Category: News and case studies

Our Nursing and Urgent Care Team’s intervention significantly transformed a care facility, enhancing staff morale, competence, and confidence, ultimately transitioning it from requiring improvement to being well-prepared for its next CQC inspection, exemplifying a model approach to continuous quality improvement in healthcare settings.

Background

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has evolved its approach to assessing and evaluating care providers, necessitating a proactive stance from healthcare organisations to ensure compliance and readiness for inspections.  Recognising this shift, NHS Midlands and Lancashire’s Nursing and Urgent Care Team (NUCT), equipped with extensive experience in clinical practice and service management across various healthcare settings, emerged as a pivotal resource in supporting organisations to meet CQC standards effectively.

Action

The NUCT collaborated with the Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) to address the readiness of a nursing and residential home that had recently received a “requiring improvement” rating from the CQC. Leveraging their expertise, the team engaged the registered home managers in a comprehensive preparation process.

A peer review of the facility was conducted, enabling the team to identify areas requiring improvement based on the CQC key lines of enquiry. Constructive feedback was provided to the management team, fostering an environment of open communication and collaboration. Tailored face-to-face training sessions were also conducted for staff at all levels within the home. We consolidated the training by carrying out a mock CQC inspection at the home.

Impact

The impact of the Nursing and Urgent Care Teams intervention was transformative. Feedback from the 46 staff members who participated in the training sessions was overwhelmingly positive, with 100% rating the training as good or excellent. Comments such as “The training provided was fantastic and helped me feel more confident” And “The trainers were friendly and knowledgeable” underscored the effectiveness of the program in enhancing staff morale and competence.

Equipped with newfound confidence and skills, both the management team and frontline staff felt empowered and enthusiastic about their next CQC inspection. The collaborative efforts of the team, not only instilled confidence but also instigated a culture of continuous quality improvement within the home.

The provision of an evaluation report after the program further facilitated the ongoing enhancement of care standards, ensuring sustained compliance and excellence in patient care delivery.

Through proactive engagement and targeted interventions, our Nursing and Urgent Care Team facilitated the transformation of a care facility from one requiring improvement to one poised to excel in its next CQC inspection. Their expertise, coupled with effective collaboration and personalised support, exemplifies a model approach to CQC readiness and continuous quality improvement in healthcare settings.

Feedback

Rachael and Sam were an absolute joy to have and welcome into the home, they provided my team with invaluable confidence, time, knowledge, and key skills to enable them to anticipate and shine in our upcoming CQC inspection.

They have supported my team in acknowledging that the work they do daily is phenomenal and makes a huge difference to the people who live in our home. Their approach was professional, warm, and inviting. They were incredibly knowledgeable and adaptable to the home and meeting the homes/staffs needs. They provided me as the registered home manager constructive feedback to improve the home even more. I can’t thank them enough for the vital support they gave to myself and my team here at Portway House. I would implore any other providers to take full advantage of this programme. Faye Gailey | Registered Manager | Portway House

Our Communications and Engagement team helped Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust achieve a digital overhaul, enhancing website usability, functionality, and accessibility, enabling the trust to better serve and engage with its community.

Background

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust commissioned our Communications and Engagement team to rebuild the trust’s website: https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/.

The primary ask was for the new site to provide an enhanced content management system (CMS) and be a significant upgrade for the communications team, who were using an old version of website software – Joomla. This impacted on efficiency, quality, and accessibility. We advised the trust to build a new website that would provide enhanced usability for site visitors and improved back-end functionality for the communications team.
During the period between June and November 2023, the project focused on upgrading the content management system (CMS) to WordPress, providing the enhanced functionality and security required.

Action

Faced with migrating over 2,000 web pages and two microsites within a strict deadline, the project was managed by senior project manager Joshua Slater, who coordinated the work, monitored progress, and liaised with stakeholder teams.
The team employed a six-stage approach that included developing interactive website concepts, engaging stakeholders for feedback, and reviewing over 5,000 individual items for migration.
Content was migrated using a ‘lift and shift’ approach, refined by user feedback. The website was rigorously tested for mobile optimisation and compliance with the latest accessibility guidelines. The trust’s communications team was provided with training on the new CMS and accessibility post-launch, ensuring efficient ongoing management.

Impact

The new website now provides a user-friendly experience with improved navigation, rich media content, and is responsive to hundreds of users’ needs. The migration to WordPress has empowered the trust’s communications team to manage content updates with greater ease.
This transformation has addressed prior issues with content, links, searchability, and accessibility. The website is designed to be scalable for future development and has integrated robust document upload functionality, enhancing the trust’s digital presence as the central hub for information.
The project has delivered cost savings through reduced annual hosting fees and consolidated website management. The new CMS, tailored to the communications team’s needs, along with the integration of search engine optimisation tools like Yoast SEO, elevates the site’s visibility and user engagement. The website’s design also facilitates connection with the trust’s social media channels and includes features to improve accessibility and inclusivity, complying with WCAG 2.2 standards.

Feedback

“The team at the CSU have been a source of expert advice and guidance right from project conception through to delivery of our new trust website. A clear project plan from the outset, along with weekly touchpoint meetings and regular communication, made what was a daunting redesign and challenging content migration project feel much more manageable. The team listened to feedback throughout and were quick to act on this, completing what was a huge piece of work on time and to brief. We are delighted with our new website”. Rebecca Bourne | Deputy Director of Communications | Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Our programme management capabilities significantly enhanced the operations of Dudley Integrated Health and Care Trust, ensuring timely project completion and embedding a value-optimising framework for sustained future success in digital and business intelligence initiatives.

Background

Dudley Integrated Health & Care trust initiated a revamped digital plan focusing on six core objectives, translating into approximately 30 projects known as the modified digital and business intelligence programme. NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU (MLCSU) was enlisted for programme management expertise to guarantee the evolution of capabilities and the realisation of projected benefits by the 2022/23 fiscal year end.

Action

The MLCSU digital programme lead improved in-house management by categorising projects into pipeline, pre-initiation, and in-delivery stages. To align with the trust’s goals, a structured gateway system was established. Several tools, like a resource planner and an electronic project request form, were introduced to support the program. Standardised documentation ensured consistent reviews. For oversight, monthly programme assurance meetings informed the trusts digital board of significant milestones and metrics.

Impact

As of March 2023, the high-priority ongoing projects reached completion, enhancing areas like business intelligence and systems. Additionally, the programme management methodology became an integrated part of the trust’s standard operations. This has equipped the trust with a refined project analysis framework, optimising value for money with each decision.

Feedback

“Jon has led the programme expertly, his years of knowledge and experience is clear for all to see. Having reshaped the previous programme structure to provide greater visibility and increased rigour, Jon worked closely with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Dep. CIO to convene the Programme Assurance Group (PAG) which took on the oversight of the entire digital and business intelligence programme previously overseen by digital board. This enabled digital board to focus on projects by exception while taking assurance all projects were subject to a more detailed level of scrutiny. As such, the digital board was able to move to a bi-monthly frequency on the basis PAG was meeting monthly and doing the heavy lifting from a projects and programme perspective. Through the work delivered by Jon and the team, a blueprint has been created that may be applied to any organisation and any programme or portfolio.”

Duncan Robinson Acting Deputy Chief Information Officer, Dudley Integrated Health & Care Trust

We are excited to share that NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU (MLCSU) will be both exhibiting and speaking at the Elective Care Conference South 2023. The conference, set for 5 October 2023 at 15 Hatfields, London, promises a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of elective care.

The conference will focus on the following key discussion points:

– Enhancing capacity and efficiency: as the demand for healthcare continues to rise, so does the need for optimised capacity and efficiency.

– Patient-centred care and experience: placing patients at the heart of all initiatives, ensuring their care experience is optimal.

– Workforce resilience and collaboration: a close examination of the synergy between different roles in the healthcare sector and the need for resilience.

– Sustainable elective care systems: exploring methods and strategies to ensure that elective care is both efficient and sustainable.

Special session

We will be represented by:

Gemma Cowley – Head of Referral Management

Stephen Newton – Head of Contract Management

Priyantha Jayawardane – Deputy Director of Digital Innovation Unit

Our Head of Referral Management – Gemma Cowley will be hosting a session titled, Enabling Patient Choice – Facilitating System Mutual Aid at 9.05 am. This presentation promises to shed light on how the MLCSU, as an NHS organisation, utilises digital tools and methods in patient navigation, choice, referral management, and more.

The conference is designed for professionals with an interest in elective care processes and is an invaluable opportunity for NHS colleagues to share best practices, demonstrate their current offerings, and provide support. Our session will delve deep into strategies used in mitigating elective backlogs, as well as the digital tools implemented to garner intelligence on waiting lists.

Conference details

Date & Location: 5th October 2023 at 15 Hatfields, Chadwick Court, London SE1 8DJ

Venue: Sustain Ground floor

Event Timing: 9am – 16:00pm

Special Session by MLCSU: 9.05am

To sign up and for more details, visit the event page. Limited complimentary places are also available and you can check your eligibility. We look forward to seeing you there.

Our expertise in information governance has played a crucial role in improving surgical outcomes through the Surgery Hero project, reducing complications, minimising cancellations, and shortening post-surgery stays.

Background

In response to the increasing need for elective surgery optimisation, the Medical Director, senior information risk owner (SIRO), brought NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU (MLCSU) on board for a crucial project: Surgery Hero.
This innovative model merged personalised digital guidance with one-to-one remote health coaching, intending to enhance patient preparation preoperatively and bolster their recovery postoperatively.

Action

Given the urgency of the project, we were tasked with completing a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), Data Sharing Agreement (DSA), and Data Processing Agreement (DPA) that could be utilised across any Integrated Care System (ICS). 
We collaborated with the team to formulate a flexible DPIA, DSA, and DPA, allowing them to be tailored to any ICS requirements. 

Impact

The project has significantly improved surgical outcomes by reducing complications, shortening post-surgery stays, and minimising cancellations. Without this project, patients awaiting surgery would experience deteriorating mental and physical health, resulting in poor surgical outcomes, including longer hospital stays, increased readmissions, and complications.
Surgery Hero, listed in the NHSx perioperative playbook as a best-in-class prehab/rehab solution, has been successfully implemented in multiple NHS projects, consistently demonstrating improved surgical outcomes. The collaboration between MLCSU and Surgery Hero, utilising advanced risk stratification analysis and targeted support, has yielded impressive results, including a notable reduction in post-op chest infections, a decrease in overall complications, a shift towards positive health behaviours, and a remarkable two-day reduction in hospital stays.

