1. STP/local health and care system peer challenge
Peer challenge involves a team of trained peers from across health and local government spending up to five days with key leaders, examining opportunities and challenges within the local system. It is a voluntary undertaking aimed at bringing system partners together in a safe space to consider new and better ways of working together.
We meet with representatives from the system at the earliest opportunity to understand the local circumstances and scope the peer challenge. From the outset we get the whole system involved to own the peer challenge.
The peer challenge begins at least eight to 12 weeks before the peer team arrives on site. The peer review team will study documents, policies and performance information prior to arriving onsite and will gather information throughout their week, keeping system leaders regularly updated with their findings. On the final day they will provide constructive feedback including recommendations aimed to help drive improvement. An option of follow up support is available.
Our STP/local system peer challenge tends to be more suitable for those partnerships where relationships and agreement of the next steps need to be consolidated (rather than built from scratch).
We will discuss the most appropriate make up of peers with you but a typical team would comprise of:
- Lead peer – usually a former chief executive of a health or care organisation with experience
of leading system working - Trust chief executives or former chief executives with experience of the acute, mental health and community sectors
- Trust chief executives or former chief executives with experience of the ambulance and specialist trust sectors where helpful
- CCG accountable officer or clinical chair
- Local authority chief executive
- Local authority director of adult social services
- Local authority elected member peer
- STP director or other colleagues with direct and relevant experience of the issues the ‘client’ system is tackling.
2. Facilitating and integration workshops
Our facilitated integration toolkit and bespoke workshops enable local health and wellbeing system leaders to identify their ambitions, capacity, capability and commitment to make meaningful progress towards achieving a fully integrated local health and care system.
The workshop, facilitated by senior figures in health, local government and social care will enable you to identify where you are now and what more you need to do to escalate the scale and pace of integration. Our approach can be adapted to work with a range of complex situations, across diverse organisational structures or multiple planning and commissioning footprints. It is usually a half day workshop with follow up as required.
3. Peer to peer support
We offer bespoke workshops with system leadership teams where there is a lack of consensus about next steps. We can deliver a series of sessions to help local system leaders to come to a shared understanding of the issues facing their system, and tailor follow up sessions as required.
4. Peer mentoring
Where helpful, we can match system leaders with professional coaches for one-to-one support. Coaching can be particularly beneficial in supporting leaders to reflect on tense relationships and weigh up difficult decisions. As with all coaching relationships, the nature of these discussions will remain confidential.
Other related support
This offer sits alongside the NHS Confederation-led regional networks for STP and ICSs, an approach also supported by LGA, NHSCC and NHS Providers. These two proposals are mutually reinforcing: the networks will allow partnership leaders to debate key issues arising from system working and to share learning regionally and nationally, and our offer will complement this with bespoke, frontline, peer-led support for individual STPs or systems.
Our advisors would also be happy to signpost other training, development and support products from across our memberships.