Somerset: an academy as part of the system

The setting

Somerset County Council, health partners, police, district councils and the voluntary sector needed a more integrated approach to health and social care, with greater emphasis on prevention, early help and community assets.

The academy was not treated as a detached training event. Cohorts worked on live projects connected to local strategy and system leadership.

What the programme did

Participants learned together across organisational boundaries. Challenge projects focused attention on practical issues, while masterclasses, facilitation and peer challenge supplied methods and outside perspectives.

Projects contributed to work on community support, hospital discharge, data sharing, housing, transport, falls prevention and support for children and young people. The model evolved as partners learned more about what projects needed between formal academy days.

What mattered

• Challenges were identified before the programme began.
• Participants were selected for what they could contribute to those challenges.
• Senior sponsors remained connected to the work.
• Projects generated practical evidence, not only learning reflections.
• The programme changed as the local system learned.

At the end of the first phase, participants reported strong relevance, useful connections and learning from one another. The larger lesson is structural: capability development can become part of how a place does change, rather than an activity beside it.

This page carries forward the evergreen findings from the original Somerset case study.