Across our work at IFIC, we hear from people trying to make integrated care happen while managing the daily pressures of delivering services. They want opportunities to learn directly from others, discuss the challenges they face and develop skills they can use with their teams. Finding the time and resources to do that can be difficult.
Our new Virtual Learning Labs are designed to make this kind of learning more accessible. They bring small groups together online for focused, facilitated sessions, without the travel costs or time away associated with attending in person. They add a practical option to our Integrated Care Academy offer, alongside our webinars, courses and study visits.
A Learning Lab gives participants time to explore an approach, reflect on their own experience and consider how to use what they have learned. For our first session, we are partnering with Southcentral Foundation, the Alaska Native organisation behind the Nuka System of Care. Participants will work directly with Nuka faculty and join Learning Circles of approximately five people, each supported by an experienced facilitator.
I first learned about Nuka while working at The King’s Fund in 2013. We later invited colleagues from Southcentral Foundation to join us in Sydney for our World Congress on Integrated Care. Their approach to customer-ownership made a lasting impression on me.
At Nuka, the people receiving care are known as “customer-owners”. This reflects a system created, owned and managed by Alaska Native people, with individuals and communities shaping its direction. It gives real meaning to the idea that people should have agency in their own health and in the services that support them.
What particularly interests me, and why I wanted us to begin this new learning offer with Nuka, is how deliberately they develop relationships across the whole organisation. Every employee undertakes Core Concepts training. There is a shared expectation that people will develop the skills to listen, understand different perspectives and build relationships with colleagues, individuals, families and communities.
Core Concepts asks people to consider how their own experiences influence the way they communicate and respond to others. It develops skills in listening to people’s stories, recognising different relational styles and having productive conversations. These are relevant to how colleagues support one another as well as how they work with the people receiving care. That connection between the experience of staff and the experience of families and communities is central to why this approach has so much to offer our integrated care community.
For a team leader or programme manager, this raises practical questions. How do we help people from different professions understand one another’s perspectives? How do we work through tensions between organisations? How do we make space for families and communities to influence decisions? And how do we support colleagues who are themselves working under considerable pressure?
This Learning Lab is for people grappling with those questions. It will be particularly relevant to those leading teams, managing programmes or developing partnerships who want to strengthen the skills that make collaborative working possible. Colleagues in workforce development, service improvement and community engagement will also find much to reflect on.
For teams, the potential value lies in developing a shared way of approaching conversations: listening more carefully, recognising assumptions, addressing difficult issues and understanding what matters to one another. These skills can help people work across professional and organisational boundaries and build more trusting relationships with families and communities.
The three-hour session introduces selected elements of Core Concepts, with space to consider their relevance to your own setting. Our aim is for participants to leave with one or two realistic actions they can take into their work.
Authentic Relationships as the Foundation for Integrated Care: Learning from Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka System of Care takes place online on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, from 5:30 to 8:30 GMT, and is CPD accredited. The fee is €195 excluding VAT, where applicable, with a maximum of 50 participants. Registration closes on Tuesday, 27 October.
A limited number of bursary places are available, including for people with lived experience. If cost would prevent you from joining, please contact academy@integratedcarefoundation.org before registering to ask about eligibility and availability. Their perspectives are an essential part of this learning.
Find out more and register for the Learning Lab. I look forward to learning together.
Fiona Lyne
International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)