Value in Healthcare Awards: Workforce Efficiency

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust: Hospital support assistant project

The judges said this was an excellent project that has developed clear career roadmaps and qualification for an often overlooked part of the healthcare team.

The project set out to integrate services currently delivered by three roles – ward domestic, ward caterer and ward support – into one role, the hospital support assistant. Drivers included:

• the need to improve service delivery while safely reducing cost, the integration of current activities to improve the service delivered to patients and staff was identified as an opportunity for improvement. * the Keogh Review. The trust was placed in special measures and the Facilities Directorate were able to assist the trust’s response in designing service improvement.
• cost improvement and value for money.
• service demand – changing resource requirements from wards and departments.

The project board set out a series of objectives at the start:

• ensuring effective and extended support to clinical teams ie increased weekend cleaning and support with catering duties
• delivering significant efficiency savings so the trust can live within its means
• ensuring that arrangements are robust enough and flexible enough to deal with the normal peaks in workloads
• ensuring that staff arrangements are flexible, and can at all times appropriately support the operational needs of clinical services
• maintaining current high standards in infection control and customer satisfaction.

The team worked closely with colleagues in finance to confirm the baseline, calculate the potential cost improvement for the models developed and develop a tracking system to assure benefits were realised.

The baseline cost for the scope of services defined by the project was £3,851,900 The realisable full year savings, approved by finance, total £466,900, a cost improvement of 12 per cent.

Judges said this was a very good example of sharing best practice with other NHS organisations.

• See all the winners of the Value in Healthcare Awards 2014
• See the full list of award judges

Finalists

• Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust: Innovative solutions to unique challenges in service improvements through effective workforce development
• Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust: Care and comfort assistant 
• Health Education England and East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust: Establishing hot ‘emergency-based’ and cold ‘ward-based’ teams to enhance the trainee experience, improving patient care at weekends
• King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust: Volunteering programme
• Nottingham CityCare Partnership: Holistic worker model
• Partnerships in Care: PiC Ward to Board project impact on workforce efficiency
• South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare Foundation Trust: Introducing assistive technology to inpatient services to improve NHS mental health service delivery    
• University Hospitals of Leicester Trust: Breast unit reconfiguration project