The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures have permeated close to all aspects of daily life, with immediate and profound effects on population health and its wider determinants. Across the globe there has been an explosion of innovation in response to the crisis, enabled by a sense of common purpose, the unfreezing of rigid organisational structures, processes and regulations, and huge increases in public expenditure.

This report outlines some of the crisis-led innovations that have helped countries to cope during the first wave of COVID-19 infections and that may shape the ‘new normal’ in the years to come.

It collates a number of innovations into six domains (stuff, staff, space, systems, surveillance and society), an adapted version of Farmer’s 4 S’s, which distils the elements that ‘make all the difference in saving lives during an outbreak’.

This paper was written by external authors between June and September 2020. As such, it does not necessarily represent the views of the NHS Confederation or its members.