Christmas at the CCG!

30^th November 2015 - 23^rd December 2015

The past few weeks at the CCG have been extremely busy as it is the run up to Christmas!  

I have been developing our local CQUINs for 2016/17. Using the ideas proposed at the workshop we held with the Trust earlier this month, I have been further developing these, looking at the rationale for the ideas, and potential milestones to implement. We are also holding a workshop in January with our mental health provider Cheshire & Wirral Partnership (CWP) to generate CQUIN ideas for 2016/17 which I am in the process of developing another 'Prezi' for!

Following the successful Commissioning Intentions 2016/17 prioritisation workshop, I have been preparing a presentation summarizing the results and the process we have followed so far to present at our Health Voice meeting next year. We will be developing QIPP plans (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) around the commissioning intentions that we have identified as our priorities during the workshop.

Last Friday, we held a Process Mapping event. The purpose of the event was to map out a patient’s pathway from admission to discharge back to the patient's home or care home and try to identify and reduce inefficiencies by looking at individual elements. There was representation from care home providers, nurses, our care home lead, quality manager and benefits realisation/programme office manager. It was very productive with many problems and subsequent solutions identified. I am looking forward to seeing the progress of the work that will be undertaken as a result of the workshop! 

In order to improve my marketing experience whilst on placement (as my degree is in Business and Marketing), I have been involved with the launch of our app CATCH. We are working with South Cheshire CCG and Cheshire East Council to develop the app to support the management of childhood illnesses in order to reduce unnecessary admissions to A&E.

The app is predominantly for parents to be/parents of young children in Cheshire East who will be able to seek NHS medical advice on things such as eating, drinking and keeping well whilst pregnant, vaccinations during pregnancy, treating high temperatures, weaning, teething, sleeping problems and more. There is the facility to add a child's name, gender and date of birth so that the information is tailored specifically to the child, and gives the option for reminders such as upcoming relevant vaccines. We recently had a testing session with the app developers and a marketing meeting to discuss the most effective ways to target our audience.

I have also completed the Edward Jenner Leadership programme. This consisted of online modules and a submission of a written piece of work to demonstrate how I have adopted the leadership skills that I learnt throughout the programme and how this has influenced others. The course was extremely beneficial to me and I learnt alot about person centred care, patient experience, the different styles of leadership, emotional intelligence and power and influence. In January, I will (hopefully!) receive the Edward Jenner certificate, once it has been marked.

I have also begun my PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) programme which is a professionally recognised project management methodology. I am completing online training seminars and revision sessions, and I will sit a final exam in February in order to gain a qualification in Prince2. 

Last Thursday, we had an early Christmas celebration and it was the Great CCG Bake Off final! The theme was a Christmas show stopper. In the previous bake off round, I decided to bake a Channel Tunnel Swiss roll, going from London (The Big Ben) to France (The Eiffel Tower!). I managed to come 2^nd which was a big achievement as there were some brilliant bakes!

For the final I decided to bake a chocolate fudge Christmas Pudding cake, shown in the photo below! There were some amazing showstoppers including a lovely white chocolate Snowman cake and a Persian Pavlova! It was a lot of fun getting involved in the bake off and I have definitely improved my baking abilities!

We also had a Christmas buffet, exchanged our Secret Santa presents and had a Christmas quiz.

Merry Christmas!

Katie