After months of build up in the house, hours of planning and discussion and a succession of weekend trips, this week it finally arrived, I guess in a similar way to many places up and down the country. But this was our first experience and with a balance of ridiculous excitement, combined with a bit of uncertainty and nerves the night of the big Ivybridge Community College Prom was upon us.
I know the following comment is yet another nail in the coffin on my undeniable middle aged-ness, but we didn't do Proms in my day or perhaps, in my day at my school. I can just about remember a sixth form leaving meal, but not anything after O levels - perhaps we did have a disco in Middle School Hall where some local DJ spun a few seven inch discs (or even a treat of a 12 inch remix....), but it doesn't stick in my memory.
But this is on a whole different scale. So the weeks have been about dresses & shoes, handbags (I bet that isn't even the right term) & limos and hair, nails & make-up. A steady procession of different cost options are presented as we navigate through a minefield of possibility.
And it turns out that the Prom isn't even the real centrepiece anymore (so last year), it is all about the after Prom these days. For our daughter and her friends this was 180 people making camp the day before in a field (one of the students' parents allowed their farm to be used for the purpose) and then partying until dawn.... What could possible go wrong.
I rescued her at 8am this morning absolutely soaking wet and therefore freezing cold. We think the tent would have been up to the rain, but standing around outside partying as the heavens opened gave the tent and sleeping bag an impossible task.
The great news is she survived and had a fantastic night; a memory that will stay with her forever. The benefit for me is that I'm now much better prepared for the two brothers who will come to the same point in a few years. I'll probably sleep better tonight too!
Highlights of the Week - 27th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Our Locality Board in the Council Chamber; a sign of our move towards integration and using webcasting to engage
We held our Locality Board in the rather grand setting of the Council Chamber at Plymouth City Council this week. It is not the oldest or grandest civic building I have ever been in, but compared to our normal meeting venue it does have a touch of the theatrical about it.
The purpose of being there was to move the Board to different settings to see if the number of public attendees changes; we regularly get 4 or 5 members of the public at meetings. It was also to test out the webcast facilities as a "dry run" before we go live with webcasting as another potential way to increase engagement.
It does also point towards our future; I spend increasing amounts of time in the Civic Centre and this is more often our norm as we move forward with plans for integrated commissioning and provision in the city.
As it turns out, we were a bit clumsy with the microphones and switches that are critical to the success of the webcast, not dreadful, just not particularly slick. We got about the same number of members of the public in attendance, though some new faces. It is more complex for us to organise and administer, so not an overwhelming success as a first attempt. But we will keep trying, especially as we were made so welcome and it will give us the chance to see what impact the web will bring. 2 steps forward?
Highlights of the Week 2: Integrated Governance Committee that really made time to reflect on how key risks were moving in the CCG
Our Integrated Governance Committee is critical to ensuring we have the right assurance in an organisation that is built around devolved responsibility to a number of separate localities and departments. We have created a much stronger platform now of cross organisational working, but the formal delegation of authority rests across a number of different Boards.
The balance that we are looking to strike is between the inevitable detail that is generated by the sheer size and scale of the organisation that is critical because getting it right for groups of patients is what creates a safe system and ensuring we have a strategic view of the key risks in the organisation.
This might look like trying to balance a CCG wide issue with something that is a particular concern in one of the three major acute hospitals in our area - the over level of cdiff, compared to the failure of a 2 week wait target in one place.
This time though we focussed much more on the question of whether the Executive team felt the overall risks to the organisation were increasing or decreasing and the discussion felt both purposeful and useful for all concerned. We need to finishing embedding the risk and integrated governance system across the CCG as we restructure our ways of working and the Integrated Governance Committee will then be able to focus more firmly on strategic risk.
Highlights of the Week 3: Finance Committee shows the size of the challenge. We don't have all the answers, but the effort is focussing
Our finance plan carries a huge challenge for the CCG in terms of the scale of transformation we need to deliver in order to hit the financial target. In many areas, this means us performing much better than that the average of the last few years, for example, around historic levels of prescribing cost growth or for the continuing healthcare budget.
It was clear this week that there will be increasing challenges along the way too - things that emerge during the year, new requirements and issues we simply need to resolve. A really robust finance plan has reserves and contingencies to cover these different scenarios; the reality for us is that the cupboard was raided to get us to this point and is bare as we look for more.
What was encouraging though was the commitment of everyone present to get the very best outcome we can. We had some very challenging conversations about what this means we may need to do which tested the intersection between our values and the financial imperative, but there is a real sense of building momentum around the size and scale of action we need and the focus of the next few months.
