Could the Transition movement help solve the NHS’s problems?

The NHS Five Year Forward View identifies a range of approaches for addressing the NHS's challenges. The Transition movement helps communities to reframe and rebuild their world by working on issues such as climate change, food, community relationships and localizing the economy. This paper describes Transition using five short example projects and, informed by these, identifies mechanisms by which Transition could potentially help reduce pressure on the NHS. Transition is characterized by people self-organizing to address local challenges with benefits arising from both the outcomes and the process of the projects. Transition may be able to help the NHS reframe change, prevent disease, improve staff well-being and increase local economic resilience. The evidence base for the relationship between Transition and health is growing but is not yet well developed. This reflects the complexity of establishing an evidence base for wider determinants of health. There is substantial potential learning for those in the NHS about change outside formal institutional structures. Transition provides new ways of thinking and acting to develop greater 'community intelligence', which could help the NHS in the face of increasing pressures.