Last week, the programme team brought together members of the NHS Reference group - our stakeholder group supporting the design and delivery of the engagement and implementation programme and DH analysts to discuss the behaviour change that we will need across the NHS in order to successfully deliver the soon to be published implementation plan.
We were fortunate to be supported by experts from the Cabinet Office, and we spent the morning identifying and prioritising which groups we need to engage with quickly, what their current behaviours are, and what we need to change in order for them to support us in delivering the implementation plan. Overwhelmingly this was found to be NHS frontline staff, senior leaders, professional organisations and vulnerable groups.
We talked about the role of hospital doctors - from knowing about the work, understanding that the treatment of unidentified chargeable patients has a direct impact on beds, resources and time available for resident patients - to practically knowing what to do or who to contact if they treat a chargeable patient.
We talked about the strategic role of Trust and CCG Boards and Finance Committees, identifying Audit Committees as a key audience for the work. And on the other end, we talked about the need to identify and understand the potential concerns and impacts on vulnerable groups. In order to make this programme a success, we need to speak to everyone, regardless where they are on the spectrum. We have to make sure we understand the impact our programme has on everyone, and how we they can be better supported.
We then moved on to think about the sort of questions relevant to each group to better gauge their current understanding and actions in the work.
All of this insight will help us in designing a survey for these targeted audiences about the programme and their current behaviours. We are planning to use the survey as a baseline – and in future, to measure and evaluate – the cultural and behavioural change of these audiences which are crucial for the success of the cost recovery programme.
Thank you to everyone who worked hard participating, and to the Cabinet Office for their invaluable expertise in the process.