Catch is launched!

15th January 2016- 18th February 2016

Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately, it has been a very busy month at the CCG and I have also just returned from a very relaxing break in Portugal!

Before I went on holiday, I was assisting my manager Andrew with producing a report for the 2016/17 CQUINs. The report outlined the process we have undertaken to agree the 2016/17 CQUINs, detailing the results from the workshops with providers and the work that has taken place since then. 

A couple of weeks ago, we conducted the interviews for the new placement students, who will take over mine and Amy’s roles in the summer.  It was a brilliant experience to be on the other side of the interview panel. We interviewed a number of candidates for the roles and asked them to produce a presentation including the question ‘What is a CCG?’ All of the candidates produced excellent, well-researched presentations. Though it was a difficult decision as the scores were very close, we have selected two great candidates and we are looking forward to our new students starting in the summer.

As well as this, I’ve been doing some research comparing trends within integrated and non-integrated organisations. I have been analysing CQC reports and identifying the cultural elements to monitor their impact on the organisation’s performance.

The Catch app has officially been launched and is now live available to download on the App store! The app was developed by ourselves, NHS South Cheshire CCG and the council to help parents and carers of children under five in Cheshire East. The app aims to empower parents and carers by providing NHS medical advice for them to decide when their child needs treatment or when self-care would be most appropriate.

For the launch, the CCG held a professional engagement event whereby around 60 clinicians attended to learn about the app and try it for themselves. There was alot of positive feedback and support for the app, it is certainly an invaluable tool for parents and carers in Cheshire East.

For more information on CATCH or to download it, visit www.catchapp.co.uk

As mentioned in previous blog posts, over the past couple of months I have been undertaking the PRINCE 2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) course. PRINCE 2 is a project management methodology, which incorporates seven principles, themes and processes that should help to control and manage any project, regardless of its size. I sat the exam a couple of weeks ago and passed! I am very grateful for the opportunity to enhance my personal development skills whilst on my placement. 

Whilst we continue developing the 2016/17 CQUINs, I am also monitoring and reviewing the current 2015/16 CQUINs. I have recently reviewed the Quarter 3 evidence that our providers have submitted.

We are also in the process of putting together the 2016/17 Quality Schedules for our providers. These form part of the contract and list what the provider is required to achieve and report against when providing the service. There is a set of nationally mandated indicators which all providers are expected to achieve for example 95% of patients being admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours of arrival at A&E. There are nationally set consequences for non-achievement of these, such as financial penalties.  There are also locally agreed quality requirements which must fit under the 5 domains that make up the NHS Outcomes Framework.

Earlier this month we held a 2016/17 Financial Recovery workshop. It was extremely interesting to learn about ways in which the CCG plan to reduce inefficiencies. I learnt about Rightcare, a national tool which focuses on where to look, what to change and how to change. I am keen to learn more about the CCG's financial planning whilst on the rest of my placement.

Happy New Year!

4^th January- 15^th January 2016

Happy New Year! I've had a lovely, relaxing Christmas break and I feel recharged, ready for 2016!

I have recently been working with the Communications Team on Catch, the self-care app that we are launching for parents and carers of children ages 0-5 living in Cheshire. We have been conducting further market research for the app, holding testing sessions at Children’s Centres in Cheshire. We received a lot of useful feedback from parents which has been extremely positive, with everyone really supporting the idea of Catch. We found parents particularly liked that the app gives NHS reliable advice, as oppose to conflicting advice for example in different books.  I think Catch will be particularly useful for first time parents who may not have a great deal of knowledge about babies’ health and will have one place they can look to, to get NHS trusted advice.

We have been discussing the marketing for the launch of Catch and have decided on having a health professional’s engagement event. We will invite clinicians from across Cheshire such as GPs, midwives, children’s A&E staff, nurses and health care assistants. This event will allow us to explain the reason behind Catch and allow health professionals to try the app themselves so that they can promote its use to patients in order to reduce unnecessary children's A&E admissions. We are also planning  for a public launch of Catch.

