Job responsibilities
The core objective of the PCNs
Digital and Transformation Lead role is to support the PCN and its practices to
deliver ongoing improvement to services. The role will require experience in
quality / service improvement with expertise in transformational change and a
good understanding of general practice systems and processes, including
familiarity with general practice digital systems and how they can be used to
deliver improvement.
This expertise will be used to:
Work alongside practices to
understand current challenges to effective service delivery and identify
solutions, including existing best practice within the PCN.
Drive the planning and
prioritisation of changes that will improve delivery of care and improve
patient and staff experience in the practices within the PCN.
Ensure all change is ultimately
focussed on improving services for patients and is based on working with
patients and communities to understand their needs and experiences
Build relationships with practices across the PCN to
develop consensus for improvements and to ensure all staff (clinical and
non-clinical) are fully engaged.throughout the process of
selection, implementation, deployment and monitoring/evaluation of change, peer
challenge and learning.
Develop and manage an overall
transformation plan for the PCN, including identifying interdependencies,
managing risks, considering the potential impacts on the wider organisation,
and determining resource requirements.
Link with other PCN
transformation leads, the ICS and other system partners to collaboratively
solve problems, share learning, gain buy-in for transformation and to support
alignment with wider strategy and improvement approaches.
Provide hands-on capacity and
support to practices in implementing and sustaining agreed changes.
Support staff to identify and
participate in relevant training and/or professional development opportunities
that will support achievement of agreed improvements.
Support practices and staff to
optimise use of existing functionality and new technology to deliver benefits
for patients and staff and enable improvement.
Use improvement techniques to
focus on delivery of changes and analysis of their impacts, providing feedback
to staff on both positive and negative impacts of changes made.
Use data to support population
health management and workforce planning.
Advise on innovative
opportunities and support practices to maximise benefits from innovation,
through the sharing of learning and best practice.
Develop and implement mechanisms
for assessing the impact of agreed changes.
Keep PCN leadership and member
practices updated on progress of current initiatives, capacity for change,
progress and issues so that plans can be adapted in response.
Asses the PCNs transformation
maturity and help the ICS understand local support needs, for example,
facilitated by using relevant frameworks.
Information and data management
The post holder will need to
have skills in relation to understanding and using data to drive improvement
and assess impacts. These skills will be used to:
Take a data driven approach,
looking at evidence and information available to support understanding of
challenges, identify possible solutions and track the impacts of changes that
have been made.Work in partnership with the ICS
to identify relevant data sets and to support standardisation in the use of
measures for understanding change and improvement in general practice.
Bring together data from a
variety of sources and use information to develop insights into working
practices, or support population health management, risk stratification or
workforce planning, effectively tailoring content to meet the needs of the
audience.
Effectively present and
communicate data to practices and PCN staff at all levels to increase
understanding of operational challenges.
Interpret data and highlight
variation to support open discussion about where variation is and is not
warranted
Help PCN and practice staff
understand the limitations of particular data sets and where other information
may be available to supplement understanding of issues
Support and encourage a focus on
data in understanding the effectiveness of changes made
Seek and secure analytical
resource as required to support the PCN in developing and implementing
appropriate data and information sharing mechanisms
Use data to track and assess
impact of changes made to operational processes, and to track trends and
developments over time.
Communication and Engagement
With responsibility for
developing and supporting delivery of transformational projects across the PCN,
the post holder will be skilled at engaging different stakeholders, bringing
people together and gaining support and buy-in to change.
These skills will be used to:
Build and maintain good working
relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders,
including with the ICS.
Initiate and participate in
development of effective systems of communication and co-operation between
practices, staff, and other members of the primary care team.
Ensure that changes are aligned
with agreed clinical priorities and have ownership and engagement from clinical
leaders and staff.
Support practices to communicate
changes and new processes effectively and consistently to patients.Identify best practice and
learning from other areas that could be applicable to the local PCN and
communicate this to staff.
Make connections across the PCN
to support learning between practices and sharing of best practice.
Make connections with other
PCNs, the ICS, other service delivery organisations, patients and communities
to plan and deliver changes that will improve working between general practices
and other primary and community care and wider care services.
Lead or participate in relevant
working groups, project groups, service meetings and other forums across the
PCN (and ICS) to agree changes, share learning, discuss challenges, and
resolves issues.
Service Development
With responsibility for
supporting the PCN to identify and make progress with transformational change,
the post holder will be skilled at understanding and interpreting national and
system-wide policy developments and initiatives to local circumstances and
contexts.
These skills will be used to:
maintain a good knowledge of key
policies from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and other
relevant government departments and agencies, and support PCN staff to
understand and interpret these locally.
collaborate with peers in other
PCNs and work with the local ICS to support the development of overall primary
care transformation strategies, including digital transformation strategies,
and their delivery.
Support the PCN and member
practices to adapt and apply specific policies and initiatives to local needs
and to prioritise initiatives based on local requirements.