Feedback

Working with the CSU on this project has been a rewarding experience. Their proficiency in utilising resources from other NHS regions and projects to expedite the project’s timeline while limiting the need for additional artefacts was particularly commendable. This approach not only guaranteed the project’s success but also highlighted their exceptional expertise and skill set. Their significant contributions have positively impacted the project outcome, and we sincerely thank them for their extraordinary work and commitment to excellence.

Luke Eastwood | Surgery Hero

Our CSU colleagues have brought significant value to this project. Under Chloe Whittle’s guidance, the team has adeptly tackled information governance challenges, unlocking the potential of our collaborative project, and enabling other partners to progress confidently with high standards of IG governance. Their proactive attitude perfectly encapsulates a team that goes above and beyond to ensure information governance and good clinical care align safely, with insight and innovation.

Professor Rowan Pritchard Jones FRCS(Plast)

Our support in developing the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS green plan resulted in a robust and deliverable plan that aligned with the ICS’s objectives, demonstrating their commitment to sustainability and net-zero carbon emissions.

Background

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (S&S-o-T ICS) approached MLCSU to develop their green plan, which aimed to create a comprehensive plan reflecting the ICS’s commitment to sustainability and net-zero carbon emissions. The goal was to ensure that the 9 areas of focus identified in the Greener NHS Programme were understood and aligned with the ICS’s objectives.

Action

To develop the S&S-o-T ICS green plan, MLCSU engaged with relevant colleagues across the system and identified relevant leads to ensure alignment and progress. The approach also involved identifying work already taking place but not aligned with sustainability/net-zero work and aligning it to the green plan. This approach aimed to prevent duplication of work and provide a straightforward way to report on progress taking place across the system. The ICS green plan included local authority requirements and progress, ensuring a true ICS-focused plan and set of priorities were agreed upon.

Following approval of the green plan, the ICS requested MLCSU to work with them to produce a high-level action plan aligned with the priorities identified in the ICS green plan. This action plan aimed to provide a clear timeframe for delivery with clear milestones.
As the project progressed, the ICS also requested a wider governance piece to be included, based on learning from other areas, to identify the best way to use the capacity, skills, and knowledge within the system to deliver the plan. MLCSU aimed to provide a bespoke approach to the green plan, reflecting the ICS’s values, beliefs, and work programs.

By providing a bespoke approach to the green plan, MLCSU ensured that the plan was approved, adopted, and owned by colleagues, placing the system in the best possible position to effectively deliver the plan. This process ensured that a robust, clear, and deliverable plan was produced for the system to achieve its priorities.

Impact

MLCSU’s approach ensured that the green plan was aligned with the ICS’s objectives, had buy-in from relevant stakeholders, and was effectively delivered. This process helped to ensure a robust, clear, and deliverable plan was produced for the system to achieve its priorities, while also preventing duplication of work and enabling progress reporting across the system.
Through this work with the S&S-o-T ICS, MLCSU helped the ICS meet their deadline to produce the green plan and produced a clear and deliverable plan to achieve their priorities. The successful delivery of this work on time and on budget brought the commitments made by the ICS to life, supporting them to make a real difference to their patients and local communities.

Feedback

“We have enjoyed working with MLCSU as we have developed our approach to achieving net zero. The team engaged with us and listened to our requirements meaning the end result will be able to be taken forwards across the ICS. I would definitely recommend working with the team at MLCSU and hope to work with them again on similar projects.”

Liz Mellor | Director of Strategy and Partnerships | North Staffs Combined Healthcare Trust

We successfully streamlined the transition to an integrated single financial environment for 11 CCGs to ICB ledger builds, delivering all implementations on time with minimal issues while mitigating project risks and meeting all milestones. Positive client feedback highlighted our invaluable support and stress-reducing approach.

Background

The Health and Social Care Act in 2012 established Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to manage healthcare services. However, with the enactment of the Health and Care Act 2022 on 1st July 2022, Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) became legally established, and the CCGs were closed. This transition necessitated the creation of new ISFE (integrated single financial environment) ledgers for the ICBs (integrated care boards).

Action

MLCSU provided project management and subject matter expertise for each workstream to assist in transitioning 11 CCGs to ICB ledgers, as well as offering consultation for eight other CCG transitions. Our team collaborated closely with the SBS Team and ICB clients to ensure a smooth transition.

Our tasks included cleansing all data prior to SBS loading, populating “set up” data templates for P2P, O2C, and A2R, project management, and migration activities. We also ensured that all ICB-specific requirements were integrated into the build, such as procurement rules and establishment hierarchy. We provided ICB-specific communications and training documents and provided weekly updates to the ICB’s senior management team and SBS team. We co-chaired and updated the monthly Project Board, provided monthly risk management updates, led cutover activities, ensured invoices were returned to the same position as when they left the old ledgers, provided PIMS support and assisted where necessary with ESR, banking forms, username, and password distribution.

Impact

With MLCSU’s significant experience in ledger builds with SBS, we have successfully completed various mergers including CSU and CCG mergers, and more recently, the 11 CCG’s to ICB’s transition (including supporting an 8 CCG to 1 ICB merger). Our excellent project management and subject matter expertise has led to all ledger reconfigurations and implementation programmes being delivered on time with minimal issues.
By leveraging our experience, effective management of pre-ledger migration activities and excellent communication with all parties, we were able to effectively mitigate project risks and meet all project milestones.

Customer feedback

“The team at MLCSU provided a great service and proved invaluable during the transition phase.  The CSU project lead liaised with all the parties involved and helped to make the whole process a lot less stressful. I would definitely recommend their service to anyone about to go through a similar process.”

Maria Tongue | Associate Director of Finance | NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB

Our e-learning product on net-zero carbon emissions raised awareness amongst staff of both organisational and national net-zero targets and helped to raise awareness of MLCSU’s green plan, resulting in individuals making personal pledges to reduce their carbon emissions.

Background

MLCSU was tasked with creating an e-learning product to educate on the net-zero carbon emissions target, which would be available on the Electronic Staff Record(ESR) system. The training aimed to raise awareness of both organisational and national carbon net-zero targets.

Action

To achieve the objective of raising awareness of both organisational and national carbon net-zero targets, we created an e-learning product on net-zero carbon emissions target which covered several topics, including:

– Carbon Literacy – Introduction to the course and learning objectives
– Climate Change – Causes and effects of climate change including a video
– A Greener NHS – Why we need a ‘Greener NHS’ and national/local ambitions & initiatives
– Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ NHS – Carbon Footprint (Plus), CO2 Emissions, NHS Green Plans
– Interactive Assessment – Multiple choice learning evaluation covering course content
– Further Reading – Links to case studies and follow-up resources
– ESR material can be tailored to include an organisation’s Green plan to increase awareness and inform of the green initiatives.

Impact

Our e-learning product had a significant impact, achieving its primary objective of raising awareness amongst MLCSU staff of organisational and national net-zero targets. The training also helped to raise awareness of MLCSU’s green plan, and individuals were required to make personal pledges to reduce their carbon emissions.

Feedback

One staff member who undertook the training reported that they were already environmentally aware, but completing the training gave them a better understanding of the negative effects of climate change and the need for urgent widespread action. They found the training interesting, informative and with lots of credible sources. They shared some of the information within their household, provoking conversations about what they could do to reduce their carbon footprint, and it did not go unmissed that being eco-friendly could also save them money. They found the training an enjoyable and interactive experience and made a personal pledge to make a difference in their little bit of the planet.

PJ Thorniley, IFR Service Manager for Cheshire & Merseyside, MLCSU

We provided specialist support to an acute trust to accelerate improvement by developing a risk management program to reduce risks, assuring quality by making recommendations, and developing a risk dashboard for executive oversight.

Background​

MLCSU were approached by a North-West Integrated Care Board (ICB) to provide specialist support to an acute trust. The trust had received a ‘Requires Improvement’ notice following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) visit earlier in the year. An improvement plan had been formulated, and the trust required the capacity and capability to accelerate progress in several key areas of improvement. ​

Requirement: To review the risk management process to support the Board Assurance Framework (BAF) ward to board corporate risk register and to provide support with implementing governance systems and processes to aid improvement.​

Action​

An MLCSU workstream lead with specialist expertise undertook a preliminary diagnostic exercise capturing key concerns and identifying improvement recommendations.​​​

An initial 6-week immediate action delivery plan was devised to:​​

– Develop and deliver risk management training to the trust’s corporate risk and governance team, triumvirates and corporate divisions. ​​

– To review divisional risk registers.​

– To work with key trust members to data cleanse the Datix Risk module.​

– Ensure all documentation and guidance is up-to-date and would support a workable process for staff.​

Impact​

Developed a comprehensive Risk Training programme to support the improvement of Trust reporting and management of risk​​

Reduced the number of open risks on the corporate risk register through data cleansing, risk review and identifying actions to mitigate or close risks.​​

Reduced departmental level of risk through review of risk registers and provision of support to identify mitigation actions. ​​

Assurance of quality of the Board Assurance Framework through review against best practice.​​

Made recommendations on improving risk management processes and supporting risk management in Datix. ​​

​Developed a risk dashboard for divisions enabling the flow of information to the executive level to provide clear executive direction and oversight.

We made a significant impact on an acute trust’s clinical audit processes by providing a thorough diagnostic report and recommendations aligned with best practices, resulting in improved quality of care, patient safety, and outcomes.

Background

MLCSU was approached by an acute trust in the North-West of England to assist with a review of the organisation’s clinical audit process. This was part of a broader improvement support programme to ensure the trust had effective arrangements in place for monitoring and continually improving the quality of healthcare provided to patients. To achieve this, the trust needed to have robust systems, processes, and procedures in place for monitoring, auditing, and improving quality.

The objective of MLCSU’s engagement was to assess how the trust was managing clinical audits and to identify how the continuous cycle of clinical audits could be used more effectively as part of the trust’s wider quality improvement process. The aim was to provide assurance against best practices. The assessment focused on ensuring that the trust had robust systems, processes, and procedures in place for monitoring, auditing, and enhancing quality.

Action

We deployed our senior professional expertise to review the trust’s clinical audit processes against best practices by carrying out the following actions:

– Reviewing existing evidence, such as the trust’s clinical audit strategy, clinical audit policy, audit plans, reports and minutes of audit and governance meetings.
– Meeting with key staff, including the clinical audit team, divisional audit leads and members of the executive team, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the process works in practice.
– Attending team and audit meetings to observe the clinical audit process in action.
– Sampling and reviewing completed and ‘in progress’ audits on Datix, the trust’s clinical audit platform.
– Triangulating the information obtained through the above actions to produce a diagnostic report and recommendations for the organisation.

