From innovation to impact across Kent and Medway, Surrey and Sussex: Our 2025–26 Impact Report

Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex (Health Innovation KSS) today published its annual impact report for 2025-26, highlighting how our work has supported the spread and adoption of proven innovations, contributed to economic growth, and delivered progress against the NHS’s three shifts

As the NHS marks its 78th birthday, the report shows how proven innovation can help services respond to today’s pressures while building a healthier future for people and communities.

The report brings together programme highlights, case studies and regional examples from across Kent and Medway, Surrey and Sussex.

Health Innovation KSS is one of 15 health innovation networks across England. Through our collective innovation efforts in 2025-26 [1]:

• 2.1 million patients benefited from the Health Innovation Network’s national and local programmes
• Over 1,500 jobs were created or safeguarded
• Almost £1.5bn was leveraged in investment nationally

Progress against the NHS three shifts

The 10 Year Health Plan for England sets out three major shifts for the NHS: from analogue to digital, hospital to community and sickness to prevention.

Innovation has a critical role to play in delivering these shifts. In this year’s impact report, we showcase work across each priority, including the following examples from our programmes:

Analogue to digital

By reducing the administrative burden on clinicians, Ambient Voice Technology (AVT) can free up more time for patient care. This year we have delivered a coordinated programme of work to support the safe, evidence‑based adoption of AVT. This includes two independent real world evaluations of AVT tools and the publication of an implementation guide for health and care settings.

Hospital to community

When frailty and heart failure occur together, treatment decisions become more complex and the risk of poorer outcomes increases. We worked with NHS partners and professional groups to develop the Frailty‑First and End of Life Practical Management Pathway for Heart Failure, which supports clinicians to recognise and respond to frailty when assessing and managing people living with heart failure.

Adopted beyond our region and recognised nationally within the Health Innovation Network Heart Failure Blueprint, this work is helping to improve patient care and better long-term outcomes.

Sickness to prevention

The government is investing in mental health support teams in schools as part of the NHS 10 Year Plan. However, many school settings lack practical guidance to implement this approach consistently and measure its impact.

We supported the spread of the Whole School and College Approach (WSCA), through evidence-based resources that help education settings promote mental health and wellbeing. Our Best Practice Review has attracted 35,000 downloads and more than 450 schools and colleges now use the WSCA Measurement Toolkit.

Local impact, strong partnerships

From helping people stay in work and improving safety for parents and babies, to supporting people living with dementia and advancing artificial intelligence, digital tools and new models of care such as virtual wards, our work this year has helped tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing health and care systems.

Collaboration is central to how we work. This year, we partnered with NHS organisations, researchers, industry and people and communities to tackle shared challenges and shape innovations around the needs of those who deliver, use and benefit from health and care services.

Looking to the future

Prof Hatim Abdulhussein, Chief Executive Officer –

“This report shows what can be achieved when innovation, evidence and partnership come together. Over the past year, we’ve worked with partners across health and care to help bring proven innovations into practice, supporting the NHS’s three shifts and making a difference for patients, communities and the workforce. As we look ahead, we’ll continue to find, test and spread innovations that improve lives, tackle health inequalities and strengthen health and care services.”

Read the report

[1] National Health Innovation Network Statistics 2025-26