The NHS faces a massive challenge to enhance efficiency while maintaining health outcomes. Innovation is vital to meeting that challenge, but this is easier said than done to successfully achieve.

Following a commission by the Department of Health, the Young Foundation has developed a tool to give drive and direction to change by assessing new projects' economic and social value compared to existing approaches - and vice versa.

A user-friendly process to structure data and knowledge, our tool generates a broad-brush, concise assessment of innovation projects, which can be used by commissioners to determine the most promising proposals, and by innovators to enhance their business case.

Strongly complementary to analyses of specific attributes, such as evaluations of wider benefits through the NHS Social Value toolkit, it acts to highlight strengths and weaknesses along a set of twelve comprehensive criteria, including short term health gains and cost savings.

An initial application of the model has been used in selected Regional Innovation Funds, for which the Young Foundation's Health Launchpad (in partnership with NESTA) acts as specialist advisors to support Strategic Health Authorities in their decisions.

Download the Innovation Value Tool for Health.

Innovation Value overview paper.

Guidance manual.