Through these actions, we were able to provide the trust with a thorough review of their clinical audit processes and offer recommendations for improvement.

Impact

The project had a significant impact on the trust’s clinical audit processes, leading to improvements in the quality of care, patient safety, and outcomes for patients. By aligning the project with the recognised best practice in the clinical audit framework from the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), we were able to systematically identify areas of good practice and recommend changes to maximise the impact of clinical audit in the following four areas:

Management of the clinical audit programme: We evaluated the process for defining, agreeing, and monitoring the trust’s audit programme, and recommended mechanisms for improving reporting and escalation. We also considered the available support for clinical audit, including training, capacity, and capability at all levels.

Performance measurement: We reviewed the processes in place for providing assurance that care is delivered against standards and measuring performance. We also assessed how performance was reported within the trust.

Acting on findings: We evaluated how the trust acted on the findings of clinical audits to ensure that improvements and changes were made. We recommended the development of robust action plans and presentations to evidence these improvements.

Sustainability: We assessed how the trust sustained improvements and identified areas where re-audits should be undertaken to ensure the continuous improvement of clinical audit processes.

Our expert team created a variety of targeted and tested engaging content for the NHS Leadership Academy website and social media channels which increased traffic and followers, and shined a light on a new area dedicated to apprenticeships.

Background

The NHS Leadership Academy commissioned the NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU to create attractive and informative social media content to promote their extensive curriculum of learning and development resources. The team was also tasked with maintaining the existing website, revising copy and imagery, and creating new templates when required. The initial ask for three months’ support was extended to seven.

Action

Working closely with the client to identify their priorities, we worked with internal stakeholders to create engaging videos, images and posts that would reach and promote programmes and events to their target audience. A content plan allowed planned social media posts to be clearly plotted out before being scheduled in for publication. By closely monitoring and reporting on the activity, we identified what content was working and adapted it to increase engagement, as well as responding quickly and accurately to public questions.

We supported the hosting and promotion of events such as tea and chat sessions and monthly campaign Twitter chats. Support included drafting promotions, subtitling, and editing videos, as well as creating tweet cards.

Our experienced team maintained the website, regularly updating the homepage with news stories and promotional events, revising existing pages with new copy and images, and creating new page templates when needed. They ensured the design aligned to the Leadership Academy’s branding.

After a thorough process of quality checks and testing, the client was able to review and request final amends prior to launch. All our website builds conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and are cross-browser tested to ensure optimal performance regardless of the browser or device it’s being viewed on.

Impact

Our expert team provided a high-quality and efficient service for seven months, meeting tight deadlines and invigorating social media channels by creating engaging content. Our support helped to build engagement and grow their social media followers. In this short period, Twitter followers rose from 85.5k to 90.5k and LinkedIn followers rose from 88.9k to 98k.

We created a new area on the NHS Leadership Academy’s existing website dedicated to apprenticeships. This space allows individual apprenticeships to be promoted, with potential applicants signposted directly to either the provider or to an email address for further information.

The Leadership Academy now has more control over the user journey as well as increased user engagement. The refreshed look and feel of the site has improved the user experience and journey.

“The CSU helped fill a short-term resource gap in the Leadership Academy marketing team. Our day-to-day CSU contact was responsive, communicative, and reliable as well as being very easy to work with. Additionally, I found a real strength of the service to be the backup that comes from the wider CSU team. So you don’t just get one person’s expertise when facing a particular challenge.”

Joanne Byrne, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager,
NHS Leadership Academy

Following taking over the management of the the community equipment service contract at Staffordshire County Council, staff across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are now able to order and receive equipment quickly, which supports timely hospital discharges.

Background

Following the retirement of the contract lead at Staffordshire County Council, the NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU took over the management of the community equipment service. However, there were no governance arrangements in place, and stakeholder relationships had dried up since meetings and communications had been paused during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were approximately 150 backlogged emails to process, and it was taking an average of 16 days to process new users.

Action

Although unfamiliar with the community equipment ordering site, we quickly got to grips with the system and cleared the backlog. The team took the opportunity to streamline administrative processes, review costs, highlight risks, and strengthen the quality assurance process.

By networking and building good working relations with stakeholders – including supplier Medequip and staff at Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board – the team re-established meetings and communications.

New terms of reference were agreed for joint contract quality review meetings and contract review meetings, which review complaints and feedback, discuss the impact of COVID-19 on services, and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs).

The Community Equipment Prescribers Action Group was formed to share good practice and help to resolve operational issues.

Impact

Since taking over the management of this contract, the backlog of adding users to the community equipment ordering site has been cleared. The team process an average of four new requests for users every day, and they are now processed within one working day.

Staff across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are now able to order and receive equipment quickly, which supports timely hospital discharges, which in turn has a positive impact on patients and staff.

Contract review groups all now meet monthly, and relationships between stakeholders are positive. The Action Group has taken ownership of a seven-point action plan to review processes and make recommendations for improvements.

Governance, risk and issues are now managed effectively.

Contract KPIs are being met and more are being developed. The contract itself is still awaiting novation over onto the NHS Contract.

“We value the support of CSU colleagues for their proactive organisation and administration of the recently reinstated CEPAG and CQRMs as part of the Community Medical Equipment contract. This includes the setting up of meetings, communicating with system partners, and circulating agendas and papers.

“CSU colleagues also chair the meetings which enable effective time-keeping and sharing of information, which supports discussions. CSU colleagues are always very helpful and responsive to requests, and we would like to thank them for all their hard work.”

Quality leads, Staffordshire
and Stoke-on-Trent
Integrated Care Board

We helped a programme targeting ex-smokers with lung health checks to complete information governance procedures and ensure personal data is protected.

Background

The Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) Programme team at Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) needed help with information governance (IG). The health checks are offered to current or ex-smokers aged 55-74, aiming to diagnose and treat lung conditions, often before symptoms appear.

This was part of a national pilot study, and the entire project needed a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). The main challenges were the number of stakeholders involved and the tight timescales dictated by the national team.

Action

We helped the ICS understand why and how to complete a DPIA. Where some decisions had not yet been made (for example system suppliers and clinical providers), our expert team shared their insights and recommendations to ensure the project team could move forward quickly once decisions were made.

The multi-agency project meant that multiple DPIAs were required, but we advised that the best approach would be to map and assess the project from end to end. This gave the ICS the confidence that all data protection risks would be identified and managed, and meant that a single robust DPIA could be completed for the entire project.

Impact

Although the project was fast-paced, we kept up with the key dates and ensured sufficient risk assessments were completed at every stage.

By providing expert advice on data sharing and processing across all partner organisations, we ensured that individuals’ rights were not infringed.

It was crucial that all stakeholders were able to understand the needs of the project. Our IG team took great care in explaining the key points in simple terms. This meant the IG teams at the local NHS trusts and the ICS had the confidence and assurance to support and progress the project.

The team clearly detailed the project needs in a single DPIA document. As later versions needed to include different data controllers and processes, we used the tools and learnings from previous risk assessments to ensure that the clinical benefit was always at the forefront of these submissions.

“By completing the DPIA for the entire project, the MLCSU IG team ensured that all data sharing and processing was mapped and all data protection risks were identified and mitigated.

“All required versions of the DPIA were completed in line with the project live dates, and we were confident that the patients’ needs were always at the forefront of the project.”

Anne Turner and Lisa Flanagan | Senior Programme Managers: Targeted Lung Health Checks

Our team delivered an innovative, interactive and accessible website to inform and educate patients and the public about the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Systems in just a few clicks.

Background

With Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) transitioning to an Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) from July 2022, Norfolk and Waveney ICS commissioned our team of digital experts to create a new website that would replace the existing CCG site.

The site needed to be simple, helpful, and accessible and be fully optimised for mobile, working across multiple devices. It was crucial that the content management system (CMS) was user-friendly so their Communications team could easily maintain and use it to update the site when required.

Action

Our expert developers began to build the new website by implementing the design, mapping content and focusing on user journey optimisation for the best possible user experience.

The website was built on WordPress. This CMS is easy to use, allowing non-technical staff to easily upload content and other rich media to the site.

We provided Norfolk and Waveney with planning tools to help structure the content. They were also able to insert content directly so that we could transfer it to the new site.

By clearly mapping how users intended to travel through the website, we were able to assure the client that the user journey was optimised, and that key information could be found within three clicks. Thorough testing was undertaken prior to launch.

Impact

Our team delivered an innovative, interactive and accessible website that met the requirements and objectives laid out in the brief. We also provided the ICS Communications team with the management tools and training they needed to maintain the new site going forward.

The new website houses all the relevant content to inform and educate patients and the public about the ICS in just a few clicks. This includes information about ‘Our Work, ‘Get Involved’ and ‘Health and Care Careers’.

The site also includes a range of content-enhancing widgets such as accordions and slideshows to add interactivity and improve user experience.

https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk

“Working with the MLCSU Digital team on the build of our new ICS website was a really good experience.

“The team helped bring our design to a reality, whilst sharing our vision. They listened to our goals for the site and clearly explained how they could help us achieve these. They also provided suggestions that would further improve elements such as user experience (UX) and accessibility.

“As the team was able to help us within a short timeframe, we were able to launch the site with helpful information for our people and communities at the same time as the launch of our new ICS.”

Adam Dennis
Digital Communications and Engagement Lead | Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board and Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System

We procured independent sector hospital capacity to divert patients at the point of referrals from NHS trusts to prevent a build-up of patient waiting lists backlogs.

Background

Our Contract Management Team directly supported NHS Planning Priorities for 2022-23 by reducing waiting list backlogs as part of NHS England’s Elective Care Recovery Programme. The ask from the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) was to transfer patients from NHS trusts into independent sector (IS) hospitals, thereby alleviating the waiting list pressures on NHS trusts. An Independent Sector Coordination role was created to effectively utilise IS hospital capacity in the most efficient and effective way.

Action

We procured IS hospital capacity through the Increasing Capacity Framework which is an easy route to contract elective care services. This allowed us to develop and implement new models of working with ICS colleagues, including NHS trusts and IS hospitals.

A standard operating procedure to divert patients at the point of referrals from NHS trusts to IS hospitals was co-designed, by adopting good practice from other areas in the country and tailoring it to local needs and requirements. The standard operating procedure has become operational across several NHS trusts in Lancashire and South Cumbria due to its effective and efficient implementation.

Impact

Working in partnership enabled us to develop and implement the standard operating procedure to prevent a build-up of patient waiting lists backlogs.

The flow of new referral pathways which diverts patients from NHS trusts to the IS hospitals has increased by 200 patients per month on average for some of the trusts. These patients would have otherwise been left waiting for much longer for treatment.

