Client stories: NHS
Engaging key stakeholders
‘NHS Live’ is a framework for achieving cultural change across the NHS, originally conceived with the Department of Health, and now run by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. It is designed to encourage local teams to push forward with innovative projects that make a difference to the quality of the patient experience in their local area. In its first year 200 NHS organisations, each with a nominated team of staff, patients, stakeholders and the public, are engaged on local improvement projects.
It has many strands, not least the involvement of 8 corporate partner organisations from the private sector which help support the implementation of the local projects on the ground through a two-way sharing of experience. The innovative concept of corporate partner involvement has been a major influence in keeping the momentum going for change when Chief Execs and NHS managers are under pressure from all directions to focus on performance.
Designing an innovative approach
Stanton Marris helped conceive, design and develop the whole programme of activity, focusing particularly on the engagement of key stakeholders. This included local Chief Executives and project leaders who typically were frontline middle managers in health and social care.
We designed national leader workshops that helped project leads to develop their knowledge, gain core project management skills and learn about new approaches to patient engagement from the private sector. In addition we developed user-friendly toolkits and web-based resources for leaders to draw on for inspiration regarding their own local projects.
For me NHS Live is more than just another programme or initiative; it is a groundswell of collective action that is putting the patient, the public and our staff at the heart of what we do in the NHS and Social Care.
Rt Hon John Reid MP
Former Secretary of State for Health, NHS
The future’s bright
Regular evaluation has shown that this approach – built on sharing of learning and experience across sectors – has paid off in terms of the sustained success of local projects and, in addition, has created a channel for the sharing of best practice across the health system, in line with strategic priorities.
The NHS Live community now has a membership of over 11,000 frontline enthusiasts, innovators and improvers from across the NHS. It has already won four prestigious awards: from the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) a silver award for Change Management; from Communications in Business (CiB) an excellence award for stakeholder engagement and two gold awards from Events magazine for best conference and best event in sector.
About the client
The National Health Service (NHS) provides healthcare for all UK citizens based on their need for healthcare rather than their ability to pay for it. Since its launch in 1948 it has grown to become the world’s largest publicly funded health service.
