Job responsibilities
JOB PURPOSE
The post holder will:
- Work with Clinical Directors and the leadership with a Primary Care Network (PCN) to create a vision to guide service improvements, identify opportunities to make tangible positive transformation, and provide the inspiration, expertise and leadership to deliver changes in a collaborative way. The post holder will support this vision to be developed in alignment with ICS strategy.
- Plan, coordinate and directly support delivery of transformation activity in general practice within a PCN with a view to improving patient access, quality and continuity of care, staff and patient satisfaction, and the efficiency and sustainability of general practice services.
- Work closely with staff working at practices, such as practice managers and staff at the PCN to understand current service models, identify challenges, agree priorities for improvement and then support these to be delivered.
- Develop strong relationships with their local PCN practices and will support the planning and delivery of improvements that will provide benefits to patients and staff.
- Develop relationships with peers across other PCNs to share learning and expertise at place or system level.
- In collaboration with the CD and Leadership team, support initiatives for increasing PCN income through maximising achievements to local and national targets. Identify any potential additional funding streams and / or income opportunities.
- Develop relationships with the ICS to discuss and agree local transformation plans and activity, and to support alignment with broader strategy, including the ICSs digital strategy.
- Develop relationships with local delivery partners (such as IT service providers and other NHS organisations) to support effective delivery of transformation.
- Work with the ICS to request specialist IT and estates expertise required to deliver transformation plans, in line with the ICSs delegated responsibilities for GPIT and GP estates.
- Work with the ICS to bring in other specialist support as required e.g. in analytics, evaluation, organisational development etc.
- Work with PCN leadership to help to develop strategy related to transformation and improvement, aligning this with larger scale strategy and initiatives, particularly at ICS level; they will contribute to collaborative problem solving with other system partners, patients and communities; focussing their time on the planning, implementation and evaluation of practical improvements that make a difference to patients and staff in the PCN.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Quality and Service Improvements
The core objective of the PCN Digital and Transformation Lead role is to support the PCN and its practices to deliver ongoing improvement to services. The role will require experience in quality / service improvement with expertise in transformational change and a good understanding of general practice systems and processes, including familiarity with general practice digital systems and how they can be used to deliver improvement.
This expertise will be used to:
- Work alongside practices to understand current challenges to effective service delivery and identify solutions, including existing best practice within the PCN.
- Drive the planning and prioritisation of changes that will improve delivery of care and improve patient and staff experience in the practices within the PCN.
- Ensure all change is ultimately focussed on improving services for patients and is based on working with patients and communities to understand their needs and experiences
- Build relationships with practices across the PCN to develop consensus for improvements and to ensure all staff (clinical and non-clinical) are fully engaged throughout the process of selection, implementation, deployment and monitoring/evaluation of change, peer challenge and learning.
- Develop and manage an overall transformation plan for the PCN, including identifying interdependencies, managing risks, considering the potential impacts on the wider organisation, and determining resource requirements.
- Link with other PCN transformation leads, the ICS and other system partners to collaboratively solve problems, share learning, gain buy-in for transformation and to support alignment with wider strategy and improvement approaches.
- Provide hands-on capacity and support to practices in implementing and sustaining agreed changes.
- Support staff to identify and participate in relevant training and/or professional development opportunities that will support achievement of agreed improvements.
- Support practices and staff to optimise use of existing functionality and new technology to deliver benefits for patients and staff and enable improvement.
- Use improvement techniques to focus on delivery of changes and analysis of their impacts, providing feedback to staff on both positive and negative impacts of changes made.
- Use data to support population health management and workforce planning.
- Advise on innovative opportunities and support practices to maximise benefits from innovation, through the sharing of learning and best practice.
- Develop and implement mechanisms for assessing the impact of agreed changes.
- Keep PCN leadership and member practices updated on progress of current initiatives, capacity for change, progress and issues so that plans can be adapted in response.
- Asses the PCNs transformation maturity and help the ICS understand local support needs, for example, facilitated by using relevant frameworks
Information and Data Management
The post holder will need to have skills in relation to understanding and using data to drive improvement and assess impacts. These skills will be used to:
- Take a data driven approach, looking at evidence and information available to support understanding of challenges, identify possible solutions and track the impacts of changes that have been made.
- Work in partnership with the ICS to identify relevant data sets and to support standardisation in the use of measures for understanding change and improvement in general practice.
- Bring together data from a variety of sources and use information to develop insights into working practices, or support population health management, risk stratification or workforce planning, effectively tailoring content to meet the needs of the audience.
- Effectively present and communicate data to practices and PCN staff at all levels to increase understanding of operational challenges
- Interpret data and highlight variation to support open discussion about where variation is and is not warranted
- Help PCN and practice staff understand the limitations of particular data sets and where other information may be available to supplement understanding of issues
- Support and encourage a focus on data in understanding the effectiveness of changes made
- Seek and secure analytical resource as required to support the PCN in developing and implementing appropriate data and information sharing mechanisms
- Use data to track and assess impact of changes made to operational processes, and to track trends and developments over time.
Communication and Engagement
With responsibility for developing and supporting delivery of transformational projects across the PCN, the post holder will be skilled at engaging different stakeholders, bringing people together and gaining support and buy-in to change.
These skills will be used to:
- Build and maintain good working relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders, including with the ICS.
- Initiate and participate in development of effective systems of communication and co-operation between practices, staff, and other members of the primary care team.
- Ensure that changes are aligned with agreed clinical priorities and have ownership and engagement from clinical leaders and staff.
- Support practices to communicate changes and new processes effectively and consistently to patients.
- Identify best practice and learning from other areas that could be applicable to the local PCN and communicate this to staff.
- Make connections across the PCN to support learning between practices and sharing of best practice.
- Make connections with other PCNs, the ICS, other service delivery organisations, patients and communities to plan and deliver changes that will improve working between general practices and other primary and community care and wider care services.
- Lead or participate in relevant working groups, project groups, service meetings and other forums across the PCN (and ICS) to agree changes, share learning, discuss challenges, and resolves issues.
Service Development
With responsibility for supporting the PCN to identify and make progress with transformational change, the post holder will be skilled at understanding and interpreting national and system-wide policy developments and initiatives to local circumstances and contexts.
These skills will be used to:
- Maintain a good knowledge of key policies from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and other relevant government departments and agencies, and support PCN staff to understand and interpret these locally.
- Collaborate with peers in other PCNs and work with the local ICS to support the development of overall primary care transformation strategies, including digital transformation strategies, and their delivery.
- Support the PCN and member practices to adapt and apply specific policies and initiatives to local needs and to prioritise initiatives based on local requirements.
For more information, please see the supporting documents
