Foreword

The context of our role as the Academic Health Science Network for Wessex; covering Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Dorset and south Wiltshire, changed radically in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

From the outset, we pivoted our support to be relevant to the immediate needs of our local systems and regional partners whilst maintaining vital business as usual activities. We will continue this approach for 2021-22 as the system recovers and restores.

Our agility has been very much valued by our partners. We have been heavily involved in the rapid redesign and adoption of services for supporting COVID patients in their own homes; we have led a number of rapid insight programmes helping our partners capture the learning from new ways of working; and we have focused our work with industry on identifying market ready and late-stage development innovations that can help the NHS respond to some of the direct and indirect challenges thrown up by the pandemic.

This agility will continue through 2021-22.

Health and care systems are in a greater state of flux than ever before. Our work plan for this year reflects our current understanding of where we can best add value both working locally with our Wessex partners on local programmes, and nationally and regionally with our fellow AHSNs.

However, given the flux we will keep this under review. The fifteen AHSNs are reviewing their strategy on collective national work as The AHSN Network, and locally we have begun a review of our longer-term strategy.

Fiona Driscoll

Chair, Wessex AHSN

Bill Gillespie

Chief Executive, Wessex AHSN