Transforming Community Services was a programme in the English NHS which operated from 2008 at a national level and continued during the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
[3] According to Nigel Edwards "Officials gave the strong impression that they would be happy to see the entire community service workforce moved off the NHS payroll, and policy changes were put in place to assist this".
[4] In other areas NHS staff were encouraged to set up a community interest company in the hope that if owned by the nurses and therapists who run the services the organisations would be more imaginative and flexible.
Francis Maude praised Inclusion Healthcare, a very small CIC in Leicester, at a speech in December 2014 saying the company could provide care more cheaply and simply than the NHS.
In Gloucestershire proposals to set up a social enterprise were abandoned after a Judicial Review brought by a patient backed by a campaign involving both the public and the staff.