As well as this, along with Amy and our managers, I have been shortlisting for the new placement students as the closing date for the placement positions was this week. There are some great candidates for the roles and I am looking forward to meeting them at the interviews next month. I have really enjoyed the recruitment process so far and have learnt what recruiters look for in a good CV.

I have also been working on developing CQUIN ideas for next year; we had a productive workshop with our mental health provider CWP last week and will be having our staff workshop next week to develop initial ideas further.

Also this week, I attended our quarterly contract meeting with the private hospital in Macclesfield; Spire Regency. We commission certain services from Spire and so have a quarterly contract meeting with them to review finance and activity and quality and performance. 

I also attended my first Caring Together meeting this week. Caring Together is a programme central to the Transformation team, which is the department that Amy, the other placement student at the CCG works in. As I haven’t been involved in Transformation much, I was keen to learn more about what transformation entails. I learnt a lot about the innovative projects that are ongoing surrounding the programme. 

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

 

4 months at the CCG!

2nd November 2015 -27th November 2015

This week will mark the end of my fourth month working at the CCG! I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by! I have been extremely busy recently at the CCG working on a variety of projects, hence why I’m doing a month's worth of blogs in one go!

I have been busy developing the CCG’s Commissioning Intentions for 2016/17. I have arranged a workshop in December which will have representation of patients, clinicians and members of staff from the CCG. The purpose of the workshop is to shortlist and prioritise the long list of commissioning intentions that have been proposed. At the workshop, attendees will be completing a relatively complex prioritisation matrix tool using project mandates to inform their decisions. They will be assessing each commissioning intention based on factors such as how it contributes to our strategic goals, how innovative it is, the numbers of people it will benefit, the risk of not achieving the target, how quickly the project can be delivered, the resources it requires and estimated savings. These are weighted to give an overall score which we can then use to compare each intention. It is a relatively lengthy process but it is necessary in order for the commissioning intentions to be decided upon as objectively as possible.

I have also been reviewing the CQUIN evidence for quarter 2 that our providers have submitted. We are holding a workshop next week with the Trust to discuss the themes for CQUINs in 2016/17, based upon what currently requires improvement that they can achieve in an innovative way.  

This month I also attended an Outcomes Based Commissioning AQuA course in Manchester. In my previous blogs, I’ve mentioned how we are trying to implement outcome based commissioning successfully in the CCG. This course was extremely beneficial and it was valuable to talk to people from other CCGs and learn about their challenges and successes in implementing it.

Two weeks ago I spent a week working in the Complaints, Concerns & Compliments Team. I had a really valuable and interesting week; working with Jo to learn about Professional Concerns and Serious Untoward Incidents (SUIs). I then had a day with Chris whereby he gave me an overview of MP letters and Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests. I had the task of completing my own FOI request which has now been signed off and sent! On my last day, Rosie explained to me the Complaints process. It was really interesting to read and understand previous complaints and the uniform procedures that we adhere to in order to resolve them. A lot of thorough investigation is done when a complaint is received. It was really positive to hear that the Complaints Team’s ethos is that we view complaints as a way in which we can identify any problems or gaps in services in order to resolve and learn from them. I then had my own mock complaint to resolve!

This month, I also attended an “inetwork delivering through devolution” event in Salford. Prior to the event, I didn’t know much at all about devolution or how it would impact myself or the CCG. The day was very interesting and helpful and consisted of several seminar sessions and talks from leaders of various councils.

I learnt that as devolution deals are agreed with more places (possibly including Cheshire), it is vital to ensure the devolved public services are also better public services. I also learnt about the evaluation of the schemes in Manchester’s reform, system leader considerations and the value devolution could add in Cheshire.  

A key message I took away from the day was that devolution is a catalyst for collaborative working. It gives us the opportunity to be proactive and redesign our services innovatively. A particularly interesting point that one speaker made is that people want (and should have) complex services, that are often needed in a crisis, delivered in a simple way.

