With health and social care inflation running at a steady 3 – 4% per year in normal times, coupled with an ageing population and falling or flat budgets, it is increasingly clear not only in Scotland but throughout the developed world that our existing systems for health and social care are fundamentally unsustainable.

Innovation may make these systems more efficient, faster, smarter, cheaper and so on, but longer term viability in the future will require a more radical reconfiguration. The search for a more transformative response is already well underway in isolated pockets of strategy, policy, theory and practice around the world.

A lively community of research and transformative practice in health and social care has already begun to manifest in Scotland, born both of necessity and of the advantages of living in a small, well-connected country where individuals have found space in which to experiment with radically different approaches. This work is already commanding international attention.

The aim of this programme was to bring this community of transformative research and practice together, understand what will help and/or hinder its progress, and design and put in place the necessary supports to encourage its growth and spread its insights. The work also sought to explore how existing assumptions about innovation in the health and social care integration process actively deter or frustrate a more transformative response.