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The NHS is fragmented, but that doesn’t mean it’s broken. It would perhaps benefit from a new type of thicker glue. Learning networks have the potential to be the stronger bond to stop the shattering, prevent new fragmentations forming, and maybe even heal damage done.

Are you the same person at work as you are at home? Some? A bit perhaps? This might matter to you immensely, or not at all, but almost all of us would see there being some difference between how we think personally and professionally. Sometimes this is helpful (not everyone needs to know about your Panini sticker fascination), but sometimes it’s not.

I watch and read a lot of dystopian fiction and one of the grimmest things about the world to come is the extremes of 'identity': think red cloaks in The Handmaid's Tale, unseeing Ul Qoma in The City and the City, or a replicant in the persistent rain of 2019 Los Angeles.

There’s a lot of us out there, in different industries and sectors, trying to build collaborations, develop new ways of working and change systems that are no longer fit for purpose.  

Dear Sceptical - I too was there once! Confused and uneasy about networking. To be honest, I hated the word networking (and still do!). It seems so cold, impersonal, and it really should only be used for computers talking to computers.

Dear Introverts - I am wondering how you are? I know that you have been asked to join a few networks but I note that you haven’t been able to come yet.  Wondering if it might be because you struggle a bit with them? 

“Networks are all the rage,” says Richard Taunt in his excellent new blog. Reading it got me thinking about the different sorts of networks that we experience through our lives and how they help us deal with the challenges we face, both in work and out of it.

We spend our lives accepting things because they’re ‘just the way it is’. But how often does our blithe acceptance hide practices that are woefully inefficient? Initiatives such as the Atlas of Variation, or Getting It Right First Time, are attempts to use data to expose such misplaced faith.

'Network' is a term frequently used in health and care, but what do we mean? What is the difference between a network and a club? Or a network and a market? Do you know if you are running a network or a committee? And do you know which one is best for you?

When I talk to people about what Healthwatch is, the fact that we’re a network is the first thing they need to know. The way we gather, amplify and share people’s voices to drive improvement in health and social care only makes sense in that light.