NIHR Project 08/1618/136National strategies, local initiatives, cross-agency agreements, various targets and financial incentives have all been deployed in an effort to reverse the growth in emergency bed days (EBDs). Within this rapidly changing context there was another effort underway: the Improving the Future for Older People (IFOP) programme of the Innovation Forum. A group of nine English councils created their own network in 2003, with the primary aim of reducing use of emergency bed days. Specifically, they agreed to work in partnership with health and third sector organisations to achieve the ???headline target??? of a 20% reduction in EBDs for people aged 75 and over, over a three-year period from 2004 to 200