31/01/2025
A recent Public Accounts Committee report on NHS England reveals a troubling disconnect: while there’s a pressing need to shift from hospital-based to community care, senior officials appear reluctant to embrace transformative change.
At ACESO, we believe the solution for NHS’s challenges lies not just in moving services into communities – but in fundamentally reimagining how communities participate in their own healthcare journey.
The WHO-recommended Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approach could transform NHS healthcare delivery by empowering local communities to identify their needs, share vital local knowledge, and actively shape preventive health initiatives.
The report calls for “truly fresh ideas and radical energy” in NHS transformation. PLA could provide exactly this – enabling NHS communities to co-create solutions that strengthen preventive care, optimize resource allocation, and significantly reduce pressure on hospital services. This approach perfectly aligns with NHS’s planned ‘three big shifts’ towards community care, digital transformation, and prevention.
The evidence from our global experience shows: when communities take ownership of their health journey, the results are transformative. We believe the community-first PLA approach could offer the NHS an innovative path to achieve its ambitious goals for healthcare transformation.
We invite NHS leaders and stakeholders to explore how PLA could help achieve their vision for community-centered healthcare transformation.