Case Studies (page 2)

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Shared Services: Case Studies & ‘How to’ Toolkit
Comparing the experiences of two shared service projects and evaluating the lessons learnt to inform future shared service projects. 

Funded by the Cumbria Improvement & Efficiency Partnership, this project developed a candid and challenging comparison of two emerging shared services in Cumbria – one across Barrow and South Lakeland district council and one across Carlisle & Allerdale councils. The aim was to go beyond the rhetoric and theory of joining up services across public sector organisations and look at the detail from the scale of human resource activity required to the development of the legal framework and service level agreements.

The project initially sought to bring together useful documentation and templates to share with other organisations in Cumbria. Instead, Castlerigg Consulting suggested that it develop for Cumbria a ‘How to’ toolkit, pulling together thinking, best practice and tools already developed in the sub-region and make them more easily accessible to managers at the sharp end of managing this kind of ambitious change.

“This toolkit should be compulsory reading for all managers involved in any form of shared activity. It distils best practice from a wide range of regional projects and presents this in a logical and accessible way. Castlerigg have performed wonders in providing a resource which exceeded expectations and which could provide invaluable assistance throughout Cumbria and beyond.”
said Mick McKinnell, ICT & Customer Services Manager

The case study and toolkit are being widely distributed in Cumbria and already being employed by districts to inform the next phase of shared service development in the County.

Developing need led strategic planning & service re-design
Supporting the development of South Lakeland District Council as an organisation which shapes its planning, services, workforce and partnership working around the needs of its communities and takes an evidence based approach to decision making.

Castlerigg Consulting is supporting South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) on an ambitious journey to become a ‘need led’ organisation.  It is currently assisting with the continued development of SLDC’s corporate planning approach, ensuring there is a clear focus on evidence based outcomes and effective performance management. Castlerigg are also supporting the development of their Older People Programme – a multi-agency programme to join up services around the needs of older people in the district.  Finally we are working with SLDC to embed the need led concept across the organisation from resource management and workforce planning to consultation and knowledge management to ensure Customer Need sits at the heart of the strategic framework for the Council.

“One of the benefits of working with Castlerigg is their knowledge and understanding of working in a two tier, multi agency environment.    They provide invaluable  challenge, support and direction to officers at all levels in the organisation by working alongside us as a partner rather than acting as ‘traditional’ consultants.  They are playing a key role in taking forward our need led approach to service improvement.”
said Claire Gould, Transformation Programme Manager.

This is an on-going assignment for Castlerigg Consulting.

Integrating community health services in South Lakeland
Real time access to patient records in the community

Castlerigg Consulting is programme managing a pioneering initiative to support care closer to home for patients in South Lakeland. The programme, which is delivering seamless data sharing across a large rural area of GP practices in South Lakes, is using EMIS Web to enable sharing of essential patient information with a range of community health teams, such as respiratory nurse specialists.  This new approach also enables out-of-hours GPs to view essential patient information during consultations, reducing the GP’s margin for error and saving valuable consultation time.  Community teams are also able to access essential patient information remotely using mobile devices which both supports consultations and reduces administration and travel time to update records at offices and surgeries.

20 out of 22 GP practices in the area - serving 125,000 patients - are now in the process of streaming patient information via EMIS Web.  Other community based services such as the Primary care assessment service are already benefitting from this programme and more GP practices are expected to join the scheme in the next few months, bringing total patient coverage to 150,000. 

NHS Cumbria was recently chosen by the Department for Health as one of 16 Integrated Care Pilots across the UK, and imaginative use of IT such as this programme delivers is proving key to meeting its local and national targets under the scheme. 

“James from Castlerigg Consulting has been a driving force within the project and has shown huge commitment to achieving outcomes in an ambitious timeframe. He combines the ability to see the big picture with being able to navigate the smaller stuff to produce results every time. In an NHS often overburdened with management consultants the significant progress to date would not have been achieved without his input. I have been delighted with the service Castlerigg has provided, and continues to provide, to the project.” 
Dr Lumb, GP IT Lead South Lakes Locality.