Client: South Warwickshire NHS Foundation
Healthcare Sector: Integrated Care Partnership
Project Category: ICS Consultancy
Client: South Warwickshire NHS Foundation
Healthcare Sector: Integrated Care Partnership
Project Category: ICS Consultancy
Employing over 2,200 people, SWFT is an acute NHS Foundation Trust operating four hospitals in Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford, and Shipton-on-Stour. SWFT also deliver Out-Of-Hospital community services to the whole of Warwickshire, serving a population of more than half a million people from various clinics, as well as 0 to 19 Public Health Nursing Services in Coventry and Solihull.
For nearly a decade, the NHS has been experiencing a significant slowdown in funding growth, set against increasing costs and demand for service delivery, and cuts to public health and social care funding. The direction of travel since 2014 has led to the concept of integrated care and place-based systems to meet the needs of a changing population, culminating in the NHS Long-Term Plan which confirmed the ambition for every system in England to be ready to operate as an Integrated Care System from April 2021.
Out of this requirement came the Coventry & Warwickshire ICS in which decision-making, budgets, and frontline professionals are being brought together in a different way from ever before. The aim of doing this is not only to shape services in ways that better support local people and communities, but also to help to tackle the wider issues that can affect health.
Initially, we analysed what was required. By using our expertise of winning similar bids in other parts of the country, it was clear that the practice was in a strong place. They ran a good service and were full of ideas about how to maintain and improve the quality of their service.
However, these ideas were unfocused, and not ready for writing up into a bid where the word count was sure to be tight. In addition, they knew that during the bid itself, they would struggle with time, as the majority of those involved were busy clinical staff.
Our assessment was carried out by one of our team of specialists, who has worked on numerous APMS bids, as well as holding various roles in NHS England’s Primary Care delivery team.
Following their assessment, we proposed a series of pre-bid workshops to prepare them and help to focus their efforts on areas that needed the most work.
When working with SWFT on behalf of Warwickshire Place, the project objective was to create and implement a roadmap to help transform SWFT from being a Provider to becoming a Host Provider for Warwickshire PLACE.
The Host Provider Implementation Roadmap was required to set out a framework for the work needed to be done to achieve this objective.
Our plan was to create a clear and actionable process that would allow us to ensure our work best highlighted the knowledge we have of the sector and put SWFT in the best position to establish itself as a Host Provider.
Utilising our in-depth knowledge of the direction of travel of health and social care in England, we were able to effectively communicate the background and national context to both the emergence of Integrated Care Systems in Coventry and Warwickshire and the SWFT objective for establishing themselves as Host Provider for the Warwickshire PLACE Integrated Care Partnership.
We then utilised our experience working closely with SWFT to design an implementation roadmap to support SWFT in establishing itself as Host Provider, setting out a proposed framework for what work needed doing and by when to achieve this objective.
The final report was able to summarise a series of key recommendations for consideration by the SWFT Board and provide a plan for how the document could be used to communicate with staff and the community. The report covered: an assessment of the Trust’s current state, the definition of the required future state, provision of a supporting narrative explaining how to get there. An overview of a proposed implementation plan including key milestones and consideration of the major workstreams. Models for the identification and management of risks & mitigation, along with any benefits and opportunities.
The emergence of Integrated Care Systems remains a complex issue for many stakeholders across England. Through this work, Bidding Ltd was able to firstly, simplify the context and draw out the key points of what was happening so they all stakeholders could establish a base understanding. We were then able to provide a clear roadmap for actions that could be easily implemented and provide the Board with clear recommendation to facilitate effective decision making.
The report is now being used to inform other organisations in Warwickshire as to the benefits of SWFT becoming Host Provider and communicate proposals with staff and local communities.
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