Social investment - SystemShift (Prevention Investment Programme)

SystemShift (Prevention Investment Programme) is a place-based programme that helps systems mobilise investment into prevention and health equity.

Led by NHS Arden & GEM and Wellbeing Enterprises CIC we bring together the NHS, local government, VCSE organisations, communities and social investors to build shared purpose, generate insight, strengthen commissioning, and develop investable opportunities that improve lives.

The journey follows five maturity stages:

1. Mapping - understand who’s involved, where money flows, and what outcomes matter.
   
   
2. Convene - bring the right leaders together under a clear purpose and governance.
   
   
3. Optimise - get more value from what already exists: align contracts around outcomes, strengthen accountability and joint working, and make longer-term commitments where feasible before seeking new capital.
   
   
4. Grow - test a live investable prototype with integrated partnership/contracting arrangements and shared financial mechanisms (e.g., pooled reserves) that give commissioners and investors’ confidence.
   
   
5. Scale & Spread - replicate the approach across wider populations and places, guided by ongoing learning and evaluation.

Programme Workstreams

1. Building Shared Purpose, Relationships & Social Imagination
   Establish a cross-sector Health Investment Partnership (HIP), deepen trust, and frame a shared vision for prevention and equity.
   
   
2. Generating Insight: Community, Data & System Intelligence
   Combine local data and lived experience to pinpoint priorities and shape a compelling investment narrative.
   
   
3. Building Capability & System Stewardship (enabling optimisation)
   Grow confidence and fluency across partners in social investment, outcomes-based commissioning, and collaborative leadership.
   
   
4. Reforming Commissioning for Innovation & Impact (delivering optimisation)
   Co-design longer-term, outcomes-focused funding approaches that are VCSE-friendly and support preventative impact.
   
   
5. Developing the Social Investment Framework (bridging to growth)
   Agree practical principles and oversight for channelling investment into place-based, preventative solutions.
   
   
6. Prototyping a Place-Based Investment Case (growth in practice)
   Design and launch a pilot investment in a high-priority area to prove feasibility and build confidence.
   
   
7. Embedding Evaluation, Learning & Sustainability (scale & spread)
   Capture learning, demonstrate outcomes, and lay the groundwork to replicate across populations and places.

What you’ll have by the end

• A functioning Health Investment Partnership (HIP)
  
  
• A locally tailored Health Investment Framework
  
  
• A pipeline of investment-ready initiatives and one tested prototype
  
  
• Evidence of improved collaboration, commissioning and preventative impact
  
  
• A sustainability & replication plan to extend benefits over time

How you can commission SystemShift (Prevention Investment Programme)

SystemShift (Prevention Investment Programme) is modular: you can start with the elements you need most (e.g., commissioning reform or a prototyping sprint) or commission the full pathway. The Self-Assessment Tool helps you identify your current stage and the most relevant next steps.