Case Study: Start Well Paediatric Service Transformation

Bramble Hub partner Verve Communications specialises in delivering major NHS change programmes, such as service reconfigurations, workforce transformation, or organisational redesign. These are complex undertakings, requiring leaders to navigate diverse stakeholder interests, adhere to statutory requirements, and manage public and political scrutiny, all while ensuring patients remain at the centre of every decision.

Verve provides expertise at every stage, including:

· Shaping the case for change

· Equality and impact assessments

· Conducting public consultations

· Facilitating implementation

With over 15 years of experience, Verve has contributed to some of the UK’s most complex change programmes, consistently transforming obstacles into opportunities for meaningful transformation.

About Start Well

The customer: NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB)

The challenge: The Start Well programme sought to redesign paediatric, neonatal, and maternity care across North Central London to ensure that services are fit for the future. The scale of the transformation required a coordinated approach across clinical leadership, patient engagement, and operational planning. Stakeholders included local authority partners, NHS providers, NHS England regional teams, clinical leaders, community representatives, patients and carers.

Verve’s role: As trusted advisors to the programme, Verve worked closely with the ICB to help shape the design of the changes and support engagement, including the full public consultation compliant with stator requirements and NHS England guidance. They brought stakeholders together—clinicians, community groups, and local leaders—to discuss proposals, and their tailored engagement strategies included reaching seldom-heard groups, producing consultation materials that demystified complex clinical issues, and a large-scale process with high levels of participation.

The result: By gathering actionable insights and ensuring inclusive engagement, Verve supported the programme team in making informed, equitable decisions. The resulting changes are now positioned to improve care quality and patient experience while addressing long-standing health inequalities.

Other Verve NHS projects

Verve has also supported other major NHS projects, including:

· Major changes to orthopaedic surgery for 1.6m people in North Central London and Hertfordshire

· A complex acute mental health consultation across the eight boroughs of North West London

Working with Bramble Hub as a thin-prime supplier

The Start Well project was put out to tender by the customer, NHS North Central London (ICB), using the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Management Consultancy Framework 2 (MCF2). Since Verve was not a supplier on MCF2, Bramble Hub bid as the thin prime, with Verve as subcontractor.

MCF2 has since been replaced by MCF3, on which Bramble Hub is also a supplier. Bramble Hub’s model allows small, highly specialised companies like Verve to access public sector projects on frameworks that might otherwise be out of their reach.