Title
Supply of NHS 111 Integrated Urgent Care Workforce Development Programme - Pilot, testing and evaluation project
Principal / Lead investigator
- Prof Helen Snooks, Swansea University
Co-investigators / research team
- Dr Alison Porter, Swansea University
- Dr Mark Kingston, Swansea University
- Dr Jenna Turner, Swansea University
Type of study
Service evaluation
Summary
The NHS Integrated Urgent Care Workforce Development Programme supports the development of the future NHS Integrated Urgent Care call centre workforce, aiming to improve services for patients across England.
A Workforce Investment Fund (WIF) was set up jointly by NHS England and Health Education England (HEE) to facilitate this work. Under the WIF funding scheme, project proposals under four themed topic areas and an ‘other’ category were invited from provider organisations working in partnership with their local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). A total of 19 project proposals from across England were successful.
As part of their funding remit, each project team was required to include an evaluation component within their project and report on this in their final report to funders. In consideration of the complexity involved in evaluating projects, NHS England and HEE contracted Swansea University, in collaboration with Sheffield University, to provide guidance and evaluation support to projects and to produce a synthesis of evaluation findings. Four experienced members of the evaluation support team provided feedback on the evaluation component of each project proposal and arranged two evaluation support workshops.
During the workshops project teams were able to share practice and to discuss issues concerning project delivery and evaluation with funders and the support team, who were present at both events. The evaluation support team offered advice to projects on their draft reports; in particular focusing on the evaluation component of each report.
Lay involvement
To follow
Who is the study sponsor?
Swansea University
Funder
Health Education England/NHS England
Total grant value
£50,000
Start date
01/01/2016
End date
30/05/2016
How could this research potentially benefit public / patients?
To follow
Further information (e.g. related web link)
Developing the NHS 111 workforce: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/developing-nhs-111-workforce
Outputs generated (Reports / Publications)
Final Report: Snooks H, Khanom A, Porter A, Kingston M, Turner J. NHS Integrated Urgent Care Workforce Development Programme: Evaluation Synthesis Report. Oct 2016.
Impact
Inclusion of a requirement for evaluation in these commissioned projects has allowed the use of methods to gather quantitative and qualitative data and to report these data in a structured manner. Provision of evaluation support to plan and deliver these evaluations has allowed providers to consider their desired outcomes and to collect data in a focused way to address these outcomes. In particular, drawing together projects through evaluation support workshops provided a forum for discussion, development of evaluation skills and for communication between projects and commissioners.
Overall the findings from the 19 projects indicate the importance of addressing workforce attrition issues through training and education; building in opportunities for career progression and professionalisation; maintaining staff well-being by providing timely mental health support and addressing staff grievances; and better understanding and response to casemix and workload issues.
