Liverpool CCG Case Study

Innovation programme supports CCG strategy implementation success

Executive Summary

Liverpool CCG was one of the early adopters when the Innovation Programme was extended to the public sector at the end of 2014. The Chair of Liverpool CCG, Dr Nadim Fazlani, explained that they "joined KnowledgeBrief to see what we can learn from systems other than health, in terms of system transformation and change management. We want to apply the lessons learnt to Liverpool's health and social care economy."

The KnowledgeBrief Innovation Programme:

• Allows Liverpool CCG to see what is happening outside the world of health and work more effectively in this ever changing world
• Provided direct learning about how to manage space creatively and to design workplace issues when they moved into a new building
• Enables Dr Fazlani to address the imbalance between strategic implementation and the location of resources within the NHS

Challenges

Liverpool has among the worst health outcomes in the UK and faces – alongside the rest of the NHS – a challenging financial climate for some time to come. Despite having a budget of £770 million – and together with Liverpool City Council and NHS England a total spend on health and social care of £1.2 billion – Liverpool CCG suffers from the same challenges as other organisations; namely matching strategy and effort at senior level with implementation and operation.

An additional challenge specific to 2015 has been dealing with the disruption of moving to a new building with “complete freedom” in designing the workplace. Joining an Innovation Programme that includes a variety of sectors has enabled Dr Fazlani to “access further reading and a different lens to look at the same problems”, amongst many other benefits.

How the Programme Helped

After a year of being a client of the Innovation Programme, Dr Fazlani has quoted direct benefits, including using the learning shared in a session dedicated to using space creatively. Dr Fazlani stated that when Liverpool CCG "moved to a new building and had complete freedom in terms of using the floors, attending a previous Innovation Day on how we use space creatively, and how designing the workplace matters was rather fortunate! It certainly played a part in our discussions."

Dr Fazlani followed by saying, "What I am learning is to look at the balance between strategic implementation and location of resources, especially senior level resources. This is something we are looking at and the Programme has played a part in managing that."

As a specialist whose reading is mostly about the medical world, Dr Fazlani has benefited personally from the Programme by applying the learning that relates to all sectors, as well as using it as a time to think and reflect. He states "in terms of that, [the Programme] has a pretty immediate impact."

Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans

Aside from the direct results mentioned above, Dr Fazlani appreciates that the Innovation Days allow "people to connect together from different backgrounds, from pure health to regulatory sectors, social services, and government departments, plus businesses." As someone who would recommend the Programme across the board as a forum that "gives a different perspective", he goes on to say "innovation and change are very similar. You can apply the same methodology to both, and there are a number of frameworks people have presented on Innovation Days, which have been helpful to bring coherence to it."

Acknowledging that the NHS will just have to keep doing more with less resources, Liverpool CCG will continue their participation at the Innovation Days, stating "we have been missing a trick by not looking at what is happening outside health, because a lot of these issues are really generated in terms of managing people, managing change, and addressing how you work in an ever changing world in terms of technology, market and regulation."