NHSE/I South West region wanted an objective evaluation of the progress made by their seven systems in delivering the transformation needed in Children and Young People’s (CYP) services. SCW rapidly designed and mobilised a bespoke assessment process to provide a comprehensive evaluation. Best practice, key themes and recommendations were identified for the region.
Context
The CYP Transformation Programme was established with the introduction of the NHS Long Term Plan in 2019. The programme aimed to oversee the delivery of the commitments within the plan relating to children and young people aged 0-25. This was a crucial part of improving the experience of mental health support for this group.
After a year of the new approach, the NHSE/I South West region was keen to evaluate the progress that had been made for the children and young people in their seven systems to see if the programme was making a difference.
Challenge
NHSE/I South West region knew they needed to see how well their region was doing in this important area. How mature were their systems in comparison to the national and regional priorities that had been set? But this evaluation needed an objective approach.
SCW was asked to look under the bonnet, as an objective business partner, and conduct a benchmarking exercise for each system. The seven South West systems were scored against the national and regional transformation programme deliverables to demonstrate their current position in the first year of the programme in areas including obesity, asthma, bladder & bowel, and palliative care.
Solution
We rapidly mobilised to deliver the work over two phases: national deliverables (March - April 2021) and regional deliverables (April - May 2021).
Our in-house clinical subject matter expert designed a customised template to ensure consistency in engagement and interrogation of detail during the discovery interviews. Engagement sessions were held for each deliverable within each system. The process involved stringent risk management and mitigation due to the speed and nature of the work. We were able to assure the customer as to the comprehensiveness of our investigations to deliver the most accurate and independent assessment.
Our analysis used existing and developing Public Health Linked Data Sets to provide a ‘Population Health Needs’ view. Including information relating to Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities, Autism and/or Mental Health was an important aspect to ensure a robust analysis.
Following initial engagement sessions, the project team drew additional clinical expertise to benchmark the systems against a standardised NHS maturity rating: emerging, developing, or mature.
The resulting two detailed reports outlined the overarching themes for the region, as well as highlights within each deliverable for each system
Impact
Best practice, key themes and recommendations were identified, helping the region continue to support the delivery of the CYP Transformation.
We have been asked to conduct a further exercise in 2022-23, to look at CYP workforce, data and system maturity as part of the South West CYP Strategic Review. We will develop the scope of this work with ICS CYP leads and regional colleagues.
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