Health Launchpad focused on using social enterprises and social entrepreneurs to help reduce the strain on the NHS by shifting the focus of care for long-term conditions from hospitals to the community.
The Health Launchpad team worked as social entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of idea development to scope, pilot and then launch new ventures, whether commercial or not-for-profit. Its approach included funding (in the form of grants, loans or equity) and intensive non-financial support.
We set up Health Launchpad with The Young Foundation to find radically different solutions that had the potential to transform healthcare and improve health across the country. In particular, ideas that were:
Innovative: We we’re looking for ideas that reflected our changing health landscape. For example, innovative patient-centred approaches to prevention, self-management, and improved quality of life.
Entrepreneurial: We believe new ideas are best served when they are coupled with an entrepreneurial approach. This means a new venture that has sustainable revenue streams, and which is scalable and/or replicable.
We're also looking for ideas that were led by service-users and their carers, and that were accessible to people from all walks of life and parts of society.
We considered ventures that offered solutions to any aspect of long-term conditions, with a particular focus on men’s health and creating better settings of care.
For further information on the projects we supported through this project, visit the Health Launchpad website.
Older people share their views on retirement in this short video clip.
