Transferring and implementing service models – why now?
The challenges facing health and social care are well known: populations are ageing, the workforce is in short supply, costs are rising, and equity in service provision is under strain. At the same time, systems are expected to deliver increasingly person-centred and integrated services. This calls for new solutions — but also for the ability to draw on service models already developed in other organisations and countries.
Transferring service models means taking service, organisational, or collaborative models from one setting to another and adapting them to a new context. It is not about direct copying, but about deliberate adaptation: identifying which elements are essential and what needs to be modified to fit local conditions.
The effectiveness of a service model is not a universal property that transfers unchanged from one place to another. Effectiveness is constructed in relation to organisations, resources, technologies, skills, legislation, culture, and user needs. A service model always operates as part of a network, and its outcomes take shape within this web of relationships.
The European response: the THCS Partnership and Knowledge Hub
At European level, this need is being addressed by the European Partnership on Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS, 2023–2029), operating under the Horizon Europe programme. The partnership brings together authorities, research and innovation funders, and health and social care stakeholders from across Europe. Its aim is to support sustainable, resilient, and person-centred reform of health and social care systems, grounded in research, evidence, and the systematic development of service models.
A key component of the THCS partnership is the Knowledge Hub — a digital platform where stakeholders can share service models, experiences, and tools, and receive support for transfer and implementation processes. The Hub is not merely a repository of information, but a learning and collaboration environment in which service models can be examined and applied across different contexts.
A central part of the platform is a new transfer and implementation support package developed under the leadership of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), comprising three main elements:
- A Handbook that guides users in planning, carrying out, and evaluating the transfer of service models, and in identifying core elements, contextual factors, and adaptation needs.
- A Service Models section, where organisations can describe the models they have developed as well as versions adapted for different settings. This makes it possible to examine how the same model transforms across different contexts and what outcomes are achieved.
- A Tools section, which brings together assessment instruments and practical methods for evaluating transferability, engaging stakeholders, planning implementation, and monitoring impacts.
The package emphasises that transfer is not linear copying, but a learning process in which the relationship between the model and its operating environment is central.
Why is transfer and implementation so difficult?
Even if a service model has succeeded in one setting, transferring it elsewhere is not automatic. Organisational cultures, management structures, resources, skills, legislation, infrastructure, and client expectations all vary.
From a relational perspective, these are not merely obstacles, but factors that shape the effectiveness of the model. When a model moves to a new environment, its effects are also reconstructed. Transfer therefore requires contextual analysis, dialogue, co-development, and continuous evaluation.
Benefits and Opportunities
The systematic transfer of service models offers many advantages:
- not everything needs to be developed from scratch
- the benefits of proven models can be extended to a wider population
- a documented transfer process enhances shared learning and understanding of how models evolve across different settings.
At the same time, this reinforces the idea that effectiveness is not a fixed property, but a context-dependent phenomenon. This makes transfer more realistic and sustainable.
What does this look like in practice?
A case in point is a situation where one organisation has developed a home care model that combines multiprofessional working and digital solutions to support older people in living at home. Even if the model works well in its original setting, the staffing, technology, or funding may differ in another region.
In such cases, the model cannot be copied as it stands; its core elements must be identified and adapted to the new operating environment. The THCS Knowledge Hub supports precisely this process by providing tools for describing models, analysing context, planning adaptation, and evaluating impacts. It also enables peer learning as part of a European development community.
Towards a relational understanding of effectiveness
A central challenge in developing health and social care is moving from individual successful pilots to wider implementation. The THCS Knowledge Hub provides a shared European infrastructure for this purpose.
The key shift is in thinking: transferring service models is not based on an assumption of universal effectiveness, but on the understanding that functionality is constructed through relationships. The goal is not to replicate a single model everywhere, but to enable models to adapt to diverse health and social care environments.