With a general election on the near horizon, there’s a lot of talk about what’s to come for the health and care sector. Many of us will be feeling uncertain about the change that might be around the corner, as a new government puts in place its policies for health and care. There will be different uncertainties in the devolved nations, with each country making its decisions on health care while navigating change in Westminster.

With colleagues from across the Health Foundation, we believe there are five priorities a new government should focus on to build a healthier UK, with transforming services sitting alongside investment in health and social care and a whole-government focus on health.

The NHS needs radical innovation and improvement to meet the challenges of a growing, ageing population with increasing illness.

This includes harnessing the potential of AI, data, and technology, improving the quality and experience of care, and focusing on prevention and delivering more care in people’s homes and communities.

As I write, manifestos haven’t yet been launched but there have been plenty of pledges from all parties.  I suspect that, for Q members and others who have spent our time improving care quality and safety, the issues making the headlines are not new. Reducing waiting lists, improving productivity or embedding digital solutions all feature, along with different proposals for how to support care in primary and community settings.

We know what it takes to deliver the types of changes being proposed. Implementation gets less attention than ideas but how we deliver change will, in large part, determine whether it works. The election is taking place in the context of chronic resource constraints and strain on both staff and the populations the sector serves. In short, we hear regularly from members that it’s a really challenging environment for inspiring and delivering change, for the same reasons that make such change so urgent.

As pledges and manifesto commitments made in the next few days and weeks become policy plans, then filter into the day-to-day practices at staff at all levels, we’ll need improvement approaches and expertise. This will help us to find a path to implementation that brings people on the journey and delivers in the long as well as the short term.

As a community, we can share the particular strengths of improvement approaches and help the sector bring the principles of effective improvement to the ambitious change agenda ahead. This means:

Taking a system view to construct strategies that enable lasting change

This is all the more important for many of the policy ambitions that span organisations and sectors. This year’s Q Exchange funding programme shortlist demonstrates the breadth of ways Q members are working across silos to bring fresh perspectives to improvement. And our cross-system improvement framework provides a structure for connecting up work that spans places and systems.

Co-producing solutions with those who need, use and deliver services

This is critical to converting the ideas in manifestos into models of care that work well for everyone. It will be particularly important given the need to address productivity challenges in parallel with other goals. I explored in this blog how improvement and Q can help.

Enabling pragmatic, iterative measurement, diagnosis and redesign

This is the foundation not just to ongoing progress with reducing waits but also to implementing new ideas. We know even fully formed ideas need adaptation when you bring them to a new service setting. There’s set to be big hopes for the potential of technology from all parties. With technology increasingly becoming a dimension of any service solution, it is all the more important we connect the skills of those working in digital and service change and – as we’re seeing through the many projects with a digital element that Q has now funded and support through Q Exchange and Q Lab – demonstrate together the need to invest in effective change not just the tech.

Build the organisational systems, culture and capacity for ongoing improvement

Innovations introduced can then be effectively adapted and embedded as the context evolves and we learn more. We need to be highlighting and making the most of the amazing work Q members are leading from work on quality management systems to building improvement coaching capability.

We’ll be keeping our feet on the ground and an eye on the horizon here in Q. I’ll be reviewing the main parties’ manifestos and considering what that might mean. I’d welcome your views on what the future might hold.

As 5 July rolls around, we can be sure that we will need to learn from what’s working and crucially what’s not, connect with others focused on similar priorities, and find a space to share and get support from others.