Business Plan 2006 / 7 - Introduction
The purpose of this initial outline is to provide an initial outline of the Welsh NHS Confederation’s Business Plan for 2006/07
Organisation aims
The overall organisational aims for the UK-wide Confederation provide a foundation for the business plan and are:.
Aim 1 - to bring into membership the full range of organisations that make up the modern NHS, addressing the shared agenda and the specific needs of the different parts of our membership whilst increasing the involvement of our members in driving and delivering work programmes.
Aim 2 - to strengthen our role as an independent voice for NHS organisations
Aim 3 – to strengthen our leading edge work and promotion of management excellence
Aim 4 – to continuously improve our existing support to help members deliver better services for patients and staff
Aim 5 – to consider and develop the range of direct support services we provide to our members
Aim 6 - to ensure the Confederation is constantly improving its efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring our financial health.
Context
To deliver the organisational aims and to meet the needs of the Members in Wales, the following construct will be used as a guide for the design of the business plan
The target audience for our work will be:
- Full Members – Chairs, Chief Executives and Executive/Non Executive Directors of LHBs and NHS Trusts.. We will also target sub board senior managers on the basis that they will aspire to become board members.
- Associate Members – Senior staff of health related organisations, commercial organisations, service providers and academic institutions.
- Decision makers – Ministers and Government Cabinet members, Party leaders and spokespeople, Local Government Leaders and Cabinet members, senior central and local government officials.
- Opinion formers – all politicians representing Welsh constituencies at the Welsh Assembly and at the European and Westminster Parliaments.
- Press/Media – primarily those working at the national or regional level in Wales, but at a UK-wide or local level as appropriate.
Core Activity
Each year the Team’s schedule includes a range of core activity that will be typical of our business plan every year. These activities represent regular and significant aspects of our work such as:
- The Annual Conference;
- The Spring Conference (as from April 2006);
- Bulletins;
- Topical Briefings;
- Meeting Members;
- Meeting Ministers, Politicians, Special Advisors and Officials;
- Meeting with partner organisations and stakeholders;
- Working with the press and media;
- Responding to government policy and initiatives;
- Developing and maintaining our website.
Board Development
A growing area of concern amongst members is the development and support of Board members. It is now clear that the Welsh Assembly Government is unlikely to commission a programme of member induction and development until the design of the model currently being developed by NLIAH with a number of Trusts and LHBs completed. Thus commissioning is not likely to take place until 2007. The WNHSC is collaborating with OPM and NLIAH to design and deliver a member development programme in the interim. When agreed, this will need to be included in our schedule of work.
At the time of writing, We are also in discussion with NLIAH regarding our possible involvement in ‘Two at the Top’ training in Wales.
Focus Areas for the Business Plan
Taking account of the topical issues affecting our Members and the NHS in Wales this year we propose the following areas of work:
NHS Funding – Following the publication of Transforming the NHS in Wales: the financial dilemma it is clear that there are continuing concerns, not only about the funding of the NHS in Wales. Further work to enable the Confederation to provide evidence based constructive opinion on all aspects of resource provision and distribution for the NHS in Wales.
Long-term Chronic Illness – Much was gained from the visit to Kaiser Permanente Colorado and the subsequent publication of From the Rockies to the Rhondda. The Study Group is keen to continue the roll out of its new insight into disease management and to build on the partnership with Pfizer to investigate how to take some aspects of the KP approach forward. On this basis it is proposed to undertake two projects, one looking at clinical leadership and the other examining changing and enhancing professional roles, using pharmacists as one example. These two themes would also be core topics for the WNHSC’s first Spring Conference to be held in Llandudno in April 2006.
Commissioning – To help deliver Designed for Life the Welsh Assembly Government is seeking to strengthen and develop the commissioning process in Wales. To support members in this work we propose to undertake research into effective commissioning processes and good practice in this field. We will prepare Member briefings and organize a bespoke event to share the experience of organizations and managers that have proven success in this work.
Informing Healthcare – The new Project Director for this initiative is considering how best to focus and prioritise the various aspects of the implementation process. While there is widespread support for the initiative amongst members, there is a need for a facilitated debate on how this should be taken forward. The WNHSC can help by producing briefings on various aspects of the strategy, including issues such as organizational development and the electronic medical record. We will work closely with the IHC Team in this work, which is likely to include workshops/events.
Public Engagement – As we are already experiencing, the art of communicating and the engagement of our communities in the massive change programme ahead, is more important than ever before. We propose to research and publish good practice in this area of work. This will give a national picture of effective engagement and also look for good practice across the world. This will either include, or lead to the preparation of a toolkit.
We believe that well conducted patient satisfaction surveys can reveal good and helpful opinion about the NHS that can help counter some of the adverse reporting that we often get in our press and media. The results can often provide a source for a range of good publicity and help to identify issues that need attention. We propose to conduct such a survey to help convince government of this work as an essential feature of their communication strategy.
Increasingly the WNHSC is becoming involved, as an impartial player, in the public engagement strategies related to the reconfiguration of the NHS in Wales. As the workload in this area becomes clearer, it will need to be integrated with our work programme.
Delivering ‘Designed for Life’ – Our publication A Picture of Health 2015 not only influenced Designed for Life, but it also cemented the strategic alliance with our partners that joined us in this work. A second phase of work is taking place to provide a more detailed view on getting the balance right, the hospital infrastructure, changing professional roles and long term chronic illness. We propose to work with our partners to publish this work and to consider the next steps for developing our alliance.
Financial Plan
Along with the refinement of the Business Plan and the associated work plan we will develop a financial plan and budget for 2006/7.
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