Alongside this, I have been developing my skills within HR. Whilst I have only been on my placement for four months, it is time to recruit for the next placement students for 2016-17 who will fill mine and Amy’s roles when we leave in the summer. Amy and I are responsible for the recruitment for the positions. It has been an enjoyable task redesigning the job descriptions and person specifications and liaising with the placement teams at the selected universities.  The vacancies for the roles are now live being advertised on several university websites. I am looking forward to the next steps in the process; shortlisting candidates and being part of the interview panel. It will give me a good insight into the recruitment process within the NHS and also a good understanding of what qualities and attributes stand out to recruiters. 

For the second year on the run, the CCG has decided to hold its own version of the BBC’s ‘The Great British Bake Off’ in aid of the Alzheimer’s society. We are combining members of staff's love of baking and eating as well as raising money for a good cause! It is a fortnightly challenge  leading up until Christmas. The first challenge took place last week. Bakers were asked to create any biscuits of their choice, following the theme of what we would spend our lottery winnings on. I decided to bake a hut in the Maldives made out of gingerbread. There are some very talented bakers at the CCG! Next week’s challenge is cake following  a French theme… 

Passing Microsoft Excel Advanced!

16^th October 2015- 30^th October 2015

Recently I have been working on a presentation for our CQUIN workshops that we hold each year with our providers. The workshops enable us to discuss with our providers potential CQUINs for the following year and generate innovative ideas whilst ensuring the CQUINs are realistic for the provider to achieve.

I was feeling adventurous when creating the presentation and used “Prezi” which is relatively new presentation software, instead of the traditional PowerPoint! I hadn't used Prezi before, but it was much more straightforward than I thought and I am very pleased with the outcome! It helps to create a unique and engaging presentation. I will definitely use Prezi in my final year at university when I do presentations in my seminars to tutors and colleagues.

I’ve continued working on the Performance section of the CCG website which is almost finished. I think it is much clearer and easier now for a member of the public to find out how our CCG monitors quality and be able to understand the array of measures used to do this. I’ve also been working a great deal on the Practice Nurse area on the CCG website along with Kate from the Communications team. The nurses in Eastern Cheshire will have access to information on PGDs, the training and education events they attend, policies and protocols and have a 'News' section. My website designing skills have definitely progressed!

I am very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to enhance my personal development skills whilst on my placement. This week I went on an Advanced Microsoft Excel course. It was an extremely beneficial course and I learnt a lot including: validation rules, formula precedents and dependents, error checking, watch windows, protection, complex functions, pivot tables/charts and macros. I am pleased to say I have passed this course! It will be of great use for my role at the CCG as I often create reports and use excel. It will also be of great use when I return to university and in future job roles.

Also this week, I created a commissioning intentions survey for the patients in Eastern Cheshire in order to hear their opinions on what they think should be commissioned. I will be working with the Communications and Engagement Team to promote and encourage patients to take the survey.

In addition to this, I joined a WebEx on Quality Improvement along with my manager Andrew. I was surprised to find that it covered concepts I learnt in one of my modules during my second year of university such as ideas from Deming and Ishikawa.  I wrote an essay for this module which talked in depth about Deming, Ishikawa and their influence on quality improvement. Therefore it was very interesting to see that theoretical studies such as this are applied to business on a daily basis and are adopted by members of staff in the NHS!

The Friends & Family Test!

 2^nd October 2015- 16^th October 2015

Over the past couple of  weeks, myself and a staff member from CVS Cheshire East have been working together to improve the Quality & Performance section on the CCG’s website, particularly our performance documents including CQUINs, Quality Premium, NHS Constitution and A&E data which we share with the public. I am in the process of ‘translating’ the complex NHS terminology so that the public can easily understand the documents should they want to. The visitor will be provided with a brief description of what each term means when they click on it and why and how we measure it.  I will be presenting back at our next Clinical Quality & Performance Meeting on our progress.

Additionally this week, Sally and I have met with a couple of our ophthalmology providers to finalize the contracts which is very exciting! I have been fortunate enough to view the whole process of contracting, starting from going out to tender for a contract to the commencement of the service delivery.

