Weeknote 31st Jan – 4th Feb 2022
My name is Kwesi Afful and I am interested in digital transformation, service design within the public sector and reducing digital inequalities. Find out more about our work in ICS Digital and Data
Monday
I was on leave, but had to deal with a few emails that came through over the weekend that related to the digital transformation plans and funding support that was available. I have been thinking a lot about how we at national can do to help systems earlier with things like funding and the different asks that are made. Being on the other side of recieving guidance, policy and directives has made me determined to change the way it ‘feels’ for the local NHS orgs. For my work, I feel that a servant leadership style is what works well and forging strong relationships, Simon Dixon and I were speaking about this early in January on the back of some conversations about our place within the new Transformation Directorate of NHSE/I. So whilst I was off on leave, dealing with these queries triggered thinking around what I want to achieve with the work I lead.
Tuesday
Lots, going. on. Started off the day looking at where we are with the Digital Development programme, the programme is one of 4 modules geared at supporting ICSs with readiness and the necessary building blocks to start the ICS journey on the right foot. The digital and data module is at ICS level and is wholly geared to bringing together the people that are key to leading, planning and implementing digital transformation. There is a multi year plan element that we hope the programme supports ICSs in creating, however in order for that plan to be truly an ICS-wide plan, the partners from all aspects of physical and mental health need to be ‘at the table’ and most importantly key ones from care sector, ASC and the jewel that is the VCSE. With regards to the VCSE, they play such a key and important role of people getting the right support when they need it, but we need to do a lot more in involving them in the vision-setting and service redesign that will be critical to the success of ICSs. So there were many discussions and emails I was able to be a part of to start and progress those conversations.
Dealing with the technical aspects of digital and data is something that I don’t relish, but working with colleagues within the NHS Digital directorate i’ve the last several months has depended my awareness and appreciation for their hard work. There are so many systems beavering away in the background that ‘hold up’ a lot of the services that depend on them everyday and making sure that they are configured correctly in time for the establishment of ICBs is extremely complex. So dealing with the current issues around this did require some difficult conversations, but viable options were discussed and we have an approach that we can test together.
Understanding what are the collaborative tools and system we need to support systems to have in place so that those solutions are the best and also sustainable was something I looked into on Tuesday too. We work with the Digital Workforce lead who is developing a strategy and it was really helpful to see how we could work together and join-up our work, instead of burying our head in the sand and missing opportunities to reduce duplication of time and effort. It resulted in us agreeing that we need to do a discovery piece of work which builds upon the initial discovery that yielded 80 recommended actions that ICSs wanted to see come to life that will help them discharge functions.
Wednesday
The initial beta version of the ICS toolkit was completed as per the deliverables with the NHSX Delivery Plan that my programme has agreed to develop in support of ICSs. The toolkit is a great achievement and is one that has been tried several times before. It’s the first version and has been released with the aim of developing further versions through socialising on FutureNHS and actively encouraging feedback and iteration so that it can feed into future national architecture work. The team that worked on this are resilient, hard-working and persevering and I thank them for their part Chris Losch, Parminder Kaur, Josh Parker, Chris Suter, Dave Wilson, Amy Adams and Lucy Clifton (who recently joined the team and has made instant impact).
In addition to the iteration of the tool and its alignment to ICSs and the national work, I am keen to focus on the operationalisation of it and shaping the focus so that we define who needs to use it and how it fits into the overall exercise of redesigning health and care services so that they join up better locally. Again, working with ICSs and developing this will be key on getting this right.
Wednesday was also about doing some thinking around NHSMail and Microsoft 365, how are people using it, how do we engage with ICSs across the country to highlight the credible and tested use-cases both for clinical and non-clinical that have improved things for systems?how do we use it to drive economies of scale so that we can use the tool for more functions and reduce the need for additional tools if we can just use 365 more efficiently. I’m starting a strategy document on this to try and bring together a view of what good looks like when we maximise the use of a system that has been provided for all organisations.
Thursday
Lots of conversations about the retirement of NHSX and our new place within the CIO/NHSD directorate. There is still a lot to sort out, but the team I manage have been really positive despite the fact that there may be some adjustments on what we are working on. Going back to the initial discovery at the beginning of the project, I am keen that we don’t miss out on putting actions around the recommendations that we haven’t prioritised in this first year and work with the new CIO directorate to ensure that these are considered as part of the focus for year 2.
I met with the population health team and chief data analytical officers team to discuss the amazing work around Improving Electice Care Coordination for patients work which is now expanding across the country and involves a number of new pilots. Understanding how we can link the relevant themes through our collective programmes in a way that is easily understood by systems is what we are focusing on.
Friday
I recently interviewed people to join the team, some excellent candidates came forward and I appointed 2 people. 4 asked for feedback, so I was able to honour that commitment and provide meaningful feedback that wasn’t just ‘you were pipped to the post’ which is never helpful to candidates. So I had to prepare and really think about what I could constructively say that would help them for next time. Mostly it centred around the awareness of the current priorities and developing the ability to understand how we manage programmes in a way that can allow for flex based on shifting priorities.
We had a successful show and tell session, something we run every other Friday (w run lunch and learn sessions on alternate Friday’s) These are designed not just to update and inform ICSs on what we are doing, but also to keep us ‘honest’ and transparent with our work. We commit to taking the feedback given seriously and there have been a number of times that we have altered a course based on feedback within these sessions. This is something that I have learned from Pete Nuckley Simon Dixon Matt Edgar Ben Holliday Imogen Levy Rob Bates and others.
I had a good catch up with Sukhmeet who works at NHS England, getting advice from him on my work/leadership style and tips on how I can develop is always welcome.
A busy week – Next week I hope to make more progress with some data and IG actions I need to follow up on and get under the skin of what we need to do in order to bring the VCSE closer to the ICS table in terms of transformation and digital.
