Make Care Connected

The wave of transformation sweeping through healthcare has resulted in complex major change programmes that are incredibly challenging to implement – and just as challenging to lead. That’s why we work closely with leaders on what’s required of them if they’re to succeed in these turbulent, ever more demanding, times.

The support we provide forms an important part of our continuous quality improvement work. Since helping design IMPACT, the NHS’s continuous improvement methodology, we’ve helped more than two dozen NHS Trusts to improve their patient experience, staff morale and organisational effectiveness. Two of those Trusts now feature in the top ten, nationwide, for the staff experience they offer.. We’ve done this by coaching leaders on how they ‘show up’ on a daily basis; how to deliver sustainable change; and how to create the conditions for success.

More broadly, we’ve drawn on the skills and expertise that have made us Europe’s second largest provider of learning services to become the NHS’s primary supplier of leadership management training. Within this, we have run a Clinical Operations programme that targets around 15,000 NHS middle managers and have been appointed as the managed learning services provider to NHSE, providing learning across their entire 16,000 strong workforce

Healthcare organisations are high-touch, people-centric businesses. Their success typically comes down to their ability to attract, train, empower and retain their staff. With 70% of the health budget spent on staff, it’s no surprise that any efforts to improve organisational efficiency and productivity and to drive up the quality of care almost inevitably start here.

That’s why we’ve developed a market-leading workforce proposition that draws on expertise in workforce shaping; learning and development; and HR transformation. We’ve then surrounded our technical experts with sector experts who bring an in-depth understanding of the realities of working in a healthcare workforce.

In practice, this means we can deploy experienced workforce, technology and learning professionals alongside people who have worked extensively in the NHS, both as clinicians and as senior people leaders. That’s why we’ve been entrusted with engagements such as designing the new Target Operating Model (TOM) for NHS People Services or exploring the extent to which AI can improve productivity and free up more vital frontline care time.

Across the NHS, we repeatedly see major digital programmes fail to achieve their full potential, not because of their technology or a lack of ambition but because vital cultural and leadership considerations are too often overlooked. As a result, these systems function technically but don’t deliver maximum productivity value or improved care outcomes.

Most organisations can implement technology or catalyse cultural change but very few can do both. That's why our healthcare transformation teams combine technical, operational and clinical expertise, grounded in cultural change know-how. This unique approach distinguishes us, enabling us to deliver sustainable, digitally enabled transformations that deliver the desired results. It’s why national programmes like DHSC’s cyber specialisms and the NHSE’s Single Patient Record and Tiger Teams trust us to turn ambition into measurable outcomes. 

Healthcare providers across the NHS are sitting on a vast data resource that could power every aspect of what they do. The real challenge lies in turning that raw material into a usable, high value asset that’s both accessible and trusted.

Through our work on programmes such as the Federated Data Platform and the Single Patient Record, we’re doing exactly that, converting data into measurable improvements in care, from reducing waiting lists through better theatre utilisation to delivering a better maternity care experience.

This isn’t something that technologists can deliver in isolation. Yes, it depends on powerful technology that can integrate and organise data. But it also depends on placing that technology into the flow of everyday operations so that it supports, rather than disrupts, care delivery.

That means understanding how services run today, what people do, why they do it that way and where the real pressures lie. Only then can we hope to align data and digital processes as smoothly as possible to those realities. It’s never just a technology question. It’s about people delivering a service, which is why we always take a broader, people-first perspective.

Depending on your perspective, major healthcare programmes are either exhilarating or terrifying to work on. There’s no rulebook, no precedent, nothing to repurpose or take inspiration from, no business as usual; just a complex and ambiguous problem to be worked through and a completely blank sheet of paper to begin with.

Much of the planning that goes into a major programme therefore involves thinking through everything from first principles. That’s why breadth of expertise is so important. Focus too narrowly on just one or two components of those first principles and a major programme can quickly become unstuck.

Our team brings that breadth of functional expertise and sector knowledge, helping us to secure funding approval for major government projects such as the New Hospital Programme and the National Biosecurity Centre.

Such programmes typically require billions of pounds worth of investment. For those sums, they need to deliver something transformational which, in turn, requires fresh ideas and new ways of thinking – which is what makes this work so exciting.

The lengths we’ll go to when providing risk assurance is why we currently work with 35 of the NHS’s 200 provider organisations. It’s also how we deliver a greater value for money return on every pound spent on assurance than any other provider.

Whether they’re looking to reduce waiting lists, improve patient care or implement new technology, NHS organisations require assurance that the risks of what they’re doing on the ground are understood, monitored and mitigated. Otherwise, they have little chance of turning strategic ambition into operational reality.

That’s where we come in; helping make sure the necessary controls are in place and working correctly – and understanding how this can be affected by organisational culture or staff behaviour.

Even the best new approaches rarely have a shelf life of more than 18-24 months before they’re replicated across the entire market – which is why we remain focused on assurance innovation; constantly devising new approaches to keep pace with how healthcare organisations are themselves evolving.

For anyone working on the healthcare frontline, their primary concern is only ever what their patient might need. Sadly, the environment that they work in – the infrastructure, the systems and processes, the culture, even the leadership – isn’t always geared towards helping them put the customer first.

With service transformation sweeping through healthcare, now is the time to rethink organisational design from the perspective of the customer.

We’ve been doing this for several years; intentionally driving improved customer outcomes through people, processes, technology, data and governance. This requires ambition; bold reforms that prioritise experience outcomes alongside efficiency, rather than fiddling at the fringe of existing legacy systems and processes.

Our reputation in this field has seen us commissioned to help deliver customer-centric transformations at all levels of healthcare, from the New Hospital Programme to the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly ICB to more localised change with individual NHS Trusts. In each case, it’s about using the experience of the customers we’re serving – and the experience of the people delivering that service – as the anchor for any organisational or service transformation.