The Homes for Ukraine Scheme is the largest state-run programme of resettlement undertaken in the United Kingdom’s history. More than 160,000 Ukrainians have been housed in private homes across the country. It was able to rapidly reach this scale as a result of the collaborative approach that enabled contributions from beyond government.
Public servants from a range of departments and tiers of governments contributed to the scheme and as a result have experienced and learned lessons from a radically different approach to government programmes. The scheme also created strong links and relationships across all sectors of the economy – public, private and community – demonstrating that innovative public services can be delivered by this very broad coalition.
Most importantly, the Homes for Ukraine Scheme shows that not only is a collaborative approach possible under intense pressure to act rapidly, but also that by enabling broader and deeper contributions, a collaborative response can be more effective than more traditional command and control approaches.
The lessons from the scheme are not a panacea for the myriad of deep problems that health and care is facing. However, they offer useful reflections for health and care leaders increasingly looking to broaden the organisations and stakeholders involved in health and care.
Reflecting on this report, we ask leaders to consider how they might better harness the motivation of organisations and individuals keen to make contributions, be it through expanding their volunteering programmes or by increasing their efforts to partner with the VCSE sector.
Specifically, we suggest that health and care leaders:
- reflect on the implication of each of the lessons and to consider how they might apply it in their context
- consider which other sectors beyond health and care might offer useful lessons (for example, we’ve been influenced heavily by improvement efforts in education and the US military’s approach to teams.
- make the time to expand their networks and learn from leaders from other sectors about how they might approach the challenges they face.