Highlights of the Week 4: A commitment to coaching gives me a space that is less cluttered and real valued by me and those I've worked with
I've just reached 1,000 hours of recorded coaching ... .some 550 different sessions (that is in addition to the many hundreds of hours where friends and family will tell you I get in to coaching in an entirely uninvited way!)
This week I think I was probably looking forward to the coaching sessions more than the couple of people I ended up coaching. I think that is ok.
Whether as a coach or coachee, I do find the space hugely calming and grounding. It is great to get a focus for an hour or two on an individual and a particular issue or set of concerns.
There is always great reflection for me afterwards about my life or my approach, but more than that, in the session itself, the focus gives a time lock away from whatever is chasing me - whether a media issue, a melee at home or a set of emails. Focus is great: I'm at my most stressed when I allow myself the time to randomly contemplate all of the huge issues we are grappling with or the number of task I need to achieve. When I'm busy solving the problems or making progress, things are more in balance.
I wouldn't do it if it didn't make a difference for the coachee though and this week I got good feedback about the benefit that others are experiencing.
Highlights of the Week 5: A phone call with another system to talk about our challenges of creating a system wide programme of change
As the Challenged Local Health Economy work finishes its initial 11 week phase, we are busily working to construct phase 2: the part that sees delivery over the next 18 months. We haven't quite got as far in phase 1 as we would have liked, so we still need to do more work to be explicit about the programme of work that we are all jointly committed to and the actions that we expect to be implementing. But we have moved forward significantly since we started.
As far as I understand it, there never has been a multi-organisational programme of work across Devon and Plymouth that attempts to plot the impact of a joint and shared vision of the future and then turns that in to a reality. But other places have had large programmes of system wide change in place for many years. So I turned to one of these this week to discuss what lies ahead for us.
It was a hugely helpful call and shows the value of learning and sharing, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel each time. It also crystalised though, that for complex change it is not about adopting the "thing" that someone else has created, it is about following a similar process that engages all parties in coming to a collective view and solution.
I felt both heartened about the possibilities that can be created from the type of work programme that we are entering and slightly deflated by the discussion of the time it will take to get to the end of the journey, something though that I have previously reminded several clients about when helping them with programme leadership roles.
Another fact about Plymouth, following on from last week's theme? It rains here quite a bit; very warm, some beautiful days, but there is some wetness. Need to ensure all plans take that in to account - or maybe just be young, party in the rain and sleep for the rest of the day!
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
Friday, 27 June 2014
Friday, 20 June 2014
Highlights of the Week - 20th June 2014
This week I have come across "Plymouth's Book of Wonder" a book that has "over 100 amazing facts about Plymouth". It is produced by Plymouth City Council as it promotes the City's growth and prosperity.
I have written before that I have been really impressed since I came down to the area about some of the beautiful sights in Plymouth, especially around the waterfront (it is after all branded as Britain's Ocean City), but I certainly wasn't aware of all of the claims to fame. Here are a few of my favourites:
Highlights of the Week - 20th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Staff Brief delivered with added hay fever is much better than no staff brief at all!
I have got caught out this year. I try and avoid medication and hence wait until the last minute before I start to take any hay fever tablets each year. I got the timing exactly right last year, but this year I've just not managed to get myself sorted in time; no nasal spray no pills.
So on top of an annoying, but very minor cold, a weekend spent on top of Dartmoor and walking along the Avon estuary to Bantham during very high pollen conditions, meant that I have been struggling this week.
I have felt underpowered with a slow operating brain, so trying to be uplifting and inspiring has been (more of) a challenge this week! However, we still had staff briefing and we were again discussing key issues that will affect patients and staff alike, not least our journey towards integration of commissioning and provision.
Staff were understandably worried about another potential upheaval ahead, but there does seem to be strong support for the importance of what we are doing. And at least those that turned up did have another opportunity to hear and discuss face to face with members of the Locality Leadership Team.
Highlights of the Week 2: One Plymouth looks at the future of the Plymouth Plan. What will we offer and ask?
One Plymouth is the strategic partnership in the City where key organisations come together to talk about how to best support the growth and future direction for Plymouth. The quarterly meetings look at a small range of topics, mostly focussed around the Plymouth Plan - the view of the City's development produced by Plymouth City Council.
This week we were discussing how we best understand the "offer and ask" that we each have. What is it we (as organisations) offer to the City and what is it that we would ask the City to support? For example, how can the naval dockyard support future prosperity and what can the City do to support the dockyard's needs in return.