The percentage of patients being diverted from NHS trusts to IS hospitals as part of this intervention is 90% on average, in some cases this has resulted in 50 patients diverted per week. Previously, on average only 30 patients per month were moved from NHS trusts to IS hospitals.

The work also provided assurance to Lancashire and South Cumbria Elective Care Recovery Group to effectively utilise IS hospital capacity.

Our interactive visual dashboard helped the NHS Leadership Academy report more easily and more clearly engagement with their website and social media.

Background

The NHS Leadership Academy provides health and care leadership development through a large curriculum of programmes, resources, and activities to bring world-class learning and development to NHS people and partners.

The NHS Leadership Academy commissioned Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit to create two Google Data Studio Dashboards, to support their monthly Google Analytics (GA).

Action

After receiving the brief and holding a meeting to discuss requirements and deadlines, the Digital team began creating the two dashboards. We used a range of charts, data sources and dimensions to hone in on particular data.

We encountered a few barriers – mainly associated with the way data studio pulls data in from social channels. But these were overcome by recommending using other tools alongside the dashboard such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social. This allowed for more detailed social media engagement reporting to be undertaken.

The dashboards pull in data direct from Google Analytics.

Impact

Interactive, easy-to-use, and visual dashboards were produced for the Leadership Academy’s website and social media channels. The fully customised design and range of charts enable smooth navigation of the data. The client can choose from a wide range of charts when exporting the data.

The dashboards will now improve their reporting and ease up some capacity at the end of each month.

Following the success of our Data Studio dashboards with the Leadership Academy, we are beginning to roll website dashboards out to other clients – they are already proving to be very popular, alleviating pressure from the communications teams and providing stakeholders with easy-to-access and flexible reporting.

“The NHS MLCSU Digital Team provided the NHS Leadership Academy Marketing team with invaluable insight and technical support to enhance website reporting.

“The dashboards created in Google Analytics have enabled our team to quickly monitor many metrics at once, to easily check key data, and see correlations between different reports in a few clicks.

“The team’s significant experience of managing and developing NHS organisations websites meant they had a good understanding of our requirements. The team was friendly, efficient, and really helpful.”

Chloe Newcombe-Rose, Online Content and Social Media Manager, NHS Leadership Academy

We reduced the month-end process by four days at an NHS trust and introduced new process to streamline payments and bring the month-end timetable forward.

Background

Blackpool Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust’s (BTHFT) finance team were investigating ways to align month-end reporting to the newly created Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) reporting schedule.

The NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) was approached to support their initial journey to reduce the time it took to close month-end from 8-9 to 4-5 working days, to align with ICS reporting intentions.

Our finance team, alongside with our Improvement Unit, worked closely with the BTHFT teams throughout March, April and May to assist and advise in the review of their month-end priorities.

Action

We worked as independent advisors and facilitators, alongside BTHFT’s Closedown Group, to identify and agree on amendments to the month-end process. The criteria was based on the potential release of capacity within the finance structure or current areas of concern within the finance function.

Following a thorough engagement process to understand the service change priorities, we delivered bespoke solutions built on our experience of public sector finance.

The areas of focus were:

– A detailed analysis of the month-end timetable with an agreed understanding of the feasibility of the suggested changes to deliver earlier achievement of income and non pay accruals

– A full review of low value, high volume recharges posted by BTHFT, to release capacity

– A focus on the large amount of time, about 175 hours per month, delivering Medical, Nursing and AHP agency accruals across the finance team; and

– The identification of future capacity and time savings and further priority areas.

To ensure that the positive changes delivered as part of this project were sustainable, the CSU promoted an open approach to issue identification and reflection through the delivery of several targeted workshops.  These were used to encourage internal ownership and engagement for future changes.

Impact

As a result of the work delivered as part of this project:

– BTHFT finance team month-end close was achieved on working day 5 in reporting months 1 and 2 of 2022/23

– A new process was developed for recharges to remove the posting of low value, high volume non-pay recharges. This has freed up about 11 hours every month of the team’s month-end time

– Since 175 hours per month were utilised on agency postings, it was a system priority to concentrate on agency accruals. We delivered a series of workshops and we suggested an automated process which was adopted by BTHFT over the subsequent months. Upon implementation, this would save an estimated 35 hours per month

– Several elements of the month-end timetable recording and accruing income and non pay areas were brought forward in time.

We created a range of bespoke materials to deliver SEO training to the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Integrated Care System (ICS) Communications teams, which helped them improve the performance of their new websites.

Background

Following the launch of the websites for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Integrated Care System (ICS), our team of digital experts were commissioned to provide Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) training to their Communications teams.

SEO training is crucial because it makes websites and content more visible, and results in more traffic to a website. Grounded in industry best practice, our training provides information on essential techniques, keywords, content optimisation, SEO plug-in tool Yoast and more.

Action

Our team of SEO experts created a range of bespoke materials to support the training for the ICB and ICS Communications teams. This included an interactive PowerPoint presentation.

The session was highly interactive, with a range of videos and activities to cement learning and understanding. We provided opportunities for participants to think actively about SEO, and apply the learning to their own website content.

After ensuring participants understood the difference between title tags, meta descriptions, slug URLs, and image alt tags, the training moved onto showing how to add these to pages on the website management platforms WordPress and Joomla. Our trainer also explained how Google uses these as hooks to rank websites.

Impact

A lot of positive feedback was received following the training. For example, participants found the training “easy to follow”, “helpful” and “straightforward.”

The session was highly interactive with a range of videos and activities to cement learning and understanding. We provided opportunities for participants to think actively about SEO and apply the learning to their own website content.

Since the training, many of the ICS and ICB webpages now use Yoast and the content is ranking highly on Google. This demonstrates that the team has been able to implement our tools and techniques to improve the performance of the website.

“I found the session really helpful and straightforward. It explained the key points of SEO, tips and recommendations to help our webpages score higher and key points on how to change writing styles to fit SEO, easy to follow and understand.”

Tanisha Steele, Digital Communications Officer, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB

Designing and developing a new website for the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, we created an interactive platform for the public to get involved and find essential healthcare information.

Background

Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) commissioned the collaborative  Campaigns, Creative and Digital (CCD) team from Midlands and Lancashire and Arden & GEM Commissioning Support Units (CSUs) to project manage the design and delivery of a new WordPress website in six months.

The new website needed to support the transition from Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to ICB, but with a fresher look and feel – incorporating their new branding. The ICB wanted the new website to follow a similar user layout, but they were conscious that it needed to act as a central hub of information to explain integrated care and show how the different parts of the health and care system fit together. Accessibility was also a priority for the new website.

Action

After reviewing the current website, our Digital team identified that performance was slow, and that website optimisation was required to improve user experience (UX), traffic flow and engagement. We worked closely with the ICB to clarify the user journey and agree on a site map. We made recommendations based on our expert knowledge of web builds, and we clarified the ICB’s objectives, which included:

-Using more images and video to engage and boost traffic

-Clear and prominent branding including new logo designs for the ICB rebrand

-Centring the design and layout around the new corporate vision and values

-Migrating content from the old site and optimising it for SEO with meta descriptions and tags

-Improving search functionality with easy content tagging that can be used across the whole site

-Integrating translation and accessibility tools within the site to improve access and engagement for those with language, literacy, and sensory impairment.

Weekly project meetings provided the opportunity to address any issues, and to advise on timescales and any risk factors which could impact delivery.

Our digital specialists followed a robust series of industry-standard quality checks, ensured the site met all accessibility compliance guidelines, and tested for mobile and desktop browser optimisation. This enabled any potential issues to be identified and resolved before launch.

Impact

We custom-built the new website on WordPress, as this provides a single dashboard and brings efficiencies for the ICB Communications team. We used Timber to build the templates within WordPress, as this gives better security and performance and allows our team to easily implement code changes – offering longer-term development flexibility.

Browsealoud was installed to support visually impaired users, and a WordPress accessibility tool helps the administrators check that header tags are suitable for screen readers.

To improve the user journey, we colour-themed each section, and added home page sliders, clickable call-to-action buttons and visual banners. Our developer improved the functionality of the search bar results to help users to find the page they need with fewer clicks.

After six months of dedicated support, the new interactive website was launched in July 2022. The site clearly signposts visitors to relevant content and provides a valuable resource.

Embedded video content and bold call-to-action buttons on the home page have created an interactive platform for the public to get involved and find essential healthcare information. Internal links to navigate traffic across the site has optimised the webpages.

There has been a clear improvement in how visitors engage with the new website. Visitor traffic rose from 4,000 to 5,100 following the launch of the new ICB website. The most popular pages are about walk-in vaccinations and GP consultations.

View the new website at www.lincolnshire.icb.nhs.uk

“The team were aware of our objectives and clearly identified how the new website needed to clearly signpost and better engage stakeholders and the general public as well as staff through the Intranet. The new website is fully accessible, and better optimised for organic searches, with easier to navigate information. The team are easy to work with, responsive to our requests and always work to find a solution that meets our needs. We are really pleased with our new website, it is easy to use, the training and materials were really helpful, the end product meets our expectations and ongoing support is fantastic.”

Stephanie Foster | Web and Social Media Officer | NHS Lincolnshire ICB

Our support has resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of financial information held.

Background

The Finance Department at University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust required support to implement a new accounting standard (IFRS 16 Leases), a new capital asset and lease register (Asset4000 and Lease4000) and to undertake an asset verification exercise.  The NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU (MLCSU) was approached to lead these projects and provide technical and operational support.

Action

We reviewed the work to date and worked with the trust capital team to:

– Implement IFRS 16 Leases:

• interpret and apply guidance from the Department of Heath and Social Care (DHSC)
• work with the estates, IT, finance and procurement teams to identify and register leases
• collate information to prepare and submit a return to DHSC forecasting the impact of the IFRS 16
• provide training to finance and non-finance teams
• populate templates for the new Lease4000 system and test
• provide IFRS 16 information for year-end planning and for the year-end accounts.

– Implement Asset4000. We worked with the capital accountant to implement the new asset register, verifying the data to be uploaded to the system, testing and reconciling reports.

– Undertake an asset verification exercise. We analysed the asset register at 31 March to establish the scope and to determine a timeline and plan. We generated reports for budget holders, providing support and collating results to enable the capital accountant to update the asset register and process any disposals in line with trust policy. We also determined future steps to ensure asset verification is regularly undertaken in line with trust policies.

Impact

Our support enabled the trust to successfully implement the new IFRS16 lease standard in accordance with the requirements of DHSC.  The trust was able to submit the mandated returns accurately and timely for the financial year ending 31 March 2022.  The training we provided and the production of a lease register and templates helped establish processes and procedures for the new standard.

