Long-term, non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and respiratory illnesses affect as many as 17 million people in the UK and are the commonest causes of death and disability and the number of people with more than one long-term condition is rising.

Long-term conditions also significantly decrease people’s quality of life and ability to work and lead to a greater dependency on medications and healthcare services. The result is an ever-increasing cost burden to the NHS and other health and social care services, which is unsustainable and must be urgently addressed.

This has brought about the need for a radical rethink of health care and the role of the patient in care and healthcare policy has started to focus increasingly on strategies that bring about changes in health related behaviours. One of the main strategies is the focus on self-care and self-management, the quality of interactions between health professionals and patients and improving the way in which people use health services.

Over the past decade, much of the groundwork to mainstream and systematise support for Self-Managament (and Self-Care) has been done. The challenge now is to get on with it - to provide the services and infrastructure for people and healthcare professionals to easily access the tools and services.

Since our founding in 2010 we have continuously improved and refined our service to meet the urgent needs and demands of the NHS and other health services.