I have also prepared a report based on the Trust’s Friends & Family Test (FFT) performance. Patients across the country are asked when they leave hospital whether they would recommend the hospital's services to friends and family.This is a vital feedback tool for patients on their experience of the NHS services including: A&E, Inpatient, Outpatient, Maternity, Community, Mental Health and the GP Practices in Eastern Cheshire.  The results have been very positive for East Cheshire Trust!

In addition to this, I also completed a “Presentation Skills” course which definitely helped when I presented our commissioning intentions for 16/17 at our staff briefing meeting which is held monthly. I gave an update to all our staff members on the process we are following and where we are up to with it. 

Presenting our Commissioning Intentions!

21^st September 2015- 2^nd October 2015

Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately- I’m doing two weeks in one as I’ve been extremely busy and not had the chance to write up what I’ve been up to!

I am making progress with the Ophthalmology contracts; two are near completion! The contract manager Sally and I are are meeting with one of the providers next week so that we can ensure we have everything ready for the commencement of the contract and to go through the final documents that we need.

This week I have also compiled a report based on a multitude of data about the Trust’s performance on a range of areas such as Pneumonia, Heart Failure, Diabetes and COPD. It is an informative and visual report with graphs to send to the Trust in order for them to clearly see their current performance in these areas and their peer group position amongst other similar CCGs.

Last Friday I attended my first Health Voice meeting. HealthVoice is an independent, voluntary body that advises our CCG on the planning and buying of health services, helping ensure that the needs of patients, carers and the public are taken fully into account when decisions are made. It was an interesting and productive meeting with the patients sharing their opinions about the latest updates at the CCG. I have also been assisting the Communications and Engagement Team with a few tasks regarding Health Voice such as the Health Voice Pharmacy Letter Campaign. This is a campaign aiming to get more members of the public involved with HealthVoice. As the degree I am studying for at university is Business and Marketing, it is great to see how the CCG promotes itself and HealthVoice to the public.

Another project I am involved in is assisting Jacki Wilkes, the Associate Director of Commissioning, in developing our commissioning intentions for 2016/17.I have been collating all the proposed initial intentions from key members of staff at the CCG and we have met with patients to inform them of the process and listen to their thoughts. 

I then presented this at the Locality Meeting in Macclesfield. As mentioned in previous blogs, this is a meeting between around 50 GPs and Practice Managers in Eastern Cheshire and a few key members of the CCG in order to give updates on work streams. I presented our commissioning intentions process for 2016/17 at the meeting, explaining where we are currently up to and asked for everyone's thoughts on potential commissioning intentions based upon any gaps in their local area, any key areas for development in a hospital and a community setting and the benefit of the intention. We've received some great responses and I will be collating them next week in time for the next step of the process; to prioritise and shortlist the intentions!

In addition to this I have been learning about Terms Of References in meetings as I have had to create the Terms Of References for a new meeting to replace/merge the Finance & Activity meeting and the Service Quality Review meeting. It was useful to learn about the formality of meetings and the rules involved. 

Finalising the Outcome Based Commissioning process!

14th September 2015- 18th September 2015

This week at the CCG I have continued working on CQUINS (Commissioning for Quality and Innovation) for our mental health provider; CWP. I have been reporting to CWP our feedback for each CQUIN’s evidence that was submitted. I have definitely improved my medical knowledge working at the CCG- I’m grateful I took Biology at A-level as it has certainly helped! I am thoroughly enjoying working in the healthcare sector as it is such a dynamic environment and there is plenty to constantly learn about which I enjoy!

I have also been looking at potential quality standards, outcomes and CQUINs we can incorporate into the Ophthalmology contracts. These are designed to drive measurable quality improvements within the service.

As well as this, I've also been working on finalising the outcome based commissioning process with Amy; the other placement student at the CCG. We have designed a sample process of how a project lead would go about following an outcome based commissioning process starting from identifying the problems in the current system to deciding upon the outcomes and indicators (often the most ambiguous step), redesigning services and how to measure the outcomes' progress. It is a detailed process using examples and best practice. We are now putting together a project plan to proposed time scales. 