The new successfully implemented Capital Asset and Lease Register will facilitate accurate and timely reporting, at both month and year end.

The asset verification exercise has provided the Trust with further information on its assets and also assurance that the information held in the Asset Register is accurate and correctly stated.   This is an ongoing project but our support to date has resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of information held in the Asset Register which meets the requirements of external audit.

Additionally, our support was able to provide extra capacity to a small capital team which would not have had the resource to deliver the project in time for the year-end of 31 March 2022.

“MLCSU demonstrated strong leadership skills to ensure the projects were finished on time and the goals achieved. They collaborated fantastically well with finance and non-financial colleagues.

“MLCSU were able to use their technical knowledge, experience and worked hard to break the complex projects into manageable pieces, this enabled Hilary to organise, lead and support the team to deliver.

“Without their professionalism we would not have been able to deliver these projects. I can highly recommend them, I would have them back tomorrow.”

Dylan Davies, Deputy Director of Finance, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

The NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU Finance Team have been supporting the North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust by providing all their financial accounting. At a recent ceremony, the finance function at NSCHT won the West Midlands Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Finance Team of the Year Award.

In recognition of our Finance Team’s excellent work and support in helping the trust develop a finance function which has won the award, NSCHT’s Deputy Director of Finance, Kimberli McKinlay, said:

‘Thanks for all your support and hard work, this is your award too!’

A huge congratulations to everyone involved!

This month NHS Confederation is uniting with NHS England and NHS Improvement to deliver one of the most significant events in the health care calendar: NHS ConfedExpo. We are pleased to announce our schedule of experts who will be available at stand E115 to answer all your questions and show you around our services.

Wednesday 15 June

10am to 11amHow chatbots can reduce your patient waiting lists
11am to 12pm Innovative medicines management
12pm to 1pm How we help transform your clinical services and collaborate with partner providers
2pm to 3pm Maximise your estate with UBook Room and Desk Booking System
3pm to 4pm Personalised Healthcare Commissioning

Thursday 16 June

9am to 10amSupporting your workforce needs with TalentONE
11am to 12pm Transform and innovate your digital and IT footprint
1pm to 2pm Helping you to deliver inclusive, equitable careand business operations

Visit at these times to meet experts about solutions that might help you.

The conference and exhibition takes place 15-16 June in Liverpool. It brings together senior leaders from the NHS, SMEs, commercial organisations, charities and more to discuss key issues, share successes and explore how we can support each other to improve patient care.

Book your NHS ConfedExpo pass here: https://lnkd.in/guJb8PyB

Click the link below for a pdf version of our schedule, and a map showing how to find us.

We are helping hospital trusts identify the potential to recover energy costs from telecom devices mounted on the roofs of their buildings.

Background

NHS hospital buildings in England often house mobile telecom operators devices on their roofs. The issue identified is that NHS trusts often do not recover the costs of electricity and power consumption in relation to rooftop communications installations.

The potential rebates can be in the thousands depending on individual trust circumstances. Claims of up to 12 years back can be submitted.

The purpose of this project was to deliver savings for NHS trusts in support of their cost improvement programmes.

Action

* Desk top analysis to confirm the status of the electricity usage by each individual telecommunications tenant.
* Site audit to confirm the supply arrangements and take measurements to determine the usage.
* Determine the lease arrangement relating to electricity recovery of each individual tenant.
* Liaise with the tenants and their agents to confirm the status of their supply and their liability to the NHS.
* Calculate historic recovery sums for either 12 years (for contracts under deed) or 6 years (for standard agreements or to the date last invoiced).
* Determine if any use of the NHS’s electricity and power supply can be recovered.
* Invoice each individual tenant and recover the costs owed.
* Provide a report for each client with recommendations for recovery going forward

Impact

The George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust was able to recoup circa £170k from electricity costs.

Review of other trusts’ cost is currently ongoing, and we expect we could deliver similar savings for potential clients.

Sean Grant, Waste and Sustainability Manager, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, said: “Thanks to NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU (MLCSU) for engaging George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in the potential recovery of energy costs generated by mobile masts. We successfully backdated 10 years’ energy costs, which have contributed towards cost improvement programmes at the Trust. 

“The whole process from start to finish was made easy with clear engagement from MLCSU to ensure the project was successful. We fully recommend the service you provided in energy cost recovery from mobile masts. Thank you!”

UBook, the resource-booking system designed by NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, has just signed its 20th customer.
Many NHS organisations have traditionally reserved rooms, desks and parking spaces via a combination of spreadsheets, paper diaries and Outlook calendars. Staff often had to call multiple sites to locate a suitable room, and trying to change or trace a booking was difficult.
With UBook, staff can reserve meeting rooms, clinical rooms, hot desks, zones, parking spaces or any physical resource such as a projector with just a few clicks. The service can be accessed 24/7, via any browser, on any device.
Originally developed in 2017, UBook came into its own when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Its developers responded rapidly, adding in social distancing measures – particularly useful for hot-desk reservations – and enabling organisations to better plan for hybrid working post-pandemic. A useful evolution of these features is that UBook can now offer estate managers a dashboard showing live and trended occupancy rates, non-check-in profiling and recharging data for invoices.
UBook’s rapidly growing customer base includes nine trusts, five clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and three of the four commissioning support units, as well as its first integrated care system and local authority clients.
Bill Douglas of MLCSU explains how the team has regularly beaten off commercial competition on both feature set and price: “Our pricing model is tier based, so it’s reasonable and fair. You only pay for as many rooms and desks as you publish. That means affordability for a small network of GP practices and great economies of scale for a large acute.”
As for the future, Douglas says the product roadmap is continually evolving.
“We’re offering demonstrations of UBook every week and would love to continue adding more organisations to our customer base. The benefit of using UBook is that it’s a tool built by the NHS, for the NHS. Every feature is the result of a trust or CCG asking for it, and we have a closely managed collective roadmap for UBook’s future releases.”

We quickly mobilised financial services helping an NHS trust to process and pay supplier invoices.

Background

In April 2021, a cohort of learning disabilities and mental health patient cases managed by Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups were transferred to North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust (NSCHT). The NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit’s At Scale Customer Finance team, were approached by NSCHT to take on accounts payable tasks to ensure their supplier invoices were processed and paid.

Action

In preparation, we met with the clients to fully understand their service requirements and learnt more about:

* Volumes of invoices
* Verification process
* Approval hierarchy
* Escalation process.

Using both this information and our previous experience of in-housing finance procedures for our other customers, we were able to quickly train our experienced Accounts Payable team to start supporting NSCHT.

Impact

As a team of more than 50 experienced transactional finance professionals, we were swiftly able to meet our customers’ requirements to ensure supplier invoices were registered onto their accounting system.

We mobilised the service efficiently within four weeks of learning about the work.

When NSCHT were experiencing resource issues, we stepped in to ensure due diligence was followed in finance processes.

The MLCSU team have since continued to provide ongoing support and are helping make a positive impact towards the Better Payment Practice Code by making sure the Trust’s invoices are registered, suppliers notified of any issues preventing payment and generally building a solid rapport with suppliers by providing a quality service.

Rachel Heath, Project Accountant, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, sad: “The Accounts Payable team have been very supportive since the two services integrated to the trust. They have been helpful and flexible as we continue to look for new ways to make both the invoicing and forecasting processes smoother for the finance and operational teams. When we have raised matters that require urgent attention, the MLCSU team have been quick to act upon these in order to resolve as quickly as possible.”

Calculating Quality Reporting Service (CQRS) Local is a newly launched web-based payment claim system used by commissioners, GPs and primary care providers to support the management and payment of local incentive schemes. It uses an online payment tool which leads to prompt payments for primary care organisations.

The national CQRS programme is used across the country to collect data from GP practices for a wide range of purposes, including providing GP payments. It is tried and tested system and has been successfully supporting GPs and commissioners to manage payments for several years.

CQRS Local is a one-stop solution for providers and commissioners to claim and manage locally driven schemes that reflect local priorities. The system will make payments without the need for practices to submit invoices, following the approval of a claim.

The key benefits for providers and commissioners are:

* Using CQRS Local, clinical commissioning groups spend less time developing and administering the local payment via spreadsheets, which ensures a standard and consistent approach, due to the automated process
* Through a single, more secure central point of access, commissioners will be able to: track and audit data submissions; view variations in practice/uptake across local providers to inform decision- making; have access to centralised reporting abilities; access external system support teams.

The onboarding process for commissioners, GPs and primary care providers is simple, with ongoing support and training in place for all staff and users.

What users are already saying about CQRS Local:

* It’s easy to use
* We’re not losing things in the process anymore, like we were with email
* We really like working with the CQRS Local team
* The helpdesk is always responsive if you have a question or need support
* Practices complimented how easy and smooth the process was
* CCGs state that it is easier to track and submit claims now there are no spreadsheets.

CQRS Local is led by the CSU Collaborative.

To find out more about CQRS Local, please visit the website: https://welcome.cqrs.nhs.uk/ or to request a product demo email: support@cqrs.co.uk

We helped an integrated care system to evaluate demand and capacity for COVID-19 LAMP testing to ensure labs could meet the need for routine staff testing.

Background

The COVID-19 LAMP testing programme allowed staff across the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) to be tested routinely. As demand increased from 1,500 to 7,000 tests per week, the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit stepped forward to discuss potential support with analysing data on testing needs.

Predicting future demand for tests could help the national supplier forecast the number of vials required. Lab capacity could also be influenced by a variety of factors and the ICS needed to understand how it could be expanded as demand dictated.

In addition, the ICS needed to identify individual organisations where take-up was higher to highlight which efforts to engage staff with testing were more successful. These approaches could then be transferred to other organisations where uptake was lower to try and replicate their successes.

Action

We worked together with the LAMP programme team to implement the following solutions:

Demand and capacity modelling:

* Gathered data on cohort sizes offered testing and estimates on previous testing trends
* Assessed machinery factors influencing lab capacity, liaising with lab manager
* Created a dynamic model of demand and capacity as factors changed over time.

Measuring staff engagement:

* Measured unique numbers of staff testing within given time periods, and how many were repeat testing (compliance rates)
* Demonstrated how staff engagement was increasing over time and against testing targets.

Impact

The demand and capacity modelling helped the ICS to:

* Have assurance that their lab could cope with demand even if it exceeded projections
* Quickly respond to requests for reporting from the regional team
* Visualise possible demand profiles and understand how actual demand compared to forecasts
* Demonstrate which locations had exceeded minimum regional estimates for testing
* Understand when there was likely to be excess lab capacity that the project could use to respond to emerging new demands for testing.

