The challenge

Obesity is a complex and growing health challenge, with variation in how care is delivered across the NHS. The Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP) represents a major opportunity to test new, community-based approaches to obesity care and understand what works in different settings. 

Backed by £85 million of government investment, OPIP projects will generate valuable learning about how obesity pathways can be improved. The challenge is to turn that learning into practical, sustainable change that can be shared and adopted more widely across the NHS and UK-wide healthcare systems. 

The solution

The OPIP Impact Collaborative brings together organisations participating in OPIP to share learning, insight and experience, helping to accelerate the adoption of effective obesity pathways in healthcare. 

The Collaborative provides a structured framework for projects to learn from one another, work through common challenges and share approaches that can be adapted to different local contexts. 

By connecting teams and creating opportunities for peer learning and shared problem-solving, the Impact Collaborative aims to build capability, support sustainable system change and help develop scalable models of obesity care. 

Our work in partnership

Health Innovation South West is working in partnership with Health Innovation Manchester and Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre Scotland to deliver the OPIP Impact Collaborative across the UK. 

Together, we bring participating project teams together to share insights, collaborate, solve challenges and accelerate the spread of innovation.. 

Each partner provides dedicated regional support, while the partnership operates as a single UK collaborative. This combines tailored support for individual projects with opportunities to benefit from shared learning, peer networks and national insight. 

Our impact 

The OPIP Impact Collaborative launched in July 2026, so its longer-term impact is still developing. 

So far, the Impact Collaborative has established a national network bringing together OPIP project teams to share learning, experience and practical insight. Through this work, we are focusing on four key delivery principals: 

1. Purposeful & Impact-Driven 

• Focused on real-world application and measurable, system-wide transformation  

• Prioritising delivery of practical, scalable solutions over theory  

• Translating insight rapidly into tangible improvements in local pathways  

2. Facilitated & Collaborative 

• Actively enabled through facilitation, not passive participation  

• Creating the conditions for peer learning, shared problem-solving and mutual support  

• Harnessing diverse contexts to accelerate collective insight and innovation  

3. Structured for Pace, Flexible for Context 

• Providing a clear, national framework to guide delivery and maintain momentum  

• Enabling local adaptation to reflect system needs, starting points and opportunities  

• Balancing consistency with flexibility to support scale and spread  

4. Learning, Testing & Iterating 

• Embedding continuous learning cycles: share, reflect, apply, improve  

• Encouraging teams to test, adapt and refine approaches in real time  

• Creating a safe, energising environment to try new ideas and learn from what works (and what doesn’t) 

What’s next?

We will continue to support participating projects throughout the lifetime of OPIP, creating opportunities for teams to share learning, collaborate and turn insight into action. 

As projects develop and generate new evidence and experience, the Collaborative will help identify what works, support teams to adapt approaches to their local context and explore opportunities to spread effective models more widely. 

The longer-term ambition is to ensure that successful approaches are not only tested, but translated into meaningful and sustainable improvements for patients, communities and health systems.