Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is geographically one of the largest trusts in the country. It provides healthcare to over half a million people across North Tyneside and Northumberland.
With a budget of £270 million and over 6,000 staff, it delivers a range of services to over 350,000 patients per year. The trust delivers services from 10 sites, 3 large hospitals in North Tyneside, Ashington and Hexham and 7 smaller units spread around Northumberland and North Tyneside.
North East England
We set out to identify an effective way to give staff working in 10 sites, across a large geographical area, improved access to the e-KSF and to trust e-learning modules.
We aimed to:
- increase the number of staff participating in appraisal
- reduce travel time to training venues around the trust
- make it easier for departments to access e-KSF and trust e-learning modules to support mandatory training
We purchased 50 computers and printers to issue to departments across the trust. The computers have been set up soley to give staff access to e-KSF and the relevant e-learning modules. This leaves the main departmental IT systems free for the delivery of our core business.
Additional IT facilities are available through the trust library service. In addition, the trust training team hosts weekly drop-in sessions across all sites.
Initially a consultation was carried out with operational service managers and modern matrons to identify where extra capacity was needed. The main areas identifed were the community hospitals because the 3 main sites all have IT training facilities.
Additional resource rooms were identified and a training needs analysis identified some basic IT skills requirements. As part of this work, new resource rooms within the catering/facilities areas on two of the main sites have been supported with extra computers. The aim is to encourage both domestics/porters and catering staff to access e-KSF and e-learning programmes in a less threatening environment but still allowing for confidentiality.
The business case has been supported at trust executive level. The IT team has set up the computers to allow access to e-mail, e-KSF and e-learning packages. This enables individuals to access and update their own KSF portfolios.
Utilising a project plan, staff are being supported with face-to-face training and drop-in sessions to assist them in this work. Since January 2009 one day a week has been set aside on a rotational basis at the three main sites, plus the off site administrative offices. Two sessions per day have attracted an average attendance of 6-8 people. Visits to the smaller sites have also been arranged.
Using e-KSF the trust has created 1189 reviews and approved 690 to date. There have been 2025 personal development plan activities identified. As a result of this work the trust has identified the following benefits from staff feedback:
- better understanding of the process and increased confidence
- increased access to e-KSF and e-learning modules
reduction in paper
- better quality personal development reviews
The trust has also been able to demonstrate a higher level of compliance with Healtcare Commission requirements through the access to the e-learning modules linked to mandatory training.
For further information contact:
Louise Cole
KSF Lead
louise.cole@nhct.nhs.uk
0191 2031436