There was a very positive feel to the meeting and across a range of topics a sense that, more than ever, given the financial climate we are working in, we need to be keenly supporting each other as we look to a vibrant and sustainable future.
Highlights of the Week 3: Caring Plymouth Scrutiny welcomes the direction we are taking on integration and our community services strategy
I haven't always enjoyed attending Overview and Scrutiny Committees; I can recall some hugely challenging discussions in different parts of the country in years gone by, but attending the Caring Plymouth Committee this week didn't feel like it should be full of dread.
We were presenting two items on our community services strategy and, jointly with Plymouth City Council, the closely linked business case to support integrated commissioning and integrated provision of health and social care services.
There were challenging questions; quite rightly councillors wanted to know how the plans would affect health inequalities and how they linked to Public Health as well as a more detailed understanding of the key challenges. But overall, there was support for the direction of travel and the plans we presented. They have been shared with the Health and Wellbeing Board and supported there, so it does feel like we have a momentum in the right direction - just need to make sure we now deliver!
Highlights of the Week 4: Our response to the Fairness Commission in Plymouth will be joint with commissioning colleagues in social care
Dame Suzi Leather led the Fairness Commission in Plymouth, working with the community to define what fairness means to the City and the action that is required to bring about a fairer society. You can read the final report here Final Report, which contains 85 recommendations for different Boards/ Committees to take forward.
Our Locality Board has considered the report and endorsed our positive response to work collectively on the recommendations it makes. However, we have now gone a step further and agreed to put in a joint response with colleague commissioners in social care. If we are to be joint commissioners we need to think and act in that way. This is one very small example of how we can do that, but it is great to have a real intent to drive those tiny gestures.
Highlights of the Week 5: Our Programme Office has worked to define its key purpose and its core offer to the organisation
Our Programme Office has not necessarily been the most inspiring place to work over the first part of the CCG's development. As we worked to sort out a whole host of new operating models, processes and practices, the Programme Office was the place that kept getting asked to pull off miracles, rescue off track processes, respond at the last minute and then see all the effort they had put in seemingly wasted as we decided to go off in a different direction to the one we had thought was fit for purpose the week before.
The Team are a resilience bunch though (there are 3 of them) and increasingly people have realised the value they bring to the organisation in giving us some structure, creating the foundations for our delivery and in supporting people who are struggling with capacity or capability.
One of the key issues for them has been a sense that they are at the whim of the rest of the organisation, reacting to whatever others decide. So we have done some work on their key purpose over the last 6 weeks, moving from an endless list of tasks that they complete to a set of five key areas of business that describe the work that they do. Early days, but feels like this act of setting out a direction will have a profound effect on how the team sees itself and therefore how the organisation sees them. The first step is to be clear on what is their unique contribution.
And the most important Plymouth fact? There are 52 other Plymouths in the world, but only one Original.....!
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
I have written before that I have been really impressed since I came down to the area about some of the beautiful sights in Plymouth, especially around the waterfront (it is after all branded as Britain's Ocean City), but I certainly wasn't aware of all of the claims to fame. Here are a few of my favourites:
- Plymouth's Royal William Yard is home to the largest collection of Grade 1 Listed naval buildings in Europe - now a cultural hotspot for bars, restaurants and art galleries
- Plymouth has the highest concentration of cobbled streets in England
- Plymouth is the largest fishing port in England with more fish landed here in 2012 than in any other port
- Plymouth city centre was heralded 'beautiful' and 'heroic' by TV's Kevin McCloud writer and television presented best know for his work on the Channel 4 series Grand Designs
- Plymouth is the greenest city in the UK with 40% of the city being green space
- Plymouth University's Marine Building is home to the move advanced wave tank in the country
- Plymouth Gin is distilled in Plymouth's Black Friars Distillery, which is the oldest working gin distillery in England
- Plymouth is home to the largest Naval Base in Western Europe, HMNB Devonport
- In one day, the Plymouth Wrigley's factory produces over 3 million packets of chewing gum
Highlights of the Week - 20th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Staff Brief delivered with added hay fever is much better than no staff brief at all!
I have got caught out this year. I try and avoid medication and hence wait until the last minute before I start to take any hay fever tablets each year. I got the timing exactly right last year, but this year I've just not managed to get myself sorted in time; no nasal spray no pills.
So on top of an annoying, but very minor cold, a weekend spent on top of Dartmoor and walking along the Avon estuary to Bantham during very high pollen conditions, meant that I have been struggling this week.
I have felt underpowered with a slow operating brain, so trying to be uplifting and inspiring has been (more of) a challenge this week! However, we still had staff briefing and we were again discussing key issues that will affect patients and staff alike, not least our journey towards integration of commissioning and provision.
Staff were understandably worried about another potential upheaval ahead, but there does seem to be strong support for the importance of what we are doing. And at least those that turned up did have another opportunity to hear and discuss face to face with members of the Locality Leadership Team.
Highlights of the Week 2: One Plymouth looks at the future of the Plymouth Plan. What will we offer and ask?
One Plymouth is the strategic partnership in the City where key organisations come together to talk about how to best support the growth and future direction for Plymouth. The quarterly meetings look at a small range of topics, mostly focussed around the Plymouth Plan - the view of the City's development produced by Plymouth City Council.
This week we were discussing how we best understand the "offer and ask" that we each have. What is it we (as organisations) offer to the City and what is it that we would ask the City to support? For example, how can the naval dockyard support future prosperity and what can the City do to support the dockyard's needs in return.
There was a very positive feel to the meeting and across a range of topics a sense that, more than ever, given the financial climate we are working in, we need to be keenly supporting each other as we look to a vibrant and sustainable future.
Highlights of the Week 3: Caring Plymouth Scrutiny welcomes the direction we are taking on integration and our community services strategy
I haven't always enjoyed attending Overview and Scrutiny Committees; I can recall some hugely challenging discussions in different parts of the country in years gone by, but attending the Caring Plymouth Committee this week didn't feel like it should be full of dread.
We were presenting two items on our community services strategy and, jointly with Plymouth City Council, the closely linked business case to support integrated commissioning and integrated provision of health and social care services.
There were challenging questions; quite rightly councillors wanted to know how the plans would affect health inequalities and how they linked to Public Health as well as a more detailed understanding of the key challenges. But overall, there was support for the direction of travel and the plans we presented. They have been shared with the Health and Wellbeing Board and supported there, so it does feel like we have a momentum in the right direction - just need to make sure we now deliver!
Highlights of the Week 4: Our response to the Fairness Commission in Plymouth will be joint with commissioning colleagues in social care
Dame Suzi Leather led the Fairness Commission in Plymouth, working with the community to define what fairness means to the City and the action that is required to bring about a fairer society. You can read the final report here Final Report, which contains 85 recommendations for different Boards/ Committees to take forward.
Our Locality Board has considered the report and endorsed our positive response to work collectively on the recommendations it makes. However, we have now gone a step further and agreed to put in a joint response with colleague commissioners in social care. If we are to be joint commissioners we need to think and act in that way. This is one very small example of how we can do that, but it is great to have a real intent to drive those tiny gestures.
Highlights of the Week 5: Our Programme Office has worked to define its key purpose and its core offer to the organisation
Our Programme Office has not necessarily been the most inspiring place to work over the first part of the CCG's development. As we worked to sort out a whole host of new operating models, processes and practices, the Programme Office was the place that kept getting asked to pull off miracles, rescue off track processes, respond at the last minute and then see all the effort they had put in seemingly wasted as we decided to go off in a different direction to the one we had thought was fit for purpose the week before.
The Team are a resilience bunch though (there are 3 of them) and increasingly people have realised the value they bring to the organisation in giving us some structure, creating the foundations for our delivery and in supporting people who are struggling with capacity or capability.
One of the key issues for them has been a sense that they are at the whim of the rest of the organisation, reacting to whatever others decide. So we have done some work on their key purpose over the last 6 weeks, moving from an endless list of tasks that they complete to a set of five key areas of business that describe the work that they do. Early days, but feels like this act of setting out a direction will have a profound effect on how the team sees itself and therefore how the organisation sees them. The first step is to be clear on what is their unique contribution.
And the most important Plymouth fact? There are 52 other Plymouths in the world, but only one Original.....!
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
Sunday, 15 June 2014
Highlights of the Week - 13th June 2014
So the World Cup is finally here.... all those people who have been looking forward to this for the last four years will now have a bonanza of games to watch over the next few weeks. I'll be watching quite a lot of it, but am not a "hardcore" World Cup watcher, I can't get excited about the many less enticing games that will be played out.
My daughter went to see One Direction and Five Seconds of Summer at Wembley Stadium last week. She's had the tickets for about a year and has been getting increasingly excited about going as the months have ticked by. At 15 I guess it is ok to get obsessively overwrought and by the night before the concert she was beside herself. This ended with a brief period of tears during which she uttered the wonderful lines "I don't want it to be tomorrow because then it will all be over and I won't be able to look forward to it anymore."
And soon it will be almost four years to the next World Cup and perhaps two more years until One Direction tour again, if they last that long and indeed she may not be interested by then (One Direction at 18? Surely not). And that is one of the big things that I contemplate in life - how to reflect on, learn from and remember the past and look forward and anticipate the future, but to really live in the present and fully enjoy the moment. On the whole, I am better at the past and future and struggle to completely enjoy now, too busy thinking about what next.
Sounds a bit like my daughter shares that gene!
Highlights of the Week - 13th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1 : Planning the next "Big Event". Thinking about what to share with our wider team and what they might want to know
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
My daughter went to see One Direction and Five Seconds of Summer at Wembley Stadium last week. She's had the tickets for about a year and has been getting increasingly excited about going as the months have ticked by. At 15 I guess it is ok to get obsessively overwrought and by the night before the concert she was beside herself. This ended with a brief period of tears during which she uttered the wonderful lines "I don't want it to be tomorrow because then it will all be over and I won't be able to look forward to it anymore."
And soon it will be almost four years to the next World Cup and perhaps two more years until One Direction tour again, if they last that long and indeed she may not be interested by then (One Direction at 18? Surely not). And that is one of the big things that I contemplate in life - how to reflect on, learn from and remember the past and look forward and anticipate the future, but to really live in the present and fully enjoy the moment. On the whole, I am better at the past and future and struggle to completely enjoy now, too busy thinking about what next.
Sounds a bit like my daughter shares that gene!
Highlights of the Week - 13th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1 : Planning the next "Big Event". Thinking about what to share with our wider team and what they might want to know
Every six months we pause our Leadership Team development programme and hold an event that invites all the staff that work around the Western Locality of who might have a view on how well we are working to join us for a day of reflection and feedback.
It is an opportunity to share key messages about our work ahead – this week’s planning session listed integration and our core workplan as the key elements that we want to talk to staff about.
But the key to the big event is the “Big Listen”, a genuine open space where we use a range of techniques to encourage all staff to share positively their views on how we are doing and how we could make the environment easier for them to carry out their work successfully. Crucially, the real encouragement is for the Senior Leadership Team to listen openly without feeling the need to justify, explain or defend.
Sounds easy, but event feedback has been that we got that much better last time than at the first event we ran, so the planning this week was to ensure we repeat what worked and not what didn’t!
Highlights of the Week 2: Chief Executives set a path
towards outcomes based commissioning and an emphasis on capitation distribution
The Chief Executives’ Group
that is steering the 11-week intensive support programme with PwC on the
Financially Challenged Local Health Economy met again this week. We are only just over a week from the
end of the programme so very much as the critical “what next?” stage of the
work.
The group has agreed to work
collectively on a joint programme over the next two years, which is really
encouraging and the first time in the patch that there will have been such a
clear overarching strategy and sense of combined effort. The exact nature of how the programme
will go forward is still to be worked through, but the high level agreement is
now in place.
We also have agreed to use
an outcomes based commissioning model for helping to move the strategy forward
and a greater emphasis on capitation share as a way of rightsizing the
resources. This will mean a different
style of commissioning – one that is far less detailed about specification, but
far more explicit about outcomes – and will require a different way of working
from providers. It also means a
collective sense of responsibility about the total amount of resource available
for healthcare.
Hopefully, the big steps
forward in terms of commitment can now turn quickly in to real action
Highlights of the Week 3: Presentation to @NHSElect in London with @timrobson07, Individuals at the Centre of a branding discussion
I spent a morning this week
with members of NHS Elect in London discussing the work we have done with Tim
Robson from nowshowup.com on using concepts of branding to drive a programme of
change around patient experience.
It was interesting to follow
a speaker who was explaining the importance of corporate house styles and the
image of a brand. We have very
much focussed on brand being something that is based around the expectation of
an experience as a customer and the extent to which that expectation is met, so
it was a useful contrast and range of perspectives.
The presentation went down
really well and I have been reflecting on the need to get this work in front of
a bigger audience. I do think we
have found a way to look at the complexities of patient experience using a different
and insightful lens and we will be looking for platforms that allow more people
to take a view on the work.
Highlights of the Week 4: Choose Well - how successful was the campaign to help people to make the best choices over winter?
We are starting to evaluate how well our choose well campaign worked last year. The Communications' team put a lot of time in to developing the material last year including a suite of videos such as Choose Well GP Services, Choose Well MIU and Choose Well A&E
In a complex system like our urgent care network it is really hard to work out in any given year what has made things better or worse. Did we have a better year this year because of the weather, the way primary care acted, an improvement in the way A&E worked, the use of additional winter funds or the media campaign?
I guess the best we can do is to ask people how useful they thought this was and that is exactly what we'll be doing over the next few weeks (a simple survey monkey Choose Well Survey Monkey).
But it is a reminder that as an Urgent Care Partnership for the system around Plymouth, we did put a lot of energy in to getting things right and at our meeting this week we reflected on what needs to be in place for next year. A simple bit of evaluation is important to ensure there is a basis for the next decision.
Highlights of the Week 5:Enjoyable end to the week with my senior team; lots going really well as we look at the strategic challenges ahead
I am spending more time now working on the challenges that are facing the whole CCG and the wider health and social care system, rather than just looking at the issues that we need to focus on in the Western Locality. It is important that we have reprioritised our senior resource in the organisation to address the largest challenges we face and to ensure that we are taking on the crucial system leadership role that is now critical.
It was good though, to be back in Plymouth with my senior team looking at how we are organising ourselves to deliver on the Western Locality part of the overall challenge.
There is a piece in Nancy Kline's Thinking Environment which talks about the power of thinking that comes after laughter shared in a team (or indeed tears). This Heads of Commissioning Team is a place rife with irony and sarcasm, but with a group that I have exceptional confidence in and who are really on top of many of the key issues.
It was good to have a couple of hours to ensure that I was giving enough sense of direction and support and to help solve some of the more deep rooted issues, but mostly just to enjoy the company and our work together.
Time has passed since I started the blog and clearly now England have lost their opening match and life looks more challenging in respect of qualifying for the knockout stages. More than ever remember to enjoy the day, rather than what will be or what might have been....!
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Highlights of the Week - 6th June 2014
This week I have been fortunate to spend a few days in Liverpool at the NHS Confederation Annual conference (In our house over the years this has been known as the "pen conference" as I have managed to appease the family with the freebies handed out by consultancy firms, legal firms, recruitment consultants and the rest, rather than spend any money on "dad has been away for a few days" presents).
I don't head out of the Peninsular very often, relying for contact with the wider NHS and policy world on electronic means, so it was useful this week to connect face to face with old colleagues from all over the country and discuss the challenges that we are all facing and the different approaches to tackling them. It is a great location too and amazing to see what has been created through the regeneration of Liverpool One.
In opening the conference Rob Webster, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, said that he hoped that the conference would uplifting and inspirational. That isn't as easy as it sounds given that every single presentation had, for at least part of its content, a reference to the financial restrainst, the age of austerity or the £20 billion NHS savings target (which is dwarfed by the true size of savings required).
But there was plenty of optimism and some of it makes it in to this week's highlights....
Highlights of the Week - 6th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Area Team annual assurance meeting sets out our challenge and the progress we are making to address them
I doubt I would have predicted that the annual assurance meeting this week would be one of my highlights. We have a number of challenges, most obviously our financial position having made a deficit in 2013/2014 and are predicting the same for 2014/15, but also our stakeholder survey and staff survey point towards a range of areas where we need to improve.
But, we set out clearly what we feel we have done well, for example performance on key NHS Constitution targets, most importantly acknowledged openly where we need to improve and then set out a plan that addressed those areas.
The Area Team from NHS England were clear that we do need to make progress and to speed up our delivery of key items, especially around financial recovery. The reason this is a highlight, though, is because it felt like we were appropriately and robustly held to account, but in a mature and productive way.
Highlights of the Week 2: A morning spent reflecting on our planning and commissioning process in order to start again for 2015/16
It doesn't feel like we have got near to finishing the 2014/15 planning process, due in the main, I think, because we are working on improving our five year strategy with PWC as part of the Financially Challenged Local Health Economy work and we will then need to enact some new cross community programmes of change. But this week we spent the morning looking back to our commissioning cycle that started in September last year and reviewing what we think we did well and where we would want to make changes.
Two areas felt really positive: we adopted a strict commissioning framework structure last year meaning we sent out key indexed documents to all our providers at the same time throughout the process. The framework, starting with the first slide deck mapping out the approach, ran to 23 documents in the end, but meant that we were able to avoid any chance of any providers or stakeholders hearing information at different times or feeling like they were being treated differentially.
The second area was around the internal contract oversight process we had in place with a weekly status meeting that allowed us to review progress on our key contracts and agree how we would handle issues as they arose. We have three major acute providers in our area, two community and mental health organisations, a children's services provider and a range of independent or out of area contracts to manage. Co-ordination is key to that and it felt much better than it had previously.