I am really enjoying this task as it requires in depth research as it is a relatively new approach with few other CCGs currently performing this way.  With increasing demographic pressures, rising expectations, a widening gap between demand and resources and outdated and over stretched delivery systems, this outcome based approach has the potential to reduce costs and improve the quality of services considerably. Therefore, by outlining a thorough, clear process will help to anticipate any problems when commissioning this way and be most effective. Amy and I are meeting with a few members of staff at the CCG next week to show the process we have come up with so far.

Also this week, I had a meeting with Brenda Smith, the director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living at Cheshire East Council. Brenda was very helpful in giving me an overview of her role in the council and her relationship to the CCG, specifically the Caring Together programme. It was very interesting to see the link and understand her vital roles in strategic and individual commissioning.

From contracts to website designing!

7th September 2015- 11th September 2015

I’ve been involved in a wide variety of projects this week at the CCG; some of which are listed below.

At the start of the week, along with my manager Andrew, I completed my Personal Development Review (PDR). All members of staff working for the NHS are required to complete a PDR every year in order to review their progress within the organization. I have noted my personal objectives I hope to achieve over the next twelve months, what I believe to be are my most important aims and tasks for the next year and my action plan for achieving these.

I have also been completing a few of the contacts for the Ophthalmology service; liaising with the Providers about the policies and documents we require and any they would like to be included in the contract.

On Wednesday I attended my first Clinical Quality and Performance Committee meeting. This meeting reviews all of the quality aspects of the local healthcare services that are being delivered. Dashboards are presented to highlight performance in terms of A&E attendance, FFT performance, and IAPT referrals. I understood most things that were discussed (which shows I am definitely making progress understanding the complex and diverse areas of the CCG!). 

On Thursday I attended a workshop in Middlewich along with my manager Andrew, the other placement student Amy and her manager Jane as they were giving presentations on Outcome Based Commissioning and Service Improvement to the lead practice nurses from Eastern and South Cheshire. This was extremely productive and helped me to understand the nurses’ opinions of implementing outcome based commissioning and quality improvement and how these changes affect their jobs first hand.

I have also been updating the CCG website creating an area for the Practice Nurses which has definitely challenged and improved my website designing skills!

NHS Expo Event!

31st August 2015- 4th September 2015

As the week was short due to the bank holiday, the week went even faster than usual- so apologies for the late blog post!

At the beginning of the week, I began writing my first contract for the Ophthalmology service. Before I started my placement, I had no idea how complex NHS contracts were so I definitely learnt a lot doing this and enjoyed doing it. 

On Thursday I had the privilege of attending the NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo 2015/16 event at Manchester Central Convention Centre. It was a big event over two days with around 5000 people attending each day. There were various exhibition stands, stimulating workshops in the ‘pop-up universities’ and key note speeches about Innovation and the Future NHS. I gained a great deal of knowledge and understanding at the workshops and enjoyed learning about the progress we are making and the new systems in place to defragment processes and ultimately improve quality. The NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens gave an interesting talk and Jeremy Hunt MP, The Secretary of State For Health challenged the NHS to ensure all patients were able to access their full medical records online by 2018, accompanied by a commitment to a review of data security.

Ultimately the event was a celebration of innovation and improvement in the NHS, to further integrate our efforts and spread adoption of the best new ideas. It was great to see how optimistic, ambitious and driven everyone was in improving the NHS. NHS England Chair Sir Malcom Grant closed the event highlighting the importance of innovation in the NHS and said innovation is a catalyst to productivity. He said “Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful industry – industries come up on the wave of innovation, but if they fail to continue innovating then they fail."

On Friday I attended my first Locality Meeting, which is a meeting between the GPs and Practice Managers in Eastern Cheshire and the CCG in order for us to provide the GPs with updates on work streams. This gave me a good overview of all the latest projects and the chance to meet the GPs.