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Last updated: 23 November 2009
The Health Launchpad aims to speed up the creation and development of social enterprises relating to long-term conditions. The project is led by the Young Foundation.
With funding from the Office of the Third Sector, the Health Launchpad’s Health Innovation Champion is leading a range of activities to harness and cultivate third sector innovations in health provision. The Health Innovation Champion’s activities include:
With funding from NESTA, the Health Launchpad offers an early stage social venture fund that develops promising ideas into new ventures by providing intensive hands-on support in the form of financial, intellectual and social capital.
With the support of OTS, Health Launchpad is also developing an innovative and robust methodology to scout for and test ideas which have the potential to change the healthcare landscape.
Based within The Young Foundation, with its tradition of creating groundbreaking social innovations such as The Open University and the consumer group Which, Health Launchpad tackles social problems from a completely new angle: that of social enterprise.
Drawing on broad experience in business, research, medicine and the third sector, the multi-disciplinary team of Health Launchpad works with social entrepreneurs to develop promising ideas into new ventures. This is realised through the provision of intensive hands- on support in the form of financial, intellectual and social capital.
Health Launchpad’s remit is by no means exclusively directed toward individual entrepreneurs. Indeed its central objective is to deliver scalable and sustainable changes on a large scale, thereby resulting in notable social impact on local, regional and national levels. For example, Healthy Incentives Ltd, a social enterprise initially conceptualised by the team and subsequently developed in partnership with Birmingham East and North PCT, addresses the complex issue of behaviour change in relation to healthy lifestyles through the provision of a simple reward scheme.
Health Launchpad also questions existing models of care and readily embraces new methods of working eg: utilising technology to deliver a quicker and personalised service for patients. Demonstrating this approach is Neuroresponse, conceived by a Multiple Sclerosis Nurse Specialist and supported by the Health Launchpad team. Neuroresponse has the potential to improve services for Multiple Sclerosis patients, many of whom had previously to travel long distances to receive the specialist treatment they required. Comprising of a telephone triage service, video clinics and an email hotline for GPs to consult neurologist s directly, the venture speeds up response times, increases efficiency and enhances the quality of life for those in pain.
Health Launchpad has also recently been appointed to work with NESTA as Fund Advisor to the £220m NHS Innovation fund, offering venture support to Strategic Health Authorities nationally.
You can find out more via the links below: