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We are Innovation Unit. We grow and scale the boldest and best innovations that deliver long-term impact for people, address persistent inequalities, and transform the systems that surround them.

We work hard to navigate the cultures we work on. We adapt our own practices to the cultures of the places we work, seeking to enhance the power of those who understand their context the best.

How we can help you

How we work

Adopt
and adapt

We help local systems to adopt and adapt innovations that have been successful elsewhere, by helping them understand where fidelity is essential, and where things need to flex to fit a new context.

See how

Place-based
transformation

We help local, place-based systems improve outcomes and reduce inequality, by developing a shared vision for change, designing and testing new solutions, and mobilising a local alliance that can deliver change long after we have gone.

See how

Innovation
programmes

We design and deliver innovation programmes that develop new ideas, test and evaluate promising innovations, and spread and scale the most successful.

See how

Learning partnerships
and programmes

We play the role of learning partner: helping organisations and systems learn from practice, research evidence and lived experience. We run formative evaluations and deliver learning programmes that connect and share learning between innovators and adopters.

See how

Our impact

UK ANZ All

Project

Bridging the Gaps

New approaches for care experienced young people given prison sentences

with Barrow Cadbury

Project

Greater Manchester’s real time learning project

Learning from Innovation in a Crisis

with Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Project

Adult mental health

Scaling and spreading
Living Well UK to Edinburgh, Luton, Salford, and Tameside & Glossop

with National Lottery

Project

Strengthening families, protecting children programme

Supporting scaling innovation in children's social care

with Department for Education

Project

An innovative model of out-of-home care

Children’s voices guide the way for new model of care

with Parkerville Children and Youth Care

Project

Māori heart health

Taking a Māori-centred approach to heart health

with Heart Foundation of New Zealand

Project

Harekeke - Parents for Parents

Creating stronger social connections between parents of under-fives

with Innovate change and Innovation Unit Australia

Project

Realising a powerful vision for learning in Bermuda’s public schools

Collaboratively designing an improved school system for Bermuda

with Ministry of Education

See more projects See more UK projects See more ANZ projects

Thoughts

Our latest news, blogs, and publications

Health Anchors: Moving from Plan to Action

Missed the event? Catch up on the speakers, crowdsourced top tips and everything else that happened.

haln.org.uk
28 Apr 22

How do we know we’re making a difference? Let’s rethink, and invest in, what we’re measuring

When we considered how to evaluate Living Well, we quickly realised the current ways of collecting and evaluating data wouldn’t meet our aspirations to understand how a person had experienced support or a change in their life – or how ‘healthy’ the system itself was in delivering that support.

www.livingwellsystems.uk
08 Apr 22

Trust Takes Time: lessons for VCSE organisations partnering with the NHS

Learnings from The National Lottery Community Fund Health Equality programme and Generation Medics’ NHS partnership

Blog
04 Apr 22

Ground-breaking consortium appointed to deliver new online portal for people experiencing homelessness in WA

Infoxchange, Anglicare, Innovation Unit and Anthologie have been appointed as a consortium to deliver a world-first digital access portal for the WA Government and homeless sector.

News
30 Mar 22

How can the NHS support the most excluded through its role as an anchor organisation?

It has a unique opportunity to help – but more could be done to optimise impact.

haln.org.uk
23 Mar 22

HALN: one year of learning

Over the past year, we’ve supported anchors during the early stages of their journey, helping them share and learn how to set up an anchor mission, how to work in partnership and how to overcome barriers.

haln.org.uk
28 Feb 22

How we’re trying to bring anti racism to our practice and project work

Last year Innovation Unit committed to becoming an anti racist organisation.

Blog
25 Feb 22

Levelling up: bricks and mortar were never going to be enough

There is a lot to welcome in the government’s Levelling Up White Paper. We support the recognition that tackling entrenched regional inequality will not be a quick fix and the commitment to a long-term agenda of systems change, innovation and devolution.

Blog
24 Feb 22

Growing a movement of Radical Caring with community and grassroots projects across London

Thrive LDN is working in partnership with Mind in the City, Hackney & Waltham Forest (CHWF) and Innovation Unit, to grow a culture of Radical Caring in different places and communities across London.

Blog
08 Feb 22

Innovation Unit

Change

Creating impact
Reducing inequalities
Transforming systems

How we work

Adopt
and adapt

Place-based
transformation

Innovation
programmes

Learning partnerships
and programmes