Health Launchpad News and Events

An extraordinary group of over eighty social innovators from seventeen countries including Brazil, Norway, Lebanon and Singapore spent three days in San Sebastian recently at the first ever summer school. The aim was to learn, make connections and ponder about how and why social innovation matters.

The challenge of “more” has become a major issue for our health system. And it is a particularly difficult challenge for statutory bodies to address, since tackling it requires not just providing more services, but encouraging people to change their behaviour.

At times, being an entrepreneur can be a confusing and lonely profession. But there are organisations that exist to help foster entrepreneurial people, providing much-needed training and support. Founded ten years ago by Michael Young, the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) is an action-based ‘school’ with an ethos of learning by doing. It aims to be as inclusive as possible so that people with great ideas, from any background, receive the help they need. Nick Temple is Policy and Communications Director at the SSE. Zenobia Talati talks to him.

Every day, in the UK, according to the charity, Men’s Health Forum 330 men die prematurely before their 75th birthday; one, every four and a half minutes. Yvonne Roberts reports.

On the weekend of 4-6 April, a sprinkling of magic came to Bethnal Green. The Young Foundation played host to Social Innovation Camp

Lots of people come up with great ideas that they think will change the world but most people don’t have the expertise to get them off the ground. Andrew Brough makes ideas into reality. As head of fund development for Launchpad, he works with people to provide the commercial and entrepreneurial advice they need to create social impact. Zenobia Talati talks to him.

Grown-up children want the best for their parents as they go through the aging process. But in reality many people feel squeezed for time and don’t know where to find the right advice or who to ask. Jessica Shortall is working with Health Launchpad on a ground breaking website providing ‘adult children’ with practical support to help them care for their parents. She talks to Zenobia Talati.

It is an uncomfortable fact that inequality and racism pervade the UK health system. Whether this is down to institutional history, the behaviour of individuals or unwillingness to change is debateable. But, the consequences continue to be felt by the millions of people across the country who are being failed by the system. Elizabeth Bayliss, CEO of Social Action for Health (SAfH), a community development charity based in East London, tackles this injustice face-on and her approach is always to start and end with the people. She talks to Zenobia Talati.

Jos Belgrave is developing a project called the Social Health Network (SHN) with Health Launchpad. The SHN is a social enterprise designed to help people to better manage their long term conditions. He talks to Zenobia Talati.

NESTA-Young Foundation Health Innovation Accelerator Workshop: How can we innovate to improve the NHS?

The HIA is holding an Open Space session for NHS managers, clinicians and front line staff and social entreprenuers interested in health, to explore how innovation can be used to improve the NHS.

A growing number of designers are applying their talents to creating social change. But when many people think of design they imagine objects like chairs or houses. Design as user-engagement, approach and process can be more difficult to grasp. Mary Rose Cook co-founded design consultancy Uscreates with fellow designer Zoë Stanton. They set up the organisation because they recognised that designers could play a significant role in tackling social problems. Zenobia Talati talks to her.

Imagine a working world that supports people with long term conditions.  The Health Innovation Accelerator supports inn ovation in health and is looking for project submissions.

A growing body of research has explored what causes, promotes and hampers happiness and wellbeing. There is increasing awareness that one of the challenges of our time is facing up to the problem that, while economic output has nearly doubled in the last 30 years, there has been no corresponding increase in happiness, and there is some evidence that levels of unhappiness may be increasing.

The World Economic Forum has called on businesses to lead the fight against chronic disease, to embed a culture of health and to manage the change in a population where long term conditions are increasingly prevalent.