Reports on staff engagement enabled the project team to:

* Respond to demand from partner organisations for more detailed information on staff testing levels
* Provide information to Covid teams in partner organisations so they could report internally the success of the project and demonstrate where additional resources were needed
* Assess performance of initiatives to improve staff engagement and motivate organisations with lower testing rates to replicate the success achieved by their partners.

The Lancashire LAMP lab has been one of the most successful LAMP labs earning a strong reputation nationally.

Dr Amanda Thornton, LAMP Project Director, Healthier Lancashire & South Cumbria, said:

“Emma Davis [MLCSU Business Intelligence Lead] proved a very intelligent business resource for us – quickly responding to potential risks and challenges. 

“The Lancashire LAMP lab has been one of the most successful LAMP labs earning a strong reputation nationally. Emma’s role made the programme slicker, well-armed with data and very able to show that not only did the programme efficiently deliver to contract – but it excelled – and got the national reputation it deserved.”

We helped deliver the strategic engagement and created opportunities for shared learning in the development of a national programme of Community Champions supporting risk groups with COVID-19.

Background
Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) and Arden & Gem CSU were commissioned to represent NHS England and Improvement and support the Government’s Community Champions programme.

Senior leads in the communications and engagement collaborative service for the CSUs were appointed to work alongside Public Health England (PHE) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government to help deliver the strategic engagement and support the communications on this national programme.

It aims to support people identified to be most at risk from COVID-19 (including those from an ethnic minority background, disabled people and other risk groups) to follow safer behaviours and reduce the impact of the virus on themselves and those around them.

Action
The national programme supported local authorities with:

* activity and interventions to reduce the disproportionate impact of the virus on certain communities
* engagement strategies and outreach work in the most at-risk places, with the most at risk groups
* new and existing networks of grassroots advocates or ‘champions’ from impacted communities
* voluntary and community groups and other national or local actors who specialise in working with communities shown to be most at risk from Covid-19.

Midlands and Lancashire CSU supported the programme by:

* developing an online Future NHS collaboration platform as a resource bank and vehicle for sharing best practice, case studies and events, and to encourage conversations on the discussion forum
* leading the organisation of a programme of webinars to advance learning and share best practice.
* engaging with stakeholders across Whitehall and the NHS and voluntary sector organisations in several forums – supporting the development and promotion of the Community Champions programme
* developing of resources, case studies and cascading of information both ‘up’ and ‘down’.

Impact

The Community Champions workspace created a valuable resource that was both current and iterative, supporting over 240 stakeholders in Government departments, the NHS, PHE, local authorities and the voluntary community. Feedback showed the workspace was helpful in quickly accessing all correct and timely the information and official resources in one place, allowing users to focus on delivery. The discussion forum also provided a useful place for peer engagement and sharing of ideas.

The webinar programme was highly popular, with 99% of eligible local authorities attending a webinar. A further session open to wider stakeholders achieved full capacity. Evaluations showed the webinars were highly valued and well themed to meet participant needs. Workspace members increased by an average of 20 after each webinar, demonstrating their success encouraging people to seek further information.

The national programme is considered by the Government to be a success and is currently under review for development/expansion.

We saved time from data processing by introducing a new tool to streamline data entry when invoicing key customers.

Background

The Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) used a manual process to monitor its main contracts with key customers. This data was sent in spreadsheet form to the Order to Cash (O2C) team to create the monthly invoices manually into the ledger. This process was extremely time consuming for the following reasons:

* There was multiple handling of the data between different functions to manipulate into different formats
* Each individual invoice had to be raised and approved separately on ledger and on average took 15 minutes per invoice
* Risk of errors was high due to multiple handling of the data.

Action

We worked with NHS England and Improvement and Shared Business Services (SBS) to develop an invoice upload template.  This allows the direct upload of multiple invoices into the ledger streamlining the data entry process on the ledger.

The O2C team and income team then worked together to understand the needs and interdependencies of the information required and remapped the data collation to avoid having to rework this multiple times.

The tool and process was initially tested, and a procedure note produced so the knowledge could be shared across the team.

Impact

This process has saved two and a half hours per month of data processing and checking time.

It has also allowed for greater efficiency leaving time to be invested adding value to other activities.

Lyn Tallentire, Deputy Finance Director, MLCSU, said:

“This review of the process allowed us to use technology available to quickly streamline and improve the process.  Driving efficiency allows us to invest time in adding value.”

Following a series of successful wellbeing initiatives at the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU), our Deputy Director of Finance, Lyn Tallentire, was recently asked to speak at a one-day conference on “Workplace wellbeing in the NHS”.

As a health and wellbeing champion at MLCSU, Lyn spoke at the event organised by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), the professional body for finance staff in healthcare, and Future Focused Finance (FFF), the national programme designed to develop, connect and support the NHS finance community.

Together with Emma Stewart, Head of Finance at MLCSU, Lyn has pioneered several initiatives across our finance team encouraging people to find the time to look after their health and wellbeing.

Both Lyn and Emma have also supported staff within the team with personal challenges including struggling with working from home, offering support to staff with Covid who lived on their own and people with wellbeing challenges. They both proactively share their knowledge and experience with the wider finance community, contributing to motivating staff across organisations to improve NHS finance.

The conference which took place on 7 October brought together leaders in workforce policy as well as a selection of NHS case studies identifying areas of good practice in areas such as health and fitness, diversity and inclusion, mindfulness and building resilience.

We helped Stoke-on-Trent CCG translate a complex consultation into easy to understand documents and campaign materials to achieve better engagement with the public.

Background

The North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) needed help to summarise a complex public consultation about improving community-based services. The NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) Communications and Engagement Service led on a full suite of public-facing documents and wider campaign materials to explain the proposals and encourage residents to engage with the consultation.

Action

The MLCSU Media, Editorial and Publications Team summarised several large, internal documents to produce a public consultation document that presented the information clearly, logically and in an easy-to-understand way for the general public.

We worked with our in-house Engagement, Involvement and Insight Team and our Campaigns, Creative and Digital Team to provide a seamless end-to-end service which included design, an engagement survey, copywriting, event management and printing materials.

Impact

The 52-page consultation document formed the core copy and content for a micro-website, newsletters, media releases, social media messages and presentations at events.

A designated account manager project managed from start to finish to ensure that sign off processes were adhered to, all partners kept informed and agreed deadlines were met.

The survey was a success and received 553 responses in a 14-week period, and more than 600 people attended a range of public events, focus groups and meetings about the consultation.

For further information about how we can support you please email: mediacsu@nhs.net

Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership (HCP) is an integrated care system where there is a collaborative partnership of local authority, NHS and community organisations that join-up health and care in the area. It’s a complex partnership that needed a central media office function to coordinate a system approach.

Action

The NHS MLCSU Media, Editorial and Publication Team provide assurance that media enquiries and requests across the system are being handled in a timely and efficient manner ensuring that protocols are followed, and stakeholders and partners informed. Our full-service professional media office function includes an out-of-hours service, crisis management and media monitoring for complete resilience.

Impact

The NHS MLCSU media office serves as a front-line contact between the Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership and the media, with a focus on building strong relationships and providing reputational reassurance by ensuring all enquiries are managed, approved and handled centrally.

The newsroom supplies local organisations, services, and functions in the partnership footprint with a designated contact for media specialist support and strategic advice.

The extensive logging, reporting and monitoring produce an unparalleled overview of reactive and proactive media whilst the out of hours crisis management service supplies essential resilience to communication teams during evenings and weekends. In just one month during the Covid-19 pandemic, we managed 105 media enquiries and 8 proactive media releases resulting in a total PR reach of over 1 billion 397 million.

We have also been commissioned to support on shorter-term projects and campaigns more recently working with the Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance.

Neil Greaves, Head of Communications and Engagement for Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership, said:

“The excellent work and invaluable support that the NHS MLCSU Media, Editorial and Publications Team have provided in Lancashire and South Cumbria over the past four years has been outstanding.

“I am safe in the knowledge that I can rely on their media specialists to work seamlessly with my team to manage media enquiries and that there is increased capacity to support when there are fluxes in requests or if there is a crisis occurs.

“It’s really reassuring to have the resilience of a full press office function but also a designated Media and Public Relations Manager lead who has extensive knowledge of the local area and our organisation. The media team excel in providing complete end-to-end media management at pace and are adept at following complex protocols across organisational boundaries when liaising with key stakeholders. Their invaluable understanding of how the NHS, integrated care systems and health and care partnerships work makes them a real asset to my team.”

For further information about how we can support you please email: mediacsu@nhs.net.

Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership (HCP) is an integrated care system where there is a collaborative partnership of local authority, NHS and community organisations that join-up health and care in the area. It’s a complex partnership that needed a central media office function to coordinate a system approach.

How we helped

The NHS MLCSU Media, Editorial and Publication Team provide assurance that media enquiries and requests across the system are being handled in a timely and efficient manner while ensuring that the correct protocols are followed, and stakeholders and partners informed.

Our full-service professional media office function includes an out-of-hours service, crisis management and media monitoring for complete resilience.

What we helped achieve

The NHS MLCSU media office serves as a front-line contact between the Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership and the media, with a focus on building strong relationships and providing reputational reassurance by ensuring all enquiries are managed, approved and handled centrally.

The newsroom supplies local organisations, services, and functions in the partnership footprint with a designated contact for media specialist support and strategic advice.

The extensive logging, reporting and monitoring produce an unparalleled overview of reactive and proactive media whilst the out of hours crisis management service supplies essential resilience to communication teams during evenings and weekends.

In just one month during the Covid-19 pandemic, we managed 105 media enquiries and 8 proactive media releases resulting in a total PR reach of over 1 billion 397 million.

We have also been commissioned to support on shorter-term projects and campaigns more recently working with the Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance.

Of the work, Neil Greaves – Head of Communications and Engagement for Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership, said:

“The excellent work and invaluable support that the NHS MLCSU Media, Editorial and Publications Team have provided in Lancashire and South Cumbria over the past four years has been outstanding.

“I am safe in the knowledge that I can rely on their media specialists to work seamlessly with my team to manage media enquiries and that there is increased capacity to support when there are fluxes in requests or if a crisis occurs.

“It’s really reassuring to have the resilience of a full press office function but also a designated Media and Public Relations Manager lead who has extensive knowledge of the local area and our organisation. The media team excel in providing complete end-to-end media management at pace and are adept at following complex protocols across organisational boundaries when liaising with key stakeholders. Their invaluable understanding of how the NHS, integrated care systems and health and care partnerships work makes them a real asset to my team.”

