Mersey Care NHS Trust The Challenge One of only three Trusts nationally providing the entire range of specialist mental health services, Mersey Care employs around 4000 staff across 32 sites in North West England. Jo Davidson, Head of Organisational Effectiveness and Learning at Mersey Care, elaborates: “We aim to provide Perfect Care and become a world leader in mental health. So continuous improvement means we have to invest in our people.” “It is only through effective multi-disciplinary team based working that we make the very best decisions for our service users on a day-to-day basis and achieve the best possible patient outcomes.” “Empowering our staff to feel motivated and driven in their work through team development is an evidence-based mechanism that underpins our transformation and allows us to measure our performance for ongoing improvement.” Image: Mersey Care staff on their way to achieving Aston Team Coach accreditation Specialists in team based working t 01252 727270 www.astonod.com [email protected]SUMMARY Why Team Based Working? The Trust wanted to support teams as a key driver for its ambitious Perfect Care agenda. The Approach 33 in-house coaches were trained and accredited to support up to 150 team leaders in three phases. Outcomes Early results show tangible improvements in staff and patient experience. Services and Tools £ Aston Team Coach Programme £ Aston Team Journey Developing high performing teams as a pivotal driver for Perfect Care
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Mersey Care NHS Trust
The ChallengeOne of only three Trusts nationally providing the entire range of specialist mental health services, Mersey Care employs around 4000 staff across 32 sites in North West England.Jo Davidson, Head of Organisational Effectiveness and Learning at Mersey Care, elaborates: “We aim to provide Perfect Care and become a world leader in mental health. So continuous improvement means we have to invest in our people.”“It is only through effective multi-disciplinary team based working that we make the very best decisions for our service users on a day-to-day basis and achieve the best possible patient outcomes.” “Empowering our staff to feel motivated and driven in their work through team development is an evidence-based mechanism that underpins our transformation and allows us to measure our performance for ongoing improvement.”
Image: Mersey Care staff on their way to achieving Aston Team Coach accreditation
Specialists in team based working t 01252 727270 www.astonod.com [email protected]
SUMMARY
Why Team Based Working? The Trust wanted to support teams as a key driver for its ambitious Perfect Care agenda.
The Approach33 in-house coaches were trained and accredited to support up to 150 team leaders in three phases.
OutcomesEarly results show tangible improvements in staff and patient experience.
Services and Tools£ Aston Team Coach Programme£ Aston Team Journey
Developing high performing teams as a pivotal driver for Perfect Care
Mersey Care NHS Trust
Mersey Care knew that the research evidence showed a clear link between team based working and some of the biggest issues it was trying to address – bank usage, sickness absence, inpatient length of stay and so on. “We knew the evidence was there – we just needed to find a way to increase our own capacity to develop teams within our limited resources.”“We also recognised that the calibre of the leader within teams directly affects the team’s effectiveness. Our leadership and team development plans were therefore intrinsically linked.”
Specialists in team based working t 01252 727270 www.astonod.com [email protected]
Teams are supported with tools based on leading research in team working
As a Mental Health Trust which is reinvesting its financial resources in front-line care, estate and infrastructure, Mersey Care did not have the resources to invest in costly external coaching. It needed a team development solution that was sustainable, measurable and deliverable quickly at scale.
Team development also had to be a key enabler for Perfect Care with explicit links to its stance on Zero Suicide and No Force First.
The Approach
Mersey Care designed their programme around Aston OD team tools. Initially 33 clinicians and support staff were carefully selected to train and become accredited as Aston Team Coaches.
Forming an internal coaching service, this group was then responsible for introducing Mersey Care team leaders to the Aston Team Journey, an online tool-kit for improving team effectiveness which supports leaders in taking their teams on a journey to high performance.
Team selection is aligned to Perfect Care plans, with priority for front-line or leadership teams and areas undergoing change. It included a mix of newly formed or restructured teams, high performers, as well as teams identified for additional or immediate support.
Special attention was given to developing engagement and motivation among both team coaches and team leaders.
Team leaders attended engagement sessions and built the team journey activities into regular team meetings. Likewise the coaching team were given time for supervision and met regularly to share and learn from one another’s experience.
The team journey is being rolled out in three phases, with 50 teams in phase one. As of February 2016, 76% of phase one teams have commenced their team journeys.
Mersey Care NHS Trust
Results
Early results are promising with staff and patient experience metrics already improving for teams who are working on their team journey.
“We’ve found the Aston Team Journey really helps teams to think about their identity and purpose as well as encouraging them to deal with existing issues,” says Jo Davidson.
“Given the increasing demands placed on team coaches in their day-to-day roles, many in clinical positions, we’re pleased that 73% of our coaches undertake regular coaching activity.”
Work is ongoing to identify and track measures to evaluate progress in line with the Trust’s one, three and five year strategic planning cycles and demonstrate improvement for service users, carers and staff.
Measures include staff experience, patient experience and workforce/team metrics, with the latter including the results from assessments carried out by team leaders themselves during their team journeys. By year three, workforce metrics such as sickness absence and bank usage will be expected to improve significantly.
Specialists in team based working t 01252 727270 www.astonod.com [email protected]
Improvement in staff and patient experience made by a ward management team as a result of the Mersey Care programme
“I am immensely proud to lead a workforce team driving systematic change and aligning its strategic priority of working in teams with a fundamental shift in how we approach appraisals and leadership development. We believe applying an evidence based approach to team working is critical to quality. What’s more, our Board agrees and is fully behind and involved in rolling this out trust-wide.”
Amanda OatesExecutive Director of WorkforceMersey Care NHS Trust
Aston Team JourneyImprove performance by giving team leaders a structured, practical ‘tool-kit’ they will value and enjoy.
How does it work?– The Aston Team Journey is a team assessment and development
tool for team leaders to use with their teams.
– A clear, ten-stage layout enables teams to work through the practical materials at their own pace.
– Leaders use reports generated automatically from team member feedback to support team discussions.
– Team coaches provide timely support to team leaders by tracking their progress through the journey in real time.
– Because teams are supported in-house, it is a sustainable option that delivers rich development, while keeping costs to a minimum and making deployment and ongoing management much easier.
Providing your teams with the best foundations for improving service, the Aston Team Journey is a great resource for building capacity quickly.
Specialists in team based working t 01252 727270 www.astonod.com [email protected]
Mersey Care NHS Trust
What worked for this Trust?
£Get Board buy-in
£Align to your strategic vision and transformation programmes
£Position your programme as an ‘enabler’ – a signal to the importance of your teams
£Adapt the methodology for the context and complexity of your organisation
£Influence the removal of as many barriers and challenges as you can
£Be realistic and creative about capacity
Want to find out moreabout this particular casestudy or how Aston ODcould work with yourorganisation, then pleasecontact Lynn Markiewiczon 01252 727270.
“Great healthcare needs great teams. Team based working is just essential to ensure teams operate effectively both within and beyond Mersey Care.”
Joe RaffertyChief ExecutiveMersey Care NHS Trust
CEO Joe Rafferty: “Mersey Care's approach to improving quality is to combine organisational effectiveness and learning interventions and improvement methodologies to ensure cultural shift and long term sustainability. Aston team based working is integrated within other OE plans which are implemented simultaneously and aligned to clinical transformation programmes. The process incorporates a number of improvement tools and methodologies.”
