Consultancy project working on efficiency programmes for Nursing and Allied Professional Education and Training.
Background
In line with other parts of the NHS, Strategic Health Authorities were under increasing pressure to improve productivity and reduce costs.
The non-medical multi-professional deanery was responsible for the development, procurement and management of all non-medical training for the region.
As part of their role they were responsible for working with local educational consortia to develop new and innovative methods of training to enable providers to meet the challenges of the national Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) initiative.
In addition they had lead responsibility for commissioning and managing over £30m of pre and post registration training delivered through a number of higher education establishments.
There was a strong perception that the current team were not delivering projects with the focus and pace required in the current climate.
There was also a requirement for the team to deliver significant cost improvement savings from their pre and post registration training budget.
Key Challenges
The team had no consistent approach to the scoping, development and delivery of projects resulting in slippage past the predicted delivery date and no clarity around what if any benefits had been delivered.
The absence of a robust and transparent performance management system within the team meant that the status of projects was based on a subjective assessment.
Certain key skills and behaviours were lacking and the overall approach required to delivery in full and on time was absent from the culture.
The increased focus on measurable delivery provided significant personal challenges to some team members unused to demands upon them.
Despite the significant value and number of educational contracts managed by the team, the framework and information required for robust contract management did not exist.
There was little, if any, cross functional working taking place within the team increasing duplication and confusion.
Main Actions
Develop the detailed improvement program in conjunction with the Head of Education & Development and provided project management of the entire improvement program.
Developed and delivered internal assurance structure and established the necessary workstreams.
Developed and delivered effective, bespoke project management systems, processes and dashboards and trained staff within their use.
Supported workstreams and the senior management team to prioritise and rationalise the current projects and identify areas for further development that would deliver sustained improvement in efficiency and productivity.
Conducted a review of the current contract management of educational providers and provided recommendations for improvement.
Provided both 1:1 and group mentorship to key personnel within the multi-professional deanery.
Main Results and Achievements
Developed and embedded new internal structure that addressed the needs of robust project and performance management.
Developed, implemented and embedded robust systems and processes for performance/project management that provided a real time and transparent status rating and assurance confidence.
Increased the skills and knowledge of team members in the areas of performance management, project scoping and management.
Enabled the management team to increase overall team capacity and rationalise/review the scope and nature of projects .
Successful delivery of the initial projects and review of the contract management process enabling the management team to delivery significant savings of c. £1.5m.