By producing easy-read versions of our questionnaires we can improve participation in our engagement and consultation exercises with people who would otherwise be put off by longer, more complicated forms.

Background

Easy-read is a method of presenting written information to make it easier to understand for people with difficulty reading. Easy-read advocates sentences of no more than ten to fifteen words, with each sentence having just one idea and one verb. Active sentences are used instead of passive sentences. Any difficult word or idea is explained in a separate sentence. An easy read document is usually presented in at least 14-point text and includes carefully selected images to help people understand.

Action

This year we developed easy-read versions of the questionnaires and combined them with our online survey tool for even greater accessibility. The survey tool is used to host all of our surveys, but it had not been used to host easy-read versions of the questionnaires before now. We are not aware of anyone doing this before.

As a result, these questionnaires are now accessible online and can be quickly and widely spread to interested individuals and groups via email and social media.

The project was launched six months ago and, so far, we have produced two online easy-read surveys, which are currently live and part of ongoing engagement exercises.

Impact

Hosting the surveys which are prepared in the specialist easy-read format on our online survey tool has increased responses more than 18-fold and provided several other benefits for our clients and their stakeholders. By using the online tool, respondents do not need to send a request for a paper version or download the PDF version to print, complete and post back. The survey is fully accessible online via a click of a button, making it much easier to access and participate in.

The link to the survey can be shared much more easily and this has been particularly useful when working with specific groups or individuals who may or do require the easy-read version, such as people with a learning disability, whose first language isn’t English or who have a lower reading age.

Our easy-read versions have always been visually more engaging for participants, using such tools as photographs and graphics to make them more attractive and understandable. We can now enhance the specialist format further on our online version, using designs and iconography for rating scales (such as smiley faces) to make them more visually appealing and interesting. They also come across as less formal and intimidating to people who might be put off from responding to more official-looking questionnaires which use more complex language.

Sue Venables, Head of Communications and Insight, LLR CCGs, said:

“We commissioned MLCSU to help design our Mental Health consultation survey. During the planning stage they suggested that we may like them to both design and host on their in-house survey tool an easy-read version of the mental health consultation questionnaire. I was immediately interested but requested an example to review first.

“I was delighted! I could immediately see the potential benefits of the easy-read version. We have placed the links side by side on our consultation website.

“The easy read version of the consultation survey has proven far more popular than we initially envisaged. Whilst it still has simplified language and engaging imagery and pictures this has now been extended to a more interactive and impactful approach as things like ratings buttons now have smiley/sad faces.

“I’m really pleased and definitely feel it is assisting us to engage more effectively with our patients and public.”

We are delighted to announce that following a recommendation by the Future-Focused Finance (FFF) assessors, the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit’s Finance team have been awarded Level 3 Towards Excellence Accreditation.

The Future-Focused Finance Towards Excellence Accreditation, awarded by the NHS Finance Leadership Council, recognises organisations with excellent finance skills development culture and practices in place. There are three levels, each designed to reflect the continuous development of the finance function and recognising the highest standards of financial competence and commitment to skills development.

For our clients, the accreditation provides further assurance that our staff working on their behalf have the very best finance skills and are benefitting from the highest levels of investment in their development.  This is reflected in the quality of our services for which we regularly receive very positive comments, including this recent feedback: “A professional, proactive, efficient, friendly and knowledgeable financial services team!”

Tony Matthews, Director of Finance and Commerce at MLCSU, said: “This is fantastic news. This level of accreditation is very significant as it shows that we have achieved the highest level of finance skills, development culture and practices. I would like to thank all our staff for their efforts and contribution in arriving at this fabulous outcome.”

The past year year has been a challenging and turbulent one. In our annual report 2020/21, we focus on what being a responsive system partner supporting the NHS through COVID has truly meant. We also summarise how we’re helping systems in delivering the goals of the Long Term Plan, and we highlight key areas where we made a difference across all our services.

In the past year, we, along with colleagues from across the NHS and wider health and care sector, have adapted to shifting priorities and made many changes to our way of working. Our vision has remained to be pivotal in fully supporting the delivery of major improvements in health and wellbeing. Our philosophy is to face every new challenge and opportunity together with systems as partners.

Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit team members have been and continue to be deployed in the national Supply Cell, working on procuring ventilators and hard-to-source items, and have provided reporting and programme support to NHS England and Improvement’s national effort. We have reallocated a range of service teams and funding to response, recovery and restoration programmes. As a system-wide service, we provided advice and support to our partners, including the sharing of intelligence, best practice and volunteers to support COVID-19 operations and Winter Rooms.

Beyond COVID, we’ve developed an unparalleled experience across a wide range of areas. In addition to our established transactional support services, we continue to contribute with significant strategic  and programme management expertise, providing tailored transformational support to 10 health systems. Examples, among many others include advancing the application of machine learning and AI in addressing population health management challenges; driving forward work on population profiling and risk stratification; using automation and chatbot technology to facilitate more efficient care delivery; reducing waiting times and hospital length of stay rates; solving flexible capacity issues for GP practices, saving them time and money.

We bring added value and we work with customers as partners, whatever the need. In the future, we know commissioning will become far more about the strategic management of the health of the population. We have the dedication of our expert staff and the flexibility in our delivery models to collaborate with you, developing and delivering services within a single system plan.

Does your finance team struggle dealing with the very old-fashioned method of paying doctors for doing Section 12 mental health assessments? Are patients in crisis getting the best care in your area?

In this digital age, the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) Finance team spotted an opportunity to transform this process completely. It was taking far too long to get patients seen and get pieces of paper through the system. Patients in crisis need to be seen quickly, now more than ever.

So our finance experts got together with our own Digital Innovations team to create an app to speed things up. As Find me an s12 Doctor has been developed by the NHS for the NHS, we want others to experience the same benefits. And the more people that use it, the cheaper it will be for each ICS.

It is cheap and easy to use. We just need to get various parties across an integrated care system (ICS) or sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) trained (it only takes 30 minutes), and doctors registered to use it. Then it’s simply a matter of downloading it from the app store.

I doubt any health system would think twice before implementing such a simple solution to a problem process that hasn’t changed since the 80s.

Benefits are across the whole of the ICS/STP and include:

* Improved ability to deliver 24/7 mental health care
* Reduction in time to assess patients, lowering anxiety and mitigating risk
* Significant time saving for the Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs – the people that match the patient to a doctor and who usually work in a local authority or for a mental health trust)
* Assessments are significantly easier and quicker to organise
* Improved access to a wider pool of doctors
* Doctors are paid within a few days rather than months
* Doctors are only contacted when they want to be rather than taking calls at all hours, day or night
* No more manual claim forms or information governance risks
* Doctors can track the claim through Find me an s12 Doctor, so won’t need to chase for payment by phone
* Reduced likelihood of unlawful detention
* Potential for significant cost efficiencies in the employment of AMHPs
* Clinical commissioning groups and CSUs have more information available and more checks in the system
* Reduction in finance staff time dealing with high numbers of GPs chasing for payment
* For the first time, much improved qualitative and quantitative information on the service’s use and cost.

If you want to know more, please give me a call. I’m Jules Harrhy, MLCSU’s Deputy Director of Finance, and my number is 07816 071379, or just email me at Julie.harrhy@nhs.net.

The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in numerous organisations being involved in the procurement and distribution of vital supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical equipment across the country. This led to changes in reporting and recording of data, impacting NHS Supply Chain’s database quality. MLCSU were engaged by NHSEI to provide project management and administrative support in order to review and improve data quality for core items within the NHS Supply Chain.

Action

The project management and administrative support mobilised quickly to ensure that immediate provision, keeping in line with the short timescales and key milestones. Project documentation and governance structures were implemented efficiently using an agile approach to flex with the needs and demands of the project. We set out the key tasks and milestones, providing clear visibility of progress. We implemented a robust administrative process and ensured that key actions were captured, cascaded and achieved in a timely manner.

Impact

The support and administrative expertise provided for the project led to a successful delivery of a robust and effective database for the NHS Supply Chain. We delivered much needed support in a fast-paced environment, allowing for clear visibility of key dependencies, actions and deadlines. As a result, procurement and subject matter experts could focus solely on the key deliverables and project objectives.

Mobilising at pace and implementing effective project structures ensured the project’s objectives were met. This includes:

* Improved processes
* Standardisation and improved data quality
* Support the procurement of core items within the NHS Supply Chain PPE catalogue.

Our effective relationship skills with key stakeholders and ability to deploy quickly, motivated the project sponsor to extend our administrative support by a further two months to support and deliver the second phase of the programme.

Background

The NHS Long Term Plan outlines NHS England and NHS Improvement’s commitment to transforming outpatient appointments. In April 2019, their Outpatient Transformation Team began a pilot to scale up the use of video consultations for outpatients. This work was rapidly accelerated in light of the COVID-19 outbreak to implement video consultation capability within all trusts.

Specialists from MLCSU’s Improvement Unit, who were already working for the NHSE North Elective Care team, were quickly redeployed to support the rapid roll-out across the North. They programme managed and delivered training on the Attend Anywhere online video consultation platform to all trusts across the North of England, linking with NHS Digital and NHS England programme teams.

Action

Two teams of trainers were quickly established from within the Improvement Unit. Under the guidance of the national video consultation project team they became experts in the platform so they could deliver train-the-trainer sessions and support Trusts to implement video consultations. A lead trainer was assigned to each Trust.
Working with the NHSE and NHS Digital onboarding teams, we arranged licences, carried out data protection impact assessments and checked technical requirements to ensure Trusts were able to adopt video consultations successfully.

Impact

* Within just three weeks the Improvement Unit team had delivered training on the Attend Anywhere online video consultation platform to 54 Trusts.
* Over 100 services and specialties across the north of England are now using video consultations daily to maintain appointments with patients safely.
* Our team has also given advice regarding virtual consultations to ambulance Trusts throughout England via a webinar organised by NHSE/I South West and facilitated by NHS Horizons.
* By reducing the need for physical attendance at NHS sites, video consultations are preventing the transmission of COVID-19 as well as enabling clinicians to see patients who are unable to travel. Patients can have their consultations in a place that is convenient to them.
* Video consultations are also enabling clinicians who are themselves at risk or who are self-isolating to work from home.
* Seven months after implementation, over half a million consultations have taken place using the platform, with the North West consistently one of the highest users

North Staffordshire GP Federation is a membership organisation for all 76 GP practices serving the whole of North Staffordshire. The federation has commissioned the MLCSU Information Governance (IG) Team to provide Data Protection Officer support services.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Stoke-on-Trent CCG have commissioned the federation to provide a health care support service to the homeless. The service will be operational from Brighter Futures in Hanley and the support workers (a nurse practitioner and a health care assistant) are employed by the federation. Health information would need to be shared with other organisations (City Council, The Police, Housing, Brighter Futures, and any third sector housing associations) along with sharing with the registered GP of the homeless person. The acute and mental health trusts would also need to be partial to the sharing of this data, particularly in cases of high-volume attenders.

