well as across, NHS

organisations

Bate P, Bevan H, Robert G (2004), Towards a million change agents: a review of the social

movements literature: implications for large scale change in the NHS, NHS Modernisation Agency

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1133/1/million.pdf