Consultancy service - case study
A Chief Executive requested help with a clinical service which was ineffective, overspent and not meeting the Trust’s or National standards for clinical care. They wanted help to turn the service around.
What we did:
We conducted confidential, individual interviews with the service director and his management team. We interviewed staff and service users to gain their insights with respect to the strengths and weaknesses of the services. The management team then worked with the consultant to identify the problems, bring out into the open very difficult, sensitive issues and agree an action plan. The service director managed the action plan, made some very difficult decisions and the service started to improve within three months. The consultant’s role was to provide a safe environment for some very tough conversations, challenge the service director and management team to make decisions and involve staff and service users in planning and implementing service changes. They also worked with the clinical teams using research based measurement tools to enable the teams to benchmark themselves against standards for teams and set objectives.
Results:
One year later both local and national targets had been met. The management team performance-managed the service. A leadership programme helped to improve the capability of local clinical team leaders. Teams became more effective and efficient and positive changes were measured at six months.
Quote:
“We were unsure to begin with whether this would work. We could not have achieved the changes we have if we had not had the opportunity to work through the process with this highly skilled group of consultants.”
