Job responsibilities
Role Summary
The post holder will work with clinical and operational teams within a Primary Care
Network (PCN) to create a vision to guide service improvements, identify
opportunities to make tangible positive transformation, and provide the inspiration,
resource and tools to deliver changes in a collaborative way. The post holder will
support this vision to be developed in alignment with ICS strategy.
The post holder will plan, coordinate and directly support delivery of transformation
activity in general practice within a PCN with a view to improving patient access,
staff and patient satisfaction, and the efficiency and sustainability of general practice
services.
The post holder will work closely with staff working at practice and PCN level to
understand current service models, identify challenges, agree priorities for
improvement and then support these to be delivered. The post holder will develop
strong relationships with PCN member practices and will support the planning and
delivery of improvements that will provide benefits to patients and staff.
The post holder will develop relationships with ICSs to gain agreement and support
for local transformation plans and activity, and to support alignment with broader
strategy, including the ICSs digital strategy. Working with relevant colleagues in the
ICS, the post holder will also develop relationships with local delivery partners (such
as IT service providers and other NHS organisations) to support effective delivery of
transformation. The post holder will work with the ICS to request specialist IT and
estates expertise required to deliver transformation plans, in line with the ICSs
delegated responsibilities for GPIT and GP estates. The post holder will also work
with the ICS to bring in other specialist support as required e.g. in analytics,
evaluation, organisational development etc.
The post holder will help to develop strategy related to transformation and
improvement, aligning this with larger scale strategy and initiatives, particularly at
ICS level; but will focus their time on the planning, implementation and evaluation of
practical improvements that make a difference to patients and staff in the PCN.
Business and Service improvements responsibilities
The core objective of the PCN 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 business / service improvement with expertise in
transformational change and a good understanding of general practice systems and
processes, including broad 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.
Build relationships across the PCN to develop consensus for improvements and
to ensure business and clinical staff are fully engaged throughout the process of
selection, implementation and deployment of change.
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 the ICS and other partners to gain buy-in for transformation and to
support alignment with broader 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 effectively use existing and new technology
systems and products to enable improvement.
Use PPM and 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.
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.
Provide feedback to PCN leadership and to member practices on progress of
current initiatives, capacity for change, progress and issues so that plans can be
adapted in response.
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, 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 in 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 require expertise in communications and
engagement, and specifically in bringing people together and gaining support and
buy-in to change.
This expertise 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 member 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 the ICS and other service delivery organisations to plan
and deliver changes that will improve working between general practices and
other primary care and non-primary 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.
Policy and Service Development
With responsibility for supporting the PCN to identify and make progress with
transformational change, the post holder will have expertise in understanding and
interpreting national and system-wide policy developments and initiatives to local
circumstances and contexts.
This expertise 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.
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.
Person Specification
In addition to the above, the post holder should be able to demonstrate the following:
Experience of working in general practice with a good knowledge of general
practice systems, processes, and procedures.
Experience of successfully delivering change and improvement programmes in
a patient (or customer) facing environment.
A track record of communicating and engaging with a wide range of staff and
stakeholders; building excellent and trusted relationships.
Significant experience of using programme management and improvement
techniques to drive change forward, including translating strategic objectives
into tangible plans for delivery and following these through to benefits
realisation.
Experience of interpreting national and/or system level policy and implementing
this through local programmes of work.
Ability to use data and insight to both drive change and to understand and adapt
programmes of work while in progress to allow learning to be integrated into
delivery.
Ability to work and make decisions autonomously, and to identify and act on
challenges to move delivery forward, potentially working to tight timescales
