Sharing international experience: The institutional entrepreneur – a new force in health policy?

About this event

^{Professor Carolyn Tuohy, University of Toronto, discusses the role of a new player in health policy – the institutional entrepreneur}

Reform of health care systems to improve quality and contain costs is a pressing goal for governments worldwide. The formation of health policy is shaped by many forces, but are we seeing the emergence of a new player, the institutional entrepreneur? 

We were delighted to welcome Professor Carolyn Tuohy, School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto, who used research undertaken for a new book to highlight how institutional entrepreneurs have emerged in the UK, the Netherlands and the United States, and to a lesser extent in Canada.

She argued that these entrepreneurs, for example, GP commissioners, are uniquely placed at the boundaries of the private and public sphere to be able to exert a new kind of influence on the formation of policy. She explored how these entrepreneurs emerged within the NHS, from GP fundholding, and exerted a powerful influence on the evolution of clinical commissioning – which represents one of the boldest reforms contained in the Health and Social Care Act.

At the seminar, delegates had the opportunity to:

• Be the first to hear evidence from Carolyn’s book on how institutional entrepreneurs can have a role in changing and shaping policy;
• Consider the influence of entrepreneurs on the evolution of clinical commissioning;
• Share insights from Canada, the US, the Netherlands and the English NHS and discuss implications for the future direction of health policy in the NHS and elsewhere.

This seminar built on the success of an earlier event held by the Nuffield Trust and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Big-Bangs, blueprints, mosaics and increments: patterns of health policy change in Britain, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada. 

The seminar was chaired by Nuffield Trust Director of Policy Dr Judith Smith.