Evaluation of the integrated care and support pioneers programme in the context of new funding arrangements for integrated care in England (2015- 2020) PR-R10-1014-25001: Final report to Department of Health and Social Care, and National Institute for Health Research, Policy Research programme: Work Package 3: Engagement with pioneers, policy makers and national partner/user organisations to derive and spread learning

In this chapter of the final report, we set out the ways in which the Pioneer evaluation team sought to derive learning from the research, spread this in as close to real-time as possible, and in so doing to work in close partnership with the Pioneer sites, policy makers, user organisations and others with an interest in evidence-based learning about enabling better integrated care. This commitment to engagement and dissemination was central to the approach taken to our evaluation and specified from the outset in the proposal for the study.

We describe the original plans for engagement and spread of learning and explain how these were enacted by reporting on the different activities undertaken in terms of content and insights gained. Furthermore, we set out the key priorities for learning from the Pioneer programme as reported by a sample of policy makers and practitioners when interviewed in 2021 as the new Integrated Care Systems and Boards were being developed.

The chapter ends with a consideration of the strengths and limitations of the approach taken to engagement and learning, drawing conclusions about how best such partnership and dissemination can work as part of a large and lengthy evaluation study.