Asthma + Lung UK

The challenge

Asthma + Lung UK (A+LUK) is a charity striving for good lung health for all through research, campaigning, advice, and support. A+LUK were created via a merger of two national charities. Following a change in senior leadership, A+LUK asked NPC to help them review their strategy and identify priority areas of focus for maximum impact in pursuit of their vision.

NPC’s approach

NPC supported A+LUK with the design, facilitation, and delivery of an organisational theory of change development process. This process balanced the need to be robust and participatory, with the need for a timely and proportionate approach so that the outcome could inform A+LUK’s next business plan. This process included:

Insight gathering

NPC undertook an internal document review to understand A+LUK’s current thinking on their intended impact, how it expects to contribute to that change, and to identify any gaps. NPC also refreshed the situational analysis used to inform the 2022 strategy, to understand any significant changes to the context in which A+LUK are working. This enabled the development of a draft organisational theory of change for A+LUK stakeholders to iterate and build on throughout the process.

Structured thinking

NPC facilitated two workshops with a range of internal and external stakeholders including senior leaders, expert clinical advisers, and patient representatives. At the first session NPC asked participants to consider whether all of A+LUK’s activities and outcomes were appropriately defined and articulated.

NPC also supported participants to identify critical ‘change mechanisms’ – how activities can give the best chance of achieving desired outcomes, and the practical factors that might contribute to that.

Outputs from the first session were used to create an updated theory of change. That new theory of change was then the basis of the second session, where participants were supported to challenge its logic, identify gaps or weaknesses, and prioritise the activities through which A+LUK are best placed to drive change. Working through these questions helped participants find consensus on the priorities for change and the best ways of getting there.

Finalisation

Following the workshops, NPC produced a final theory of change including diagrams and narrative. NPC also provided ‘critical friend’ support to A+LUK’s CEO for consultations with the Board, and for considering tools for ongoing review and decision-making. The project ended with a final executive leadership team session to discuss the remaining ‘knotty questions’ and agree priority areas for impact going forwards.

The result

Through this process, A+L UK identified the following areas of focus to achieve maximum impact:

• Amplifying the voices of lived experience and convening researchers, people with lived experience, decision takers and policymakers to drive a shared agenda for lung health.
• Raising awareness of lung health with people with lung conditions, to empower people to manage their own conditions and mobilise a movement for change.
• Tackling inequalities in lung health.

The theory of change is now being embedded across the organisation, and informing operational plans and budgets going forwards.

A+LUK reflected on how valuable the process was as a means of reviewing, specifying, and prioritising their strategic focus. This will help them to maximise the contribution they can make to greater lung health for all.

The NPC team provided a robust framework and critical challenge to enable the charity to test and refine its strategy in a fast-moving environment. We had already devised a north star for the charity when building our first strategy, but we had not developed the clarity we needed to address how we were going to make the most progress in the foreseeable future towards our north star. The work we undertook with NPC allowed us to align our staff around what we needed to do but, perhaps more importantly, to enthuse staff and stakeholders with a proactive and engaging way forward.

Sarah Sleet, CEO