The overwhelming mood of the meeting was that we need to start next year now, so we have gone away with a determination to release the first of this year's commissioning framework documents before the end of June, leading on from the completion of our work with PWC. Given the amount of effort that has gone in over the last few months, it was hugely encouraging that the teams were up for getting going again with another cycle.
Highlights of the Week 3: Health Secretaries take the stage and give us their accumulated wisdom
There was a session at the Conference that saw three ex health secretaries - Frank Dobson, Stephen Dorrell and Alan Milburn - as well as ex minister Edwina Currie, debate the priorities for the NHS.
It was enthralling (I agree, you would have to be interested in NHS and politics to recognise that description, but if you are, then this was a real spectacle). Milburn and Dorrell in particular are political heavy weights and clearly there was a good level of respect between them about their respective grasps of the NHS agenda.
Plenty of political banter and points scoring on offer, but mostly - in a kind of Michael Portillo / Diane Abbott way - there was a bit more distance and perspective in their analysis that was refreshing and they were able to paint a compelling picture of the strategy needed. I was left thinking how interesting it would be to have a Dorrell/Milburn partnership at the top of the NHS right now, not that working in the NHS under Milburn in particular was cosy, it was full of hard emphasis on targets and improvement, but it did seem to have a coherent and complete vision.
Simon Stevens, the new Chief Executive of NHS England, did set out a high level description of the areas he feels needed to change, including some that I recognise, such as the split between specialised and general commissioning, so hopefully we will get some greater clarity over the next few months.
Highlights of the Week 4: Sitting with @docmdmartin reflecting on our work together and the challenges ahead. See you in Devon soon.
I spent a number of years working with Dr Martin McShane whilst he was with NHS Lincolnshire. I supported him on a number of key change programmes around local hospitals in Louth, Skegness and Grantham as well as other commissioning work. I am really proud of what we managed to achieve and both of us reflect on the positivity of how we worked together.
He is clearly very busy now with his role of National Director for Long-term conditions, so it is only once or twice a year that we manage to catch up, but was great to hear about what he is trying to achieve at NHS England. I ended up listening to a presentation he was part of about ageing and mental health which was (truly) fascinating and a prompted some soul searching.
I have made him promise that he will get to Devon. As I said, social media now betrays movements so whether he tweets or someone else does we hear of visits he makes across the country. The South West will be one of those stops over the next 12 months, so thanks, Martin, for that promise!
Highlights of the Week 5: The Cavern- four blokes in suits and wigs, so cheesy, but so enjoyable. Fab (four)
I've been to the conference a few times in Liverpool and there is little incentive to leave the area around Albert Dock, so generally I haven't. I have been to the Tate once, but that is in the Dock and just a short walk at the end of a conference day.
This year, though, we happened to bump in to a Liverpool local who showed us around for a night and following a good tapas meal he suggested the Cavern, which sounded like a good idea. It was exactly as I pictured it and, of course, there were four blokes dressed up to look like John, Ringo, Paul and George playing a set of Beatles covers.
It definitely shouldn't have worked, but it was great and I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening grinning widely at the surprising end to a night at the conference. A bit too much singing along and a few too many dodgy dance moves, but definitely fab.
What was the best thing about the Conference? The speeches, definitely..... now let's see if those pens work
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
I don't head out of the Peninsular very often, relying for contact with the wider NHS and policy world on electronic means, so it was useful this week to connect face to face with old colleagues from all over the country and discuss the challenges that we are all facing and the different approaches to tackling them. It is a great location too and amazing to see what has been created through the regeneration of Liverpool One.
In opening the conference Rob Webster, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, said that he hoped that the conference would uplifting and inspirational. That isn't as easy as it sounds given that every single presentation had, for at least part of its content, a reference to the financial restrainst, the age of austerity or the £20 billion NHS savings target (which is dwarfed by the true size of savings required).
But there was plenty of optimism and some of it makes it in to this week's highlights....
Highlights of the Week - 6th June 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Area Team annual assurance meeting sets out our challenge and the progress we are making to address them
I doubt I would have predicted that the annual assurance meeting this week would be one of my highlights. We have a number of challenges, most obviously our financial position having made a deficit in 2013/2014 and are predicting the same for 2014/15, but also our stakeholder survey and staff survey point towards a range of areas where we need to improve.
But, we set out clearly what we feel we have done well, for example performance on key NHS Constitution targets, most importantly acknowledged openly where we need to improve and then set out a plan that addressed those areas.
