Health CIC New Systems and Business Mentor – Consultancy

Business Mentor and Performance Systems Development for newly formed Health Care CIC

Background

The Business had been formed via the “right to request” process that had been set up in the NHS. This was a scheme by which individual teams of clinicians/services could request to set up their own Community Interest Business, get a grant to do so and a guaranteed contract for their services (usually for three years).
The Business had completed the difficult process of approval and set up, was running the services and had a fully constituted board with three non-exec directors. The four founding service clinicians were the Exec Directors (including the leader of the original process who was the CEO),  continued to deliver clinics, and had no history of running businesses or indeed of managing NHS services at a senior level.
I was asked initially to develop their performance management processes, their Board Assurance Framework along with a suite of dashboards for information collation and reporting. In addition to that I also spent a day a month mentoring the CEO and acting as critical friend to the other directors.

Key Challenges

The exec-directors were enthusiastic though in-experienced, the non-execs were experienced within public sector but not the private sector.
The exec directors spent a significant proportion of their time delivering front line services so availability was an issue This meant the training and sign off of the work had to be delivered after these clinics were completed each day .
Initially The CEO lacked confidence when dealing with Non Execs and was inexperienced with the challenges in managing the team and the business that would be faced in the first twelve months.
There was no issues with appetite and engagement but sometimes delivery fell short, mainly on timing and pace, as opposed to final scale of implementation.
Non Execs had to be managed to ensure that systems provided all of the critical clinical and quality requirements of the NHS without some of the over burdensome elements of corporate governance not required in a private business of limited size .

Main Actions

Over a period of one month I Rapidly Appraised the Business, the services, the commissioning  contract and prepared draft processes, detailed KPI schedules and definitions and outline BAF document.
Validated content and style with Directors and produced final Board document for presentation
Developed bespoke information and collation spreadsheets, tailorable reporting suites, dashboards and innovative methods of reporting risk and Care Quality Commission status.
Reviewed full process and output with Full Board and supported the Exec team as they implemented the full suite including their meeting structures and escalation processes.
Mentored and advised on a whole range of issues

Main Results And Achievements

Delivered a bespoke suite of dashboards, Full Suite of Defined Business KPIS , Performance and Board Assurance process and reporting. All allowing capacity for business growth and diversification.
Embedded Daily weekly and monthly performance management at the core of the business including root cause analysis in all core measurement areas.
Established role and structure for all core meetings within these business and reporting and escalation expectation.
Establish balanced emphasis which met the needs of the Commissioner and the NHS but allowed the retention of entrepreneurial spirit within the business.
Supported the CEO in a range of issues – handling non-execs, developing the role and status, reducing CEO clinical time, contract negotiation with commissioner, business plan and budget development, clearly establishing position of business leader regarding other directors.