Clients: North East London NHS Foundation Trust
Date: June 2022 – March 2024
Challenges faced by the client:
North East London NHS Foundation Trust (‘NELFT’) provide health care services across three Integrated Care Systems (‘ICSs’) and multiple Places. As a result, they face challenges in managing standardisation and warranted variation in how they deliver services across their footprint.
From 2022 to 2024, NELFT commissioned Mutual Ventures to provide support on a range of issues affecting their Community Services and Mental Healthcare Services, including: Board Development; Stakeholder Perception; evolution of the NELFT Operating Model; partnership working with East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT); and establishing and leading a collaborative programme across Kent & Medway ICS.
Support offered:
Mutual Ventures led a healthcare operational and improvement review focused on NELFT’s Operating Model, ensuring NELFT would be able to respond to the complex demands of their rapidly evolving environment. Through a series of focused interviews, our public service improvement review explored organisational culture, leadership, decision making and accountability. We also evaluated the benefits and risks of the implementation of a single Chief Operating Officer (‘COO’), and implications for the structures beneath this position.
We facilitated a series of Board of Directors workshops on a System Working theme, focusing on capability development and development of a refreshed organisational strategy. We confirmed NELFT’s ‘Core Purpose and Principles’, identified the top three Unique Strengths, and explored the potential to demonstrate these strengths using measurable examples. We then focused on increased System Readiness in relation to Accountability, Governance and Performance.
To facilitate healthcare transformation, our team led the engagement and mapping of external stakeholders, seeking to establish a refreshed approach to communications, engagement and involvement relating to system working. We identified the key “answers” NELFT required from this work and the key outcomes in terms of improved relationships, based on four areas: visibility; relationships; effectiveness; and opportunities. We analysed the information gathered and presented this in a final report, which drew out the key learnings from each stakeholder group, all cross-cutting issues and geographical variations.
We supported NELFT and ELFT, their partner in North East London, by exploring options for formalising partnership arrangements and streamlining organisational governance. We also undertook further exploration and identification of strategic opportunities and potential benefits, including reducing variation and inequalities; accelerating leadership of workforce development; and delivery of shared functions. We delivered a series of interviews with all Executive Directors, designed, co-ordinated and facilitated workshops, and produced slide deck reports setting out findings and outcomes from each session.
Current status:
Initially on behalf of NELFT, and now on behalf of Kent & Medway ICB, we are leading a healthcare transformation, change & delivery programme across Kent and Medway ICS. Using our programme & project management methodologies, we are supporting key workstreams involving stakeholders across a range of partner organisations. The aim of this work is to explore how working collaboratively could facilitate improved outcomes for children, young people and young adults’ mental health, including appraisal of alternative delivery models. The programme, designed to plan health, social care and community services, supports joint approaches to service delivery, pathway transformation and collectively tackling the significant challenge of the neurodevelopmental pathway and wait times for assessments across Kent and Medway. This ongoing programme is now truly system-wide, incorporating local authorities, education leads and patient representation.
Outcome achieved:
Following presentation of our findings and recommendations on the NELFT Operating Model, and completion of a series of Board Development sessions, a refreshed organisational strategy has been implemented, including the establishment of the single COO role. Partnership working with ELFT has matured and case studies of successful collaboration have been developed, with evidenced impact. The systemwide programme across Kent & Medway has continued to gain momentum, with the inclusion of Education, Public Health, and Primary Care.
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