In an innovative project, Audit Scotland has worked with the NHS board and three councils that make up the Tayside Partnership to share an understanding of how its local care system works; identify key factors that lead to delays in Tayside; and develop a computerised model to help Tayside test out strategies to reduce delayed discharges. While the Tayside model cannot simply be transferred and used by other partnerships, they may benefit from adopting a whole systems approach to improve their understanding of a complex system.