PROVIDER DIVERSITY IN THE NHS: IMPACT ON QUALITY AND INNOVATION

The health reforms introduced by the White Paper ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’ aim to encourage diversity in the provision of health services within the NHS. The entry of new providers including social enterprises, private companies, and new forms of public organisations, is intended to stimulate innovation, quality and choice. The research objective is to assess the impact of provider diversity on quality and innovation in the NHS. The project will identify differences in performance between these diverse providers, and the factors that inhibit their entry and growth. It will investigate the conditions under which new providers contribute to improved health outcomes and how their contribution can be developed. It will examine the extent to which independent providers including social enterprises, which serve the needs of disadvantaged groups with little voice in the policy process, can contribute to improved quality of services and foster innovation in the public sector.