OPIP is open. What assessors need to see - and the minimal analytics spine to prove it.

By Sarah Adams, Director of Health Analytics, Graphnet Health

If your system is preparing an Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP) Strand 3 submission, you’ve got a clear window and a clear brief: apply by 11:00 on 19 November 2025 for a share of £85m (max £8m per ICB) to stand up innovative, community and primary-care weight-management pathways. Projects must be ready to deliver by August 2026. 

What OPIP expects - plain English

Across the published materials, assessors are looking for pathways that are:

• Clinically appropriate and resource-efficient
• Capable of recruiting significant patient numbers
• Aligned with NICE and national standards
• Sustainable beyond the grant period

…and that evidence governance, data reporting and a transition plan, with delivery readiness by August 2026. 

Individual ICBs may flag local priorities - for example, Surrey Heartlands and Sussex are exploring: 

• 13–30s
• Family-based models
• SMI-specific pathways. 

These are purely examples, not national rules, so you should prioritise your own cohorts. To help thinking, other sensible examples we often see raised locally include:

• Pharmacy-enabled access and follow-up in community settings
• Maternity / pre-conception / post-natal healthy-weight support
• Learning disability and/or autism tailored offers
• Ethnic-minority groups with culturally adapted content
• Rural populations / transport-limited access models
• Digital inclusion variants (offline/low-tech pathways)
• Workplace-based recruitment for large local employers
• Peri-operative optimisation pathways (where appropriate)

(Use only those that genuinely map to your JSNA, inequalities picture and provider capacity.)

The “minimal analytics spine”

OPIP doesn’t mandate tools or dashboards. But the fastest way to evidence the brief is to put a small, focused analytics spine in place:

1. Evidence the need (Find). Size eligible cohorts system-wide and by place/practice, using transparent inclusion/exclusion logic for lifestyle and pharmacotherapy options. This underpins your capacity, throughput and workforce assumptions. 
2. Target for equity (Prioritise). Identify and track local priority groups (e.g., young adults, family-based cases, people living with SMI), then monitor uptake and outcomes across those cohorts.
3. Keep people flowing (Enrol & route). Make your operational pathway visible - referrals, triage, onward routing to community/behavioural/digital/medication support - and monitor status to reduce drop-off. 
4. Prove impact (Measure). Report uptake, adherence and clinical/service outcomes on a regular cadence that meets OPIP’s governance and transition requirements - and supports BAU commissioning. 
5. Adapt quickly (Learn). Provide commissioners with place/practice views and “what’s working” signals so you can refine the model as recruitment scales. 

Where Graphnet helps 

Our Population Health - Weight Management capability brings together GP and linked data to identify eligible cohorts, target non-clinical support, and track outcomes end-to-end. It supports both traditional referral programmes and pharmacotherapy pathways, giving teams operational and commissioner views from day one. 

For systems planning medicine-enabled pathways, your bid should also show how you’ll identify and monitor those eligible under NICE tirzepatide (Mounjaro) guidance - alongside diet and activity—using clear criteria and routine review. 

A pragmatic bid-day checklist

• Burden & capacity: population-level cohort sizing; realistic monthly throughput by place/practice. 
• Pathway logic: who goes to lifestyle, community or pharmacotherapy (and why), aligned to NICE. 
• Equity plan: which cohorts you will prioritise locally and how you will track inequality gaps over time. 
• Operational visibility: referral→ enrolment→ review status so you can recruit and retain at pace. 
• Evaluation & transition: KPIs, reporting cadence, governance and the August 2026 readiness plan. 

OPIP is a chance to move beyond pilots to scalable, sustainable pathways. In our experience, systems that lead with a minimal analytics spine write stronger bids - and, more importantly, give teams the tools to deliver faster and more fairly once funding lands. 

If you’re shaping a Strand 3 proposal, we’re happy to share examples of “what good looks like” and how to stand it up quickly.

You can submit your OPIP bid here: apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2186/overview/e51c18bc-21b3-450d-bdbc-2f43dad3b268 

Contact us if you need any support or have questions.