Action

We provided a named Data Protection Officer (DPO) and ensured accountability and key approvals were evidenced throughout.

As information on specific cases would be shared at cross-organisation multi-disciplinary meetings recorded for accuracy, the confidentiality requirements were stipulated in the terms of reference for this group.

Success of the scheme is heavily dependent on effective data sharing mechanisms. To ensure the federation understood roles and responsibilities in relation to the data sharing requirements of the project, our DPO advised that a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) would be required to clearly identify any risks to the rights and freedoms of the individuals concerned, followed by the production of a Data Sharing Agreement to hold all organisations accountable to the highest standards of use.

Our IG Business Partner for Primary Care then met with federation representatives to discuss all aspects of the process, the mechanism for sharing the data, the legal basis and the way to evidence accountability throughout. The DPO then reviewed the DPIA in line with current legislation and approved it.

Impact

All organisations involved in the scheme signed the Data Sharing Agreement, having ensured they fully understood the requirements in relation to the sharing of special categories of personal data.

The process was handled with high levels of attention to detail, and ensured adherence to the data protection legislation at all times. The process was made so much easier with effective, clear communication from both the MLCSU IG Team and the North Staffordshire GP Federation, who throughout the process, remained committed to the requirements.

Background

Our Complaints and PALS Team has conducted a benchmarking exercise across NHS complaint handling bodies in Lancashire and South Cumbria (LSC). This followed concerns emerging about how complaints were being handled across LSC by both commissioners and providers.

Action

We created a benchmarking questionnaire that was sent via NHS England and NHS Improvement to all LSC clinical commissioning groups and NHS trusts (10 complaints handling bodies in total). Analysing their responses highlighted wide variation in performance against targets. We also found potential examples of best practice worth further investigation to identify learning that could be shared.

We drew up a list of recommendations to ensure effective use of the data gathered.

Impact

Our recommendations set out scope for further exploration where this exercise highlighted disparities or good practice.
The benchmarking returns showed commissioners how their providers handle complaints and what additional information could be gathered to drive improvement and inform future commissioning.

It also led to a discussion about options for how complaints could be handled across the emerging integrated care system and primary care networks as care pathways become better coordinated around the needs of the patient. A task and finish group of heads of complaints/patient experience was set up to make proposals for service change and improvement across the LSC Integrated Care System, reporting back to the Directors of Nursing Group in early 2020.

We plan to replicate this work in other areas.

Background

The Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups’ East Staffordshire Division needed support in navigating through a multi-issue dispute concerning the Improving Lives contract with a supplier external to the NHS. This required extremely detailed technical understanding of the NHS Standard Contract and its interpretation.

Action

Our Improving Lives Contract Management Team worked with CCG partners in navigating through the three-year dispute, while continuing business as usual with the provider.

Impact

The successful outcome of the dispute, which was completely in the favour of the CCG, has insulated the healthcare system from approximately £35million worth of multi-faceted and challenging contract claims.

In supporting the CCG, our team led, influenced and managed the responses throughout the dispute process, ensuring that the CCG remained protected from further claims and ensuring adherence to the innovative contract that was agreed.

The Improving Lives project is an innovative contract which, although challenging, has enabled us to lead the way in advising the CCGs on the forthcoming changes to the commissioning environment as the system moves into a more integrated care model of service.

West Lancashire had no specialist community-based chronic pain service; patients were being managed between GPs and hospitals. An attempt to procure a service using a traditional OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) approach and fixed specification had failed even though the marketplace showed interest.

West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (WLCCG) worked with our Procurement Team to procure a service that would:

* meet patients’ holistic needs through a personalised care plan, using new technology to enable self-management and non-medical interventions
* end unnecessary referrals to secondary care
* reduce prescription of pain medication.

Action

We worked with WLCCG to develop an OJEU Innovation Partnership procurement under the Light Touch Regime. We defined the problem and gave bidders freedom to create a solution. They were able to collaborate with commissioners throughout the process so they could fully understand patient needs and produce a tailored solution.
Our approach included:

Soft market testing event:
* Stimulated interest
* Enabled potential bidders to meet Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCF&SE) organisations who could help them design their solution

Workshop sessions:
* Bidders and VCF&SE organisations contributed to the vision of iHELP and helped shape the procurement process

Design phase:
* Bidders had access to the project team, CCG specialists, local GPs, patient engagement groups and third sector providers to help shape their solution

Two-year pilot phase tender:
* Included focus on increasing social value

Negotiation workshops:
* Helped shape a solution that was affordable, able to deliver savings in line with the WLCCG’s aims, and able to furnish the provider with adequate return.

Impact

The Innovation Partnership was such a strong enabler for WLCCG to be bold in seeking creative solutions that it has begun another procurement using it (the first NHS commissioner to attempt a second).

iHELP (Integrated, Holistic, Empowering, Learning Programme), the new service resulting from the procurement process, offers specialist care with a holistic approach to meet patients’ pain management needs. The innovative solution:

* facilitates safe and speedy access to relevant information
* improves care, outcomes and experience
* streamlines the use of resources
* realises cost savings.

The successful provider, Inhealth Pain Management Solutions, exceeded expectations with their solution. The pilot contract commenced 1 April 2019 for two years, with provision for a further five years following review.

RightCare indicators suggest WLCCG could save on chronic pain spend whilst also improving care and the health of current and future patients. Around £600,000 of net savings are predicted for a full year.

The nation’s first GP super-partnership, The Modality Partnership is a single GP practice that operates nationally. It had an established web presence, but due to rapid expansion across myriad GP practices and a wide area (including Birmingham, Sandwell, Walsall, Hull, Airedale, Wharfedale, Craven and East Surrey) the website had become unfit for purpose.

The Partnership required a scalable, intelligent website it could amend, enhance and develop as it recruited further GP practices, incorporating their websites. The website also had to be easily navigable for users from around the country looking for information regarding their locality specifically.

Action

We created a scalable, modular website that used geolocation technology to provide an intuitive, aesthetic experience for all users. We developed an automated user journey for staff, patients and prospective patients, but also provided the option for easy manual navigation.

The bespoke content management system we built provided GP practices with their own templated area of the wider Modality website. Our modular solution gave practices all the facets of a basic, standalone website. With a short training session, a new GP practice could develop their area. This CMS linked through to the geolocation technology, and the interactive map of the country we built for people interested in areas outside of their current location, to ensure that the information on each GP practice sat within the correct portion of the website.

Outcome

Our solution delivered a cutting-edge, innovative website https://modalitypartnership.nhs.uk/ that acted as an enabler for The Modality Partnership as it continued to deliver innovation in healthcare by expanding its nationwide operation.

We created a bespoke digital tool that works with the current Modality operating model and can expand and flex to meet the requirements of an organisation at the forefront of NHS innovation.

The website works across multiple devices with an ‘app’-like aesthetic.

Recognising the user’s location, the website automatically directs them to information regarding their nearest GP practices. From here, they can navigate to their own GP practice page – if they are already a member of a Modality GP practice – or they can investigate their local practices and request to join. This approach helped Modality mobilise within new areas with ease, making them accessible to established patients as well as making it easy for new patients to enquire or join.

We reviewed and interpreted the RightCare data for Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to identify opportunities for service improvements and savings.

Action
Our Business Intelligence experts carried out:

* Deep dives into admissions of children and over 75s indicated in Commissioning for Value (CfV) packs
* Analysis of Secondary Uses Service (SUS) data at Spell Programme Budget level to show proportion of activity commissioned by the CCGs and by specialised services
* Assessment of impact of incorrect provider submission of SUS data locally on the national RightCare data (showing the opportunity presented was overstated)
* Development of summaries by Spell programme budget for elective and non-elective activity to show breakdowns by key SUS fields to enable commissioners to identify and focus on problem areas
* Development of a RightCare Tool to allow the CCGs to compare cost and activity against other CCGs supported by MLCSU and see trends over time.

We put the CCGs in touch with other CCGs across our patch to find out how they commissioned services in cases where our benchmarking indicated they were performing better.

Impact

The deep dives revealed that the CCGs were outliers against peers for almost all under 5s indicators. Our work indicated that pathways were different from those in other areas and that children attending the paediatric A&E department tended to be classed as emergency admissions whilst A&E rates for children were low.

This led to discussions with the provider and ultimately commissioning of a new pathway for children’s urgent care services. Since the service went live in December 2016 there has been a 25 per cent reduction in paediatric admissions and savings of £1.3m per annum.

All our findings fed into the RightCare Working Group and helped identify priority areas for pathway redesign and improvement to services in key areas.
The CCGs have run a Falls Redesign event attended by commissioners, providers, ambulance services, and Business Intelligence, Respiratory and Diabetes workshops, all of which utilised the analysis we provided.

Background

South Sefton and Southport and Formby CCGs requested MLCSU’s Organisational Development (OD) services to improve leadership and management skills within their organisations. The aim was to provide critical understanding of theory and practical application of key aspects of being a manager and a leader, focusing on compassion, staff wellbeing, motivation, achieving results and managing people remotely.

Action

We created a tailored management development programme of training, designed to support the adoption of best practices in managing and leading others. There was a great emphasis on soft skills, such as communication and empathy, which enable better teamwork and more progressive relationships with the people they manage.
The programme was delivered as a virtual package of six web-based sessions covering:

* Management and leadership – motivate and engage your staff
* Effective communication and difficult conversations
* New starters induction, staff development and coaching
* Performance management
* HR policy overview
* Resilience and wellbeing.

All training sessions were delivered jointly by OD and HR experts, to ensure balance between legal framework and soft skills, required to build strong and high-performing teams.

Impact

The management development programme received overwhelming positive feedback from participants and the CCG’s senior leadership team.

All delegates agreed that the structure, content and delivery of the programme were excellent. The implementation of the programme and the training of all managers resulted in:

* Creating a culture of compassioned leadership, and highly-engaged and motivated staff
* An understanding of work pressures so that those can be managed effectively
* Better communication and engagement at team level
* Focus on strategic goals, objectives and benefits, ensuring they are clear and optimised
* Developing more resilient leaders capable to manage change and uncertainty
* Equipping all managers with the skills and knowledge to manage in a virtual environment.