The Area Team from NHS England were clear that we do need to make progress and to speed up our delivery of key items, especially around financial recovery. The reason this is a highlight, though, is because it felt like we were appropriately and robustly held to account, but in a mature and productive way.
Highlights of the Week 2: A morning spent reflecting on our planning and commissioning process in order to start again for 2015/16
It doesn't feel like we have got near to finishing the 2014/15 planning process, due in the main, I think, because we are working on improving our five year strategy with PWC as part of the Financially Challenged Local Health Economy work and we will then need to enact some new cross community programmes of change. But this week we spent the morning looking back to our commissioning cycle that started in September last year and reviewing what we think we did well and where we would want to make changes.
Two areas felt really positive: we adopted a strict commissioning framework structure last year meaning we sent out key indexed documents to all our providers at the same time throughout the process. The framework, starting with the first slide deck mapping out the approach, ran to 23 documents in the end, but meant that we were able to avoid any chance of any providers or stakeholders hearing information at different times or feeling like they were being treated differentially.
The second area was around the internal contract oversight process we had in place with a weekly status meeting that allowed us to review progress on our key contracts and agree how we would handle issues as they arose. We have three major acute providers in our area, two community and mental health organisations, a children's services provider and a range of independent or out of area contracts to manage. Co-ordination is key to that and it felt much better than it had previously.
The overwhelming mood of the meeting was that we need to start next year now, so we have gone away with a determination to release the first of this year's commissioning framework documents before the end of June, leading on from the completion of our work with PWC. Given the amount of effort that has gone in over the last few months, it was hugely encouraging that the teams were up for getting going again with another cycle.
Highlights of the Week 3: Health Secretaries take the stage and give us their accumulated wisdom
There was a session at the Conference that saw three ex health secretaries - Frank Dobson, Stephen Dorrell and Alan Milburn - as well as ex minister Edwina Currie, debate the priorities for the NHS.
It was enthralling (I agree, you would have to be interested in NHS and politics to recognise that description, but if you are, then this was a real spectacle). Milburn and Dorrell in particular are political heavy weights and clearly there was a good level of respect between them about their respective grasps of the NHS agenda.
Plenty of political banter and points scoring on offer, but mostly - in a kind of Michael Portillo / Diane Abbott way - there was a bit more distance and perspective in their analysis that was refreshing and they were able to paint a compelling picture of the strategy needed. I was left thinking how interesting it would be to have a Dorrell/Milburn partnership at the top of the NHS right now, not that working in the NHS under Milburn in particular was cosy, it was full of hard emphasis on targets and improvement, but it did seem to have a coherent and complete vision.
Simon Stevens, the new Chief Executive of NHS England, did set out a high level description of the areas he feels needed to change, including some that I recognise, such as the split between specialised and general commissioning, so hopefully we will get some greater clarity over the next few months.
Highlights of the Week 4: Sitting with @docmdmartin reflecting on our work together and the challenges ahead. See you in Devon soon.
I spent a number of years working with Dr Martin McShane whilst he was with NHS Lincolnshire. I supported him on a number of key change programmes around local hospitals in Louth, Skegness and Grantham as well as other commissioning work. I am really proud of what we managed to achieve and both of us reflect on the positivity of how we worked together.
He is clearly very busy now with his role of National Director for Long-term conditions, so it is only once or twice a year that we manage to catch up, but was great to hear about what he is trying to achieve at NHS England. I ended up listening to a presentation he was part of about ageing and mental health which was (truly) fascinating and a prompted some soul searching.
I have made him promise that he will get to Devon. As I said, social media now betrays movements so whether he tweets or someone else does we hear of visits he makes across the country. The South West will be one of those stops over the next 12 months, so thanks, Martin, for that promise!
Highlights of the Week 5: The Cavern- four blokes in suits and wigs, so cheesy, but so enjoyable. Fab (four)
I've been to the conference a few times in Liverpool and there is little incentive to leave the area around Albert Dock, so generally I haven't. I have been to the Tate once, but that is in the Dock and just a short walk at the end of a conference day.This year, though, we happened to bump in to a Liverpool local who showed us around for a night and following a good tapas meal he suggested the Cavern, which sounded like a good idea. It was exactly as I pictured it and, of course, there were four blokes dressed up to look like John, Ringo, Paul and George playing a set of Beatles covers.
It definitely shouldn't have worked, but it was great and I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening grinning widely at the surprising end to a night at the conference. A bit too much singing along and a few too many dodgy dance moves, but definitely fab.
What was the best thing about the Conference? The speeches, definitely..... now let's see if those pens work
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
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