Raising the Profile of Operational Leaders in the NHS
NG: Emma, great to catch up today. Can you share a bit more around your role and Proud2bOps?
EC-R: Of course. I’m the chair and founder of Proud2bOps, which started in 2017 and is the national network for operational managers and leaders across England.
NG: And why was Proud2bOps founded?
EC-R: So why did I start Proud2bOps? My background is in operations and improvement. I have worked for years at a Director of Operations and Chief Operating Officer level within the NHS. And when I was in that role, I became aware that there wasn’t a shared voice for Ops leaders to learn, develop and share advice and best practice.
Ops Leaders are playing a key role in responding to the enormous challenges facing the NHS. Proud2bOps is about connecting operational managers and leaders; together celebrating successes; and supporting those embarking on the transformation journey and enabling greater innovation at scale across the NHS.
NG: How has Proud2bOps evolved since 2017?
EC-R: It started with just 15 people in a room and now we are a network of over 1,500 members across the United Kingdom and we’re “proud” of the work we do and the community we’ve built – hence the name, Proud2bOps!
NG: And what do you feel are the main benefits of community?
EC-R: We have two clear goals: To raise the profile of Operations and to provide Ops people with development and support. Ops Leaders are playing a vital role in delivering change across the NHS yet many of their successes are going under the radar, so it is really important to invest in each other, celebrate success and encourage further development of our managers and operational teams.
That has been one of the most powerful aspects of creating the Proud2bOps community. Speaking and connecting with people is transformative. People need to be supported and the best way to do that is to provide a connection and a way to learn from others and share best practice.
NG: Can you expand on the challenges that Ops Leaders face in meeting the demands of, for example, the NHS Impact programme which has been set up in recognition of the need to accelerate innovation and eradicate the enormous diversity in performance across the country?
EC-R: The vision of creating the right conditions for continuous improvement is sound, but it is people who deliver innovation. It is the people, the Ops Leaders, and Managers, who are tasked with achieving significant change and to do that they need tangible, sustainable support and motivation to embrace, spread and scale examples of best practice.
The implementation and adoption of electronic bed management is a prime example of a targeted requirement facing Ops Leaders. As part of the Urgent Care Recovery Plan, NHS England initially expected all trusts to have implemented “appropriate [electronic bed management] solutions” both in hospitals and across other health and care systems. While delayed, there is still the request for eight trusts to adopt EBM platforms this year.
For Ops Leaders, achieving the goal of minimising delays and releasing time back to care, requires far more than identifying and implementing the best technology. The successful adoption of electronic bed and capacity management demands very significant cultural change, from the introduction of a central Care Co-Ordination Centre to manage the entire bed estate, to the creation of dedicated portering and bed cleaning teams. It also means bringing every single stakeholder across a hospital trust on the same journey with the same end-goal, while recognising and being appreciative of the slightly different role each person will play – and that is a huge communication task.
There are amazing pockets of innovation across the NHS that are delivering new, essential efficiencies but extending these areas of best practice at scale remains a challenge.
NG: Why is the collaboration with TeleTracking important?
EC-R: There are amazing pockets of innovation across the NHS that are delivering new, essential efficiencies but extending these areas of best practice at scale remains a challenge.
That is where collaboration with experts such as TeleTracking can be so powerful. The relationship is helping to expand knowledge and understanding, with Ops Leaders in Trusts such as NHS Kent and Medway and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust providing an invaluable cache of knowledge and experience in creating an Operational Control Centre / Care Co-ordination Centre, for example, to support the goals of the Urgent Care Recovery Plan.
NG: What difference will it make to Ops Leaders to have direct access to innovators such as NHS Kent and Medway?
EC-R: It’s all about finding the most effective way to propagate best practice. It is enormously powerful for Ops Leaders across the NHS to understand how NHS Kent and Medway’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) – and other NHS trust ICBs’ – Operational Control Centre (OCC) coordinates the activity of 17 different providers, including ambulance, primary care, social care, acute trusts, community trust and mental health providers. To understand why the decision was taken to appoint a clinically led team, including Heads of Nursing and Operations Directors, to run the centre. And, critically, to use the benefits attained across the ICB, from improving Emergency Care performance at a time of significant pressure and reducing Elective cancellations, to support their own operational changes, including funding applications.
This is a hugely complex operational model that demands unprecedented levels of cooperation and collaboration between operational teams and providing a platform for knowledge sharing across Operational Leaders is an essential step in fast tracking the evolution of proven best practice.
NG: In your experience over the past few years, what is the best approach to empower Ops Teams and deliver sustainable change?
EC-R: It’s all about creating a safe environment that focuses on people and culture to enable Ops Leaders and Managers to connect and learn and build the energy required to accelerate change and innovation.
With this network approach Ops Leaders can share experiences, gain the confidence to ask questions of peers, question providers and collaborate effectively. One of the key aspects of the Proud2bOps environment is the recognition and support for Ops Leaders at varying levels of digital maturity. Mentoring and coaching, for example, can play a transformative role, from supporting funding applications to outlining the most effective ways to achieve cultural change.
NG: Given the challenges facing the NHS, how important is it to empower those tasked with realising the vision and how positive do you feel about the role of Ops Leaders and Managers going forward?
EC-R: Today, every Ops Leader and Manager faces the same demands of improving patient care from a safety, quality, and waste avoidance perspective and each individual will be coming from a different place in terms of morale, digital maturity and evolution towards the integrated health and care model.
Support from organisations such as Proud2bOps and technology experts such as TeleTracking will empower those individuals with experience, knowledge, and ideas to actively support the delivery of innovation at scale and effectively join up those pockets of innovation. Ops Leaders and Managers have a central and critical role in NHS transformation – it is time to recognise, support and celebrate the value of Ops expertise.
