Case Studies

Overview

The NHS, like all public bodies, has a formal duty (and a commonsense need) to listen to and learn from stakeholders – patients, the public, clinical staff and suppliers – in order to deliver world-class health care.

The challenge

Enabling serious and meaningful consultation with and actively listening to NHS stakeholders, both in general and within the commissioning process, is undoubtedly a complex management task. Creating compelling consultation, motivating response, and collating and presenting outputs and outcomes is both time and resource hungry. Yet it is an essential process if resources are to be optimally allocated. The need was therefore not for a simple online survey tool, but for a Consultation Management and Communications System, which could be used without involving expensive IT resources.

The solution

eNgageSpace enabled the creation, management and reporting on multiple and simultaneous consultations and also fewer formal conversations. It empowered staff to use the right tools and processes for a given audience. It enabled and encouraged colleagues’ contributions at the outset of a consultation process, while making it easy for participants to respond; something as ‘simple’ as having all consultations in a list/directory and in one easy-to-find place made a huge difference. eNgageSpace made the collation of response - both quantitative and qualitative - much easier and faster, especially at the ‘back-end’ analysis where so much time can be saved.

The benefits

Steve Shaffelburg, Public Health Development Manager, NHS Kensington & Chelsea:

"Engaging with patients and public is becoming increasingly important to delivering world-class health care.  We quickly realised that business as usual – focus groups, face-to-face meetings, town hall meetings etc – was no longer enough. 

"By augmenting our traditional engagement methods with eNgageSpace, our capacity and efficiency has increased at relatively minimal expense.  eNgageSpace allows us to integrate and manage multiple consultations on multiple issues.  Our response rates have been great and the analysis simple.  It's made our lives a whole lot easier and our work a whole lot more effective."

Overview

An independent review to examine the framework and processes underlying Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) and make recommendations to inform any improvements for 2008 and beyond.

From 2002, a new system of medical postgraduate training known as Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) had been developed and implemented across the UK. The crisis precipitated by the perceived failure and abandonment of the online Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) for selection into specialist training in Spring 2007 revealed profound concerns about MMC more generally. In response, an Independent Inquiry was established by the Secretary of State for Health in April 2007.

The challenge

In developing the Interim Report, Sir John drew evidence from forensic analysis of minutes of meetings, an e-consultation, solicited and unsolicited written submissions, oral evidence from key constituencies and individuals, and the deliberations of expert panels which dealt with service impact issues and best educational practice in terms of assessment and selection.

e-Consultation, in order to get detailed response both from doctors themselves but also other key stakeholders, was a very important part of the process of evidence gathering. The requirement therefore was for a secure, password-accessed site where submissions could be made to detailed questions and in multiple sessions, allowing deliberation and respondents the capability to share and review responses before final submission. Of course detailed analysis of results would be crucial. In addition there was a need to allow peer-to-peer discussion amongst participants, this experiential debate augmenting the quantitative data and informing the overall recommendations.

The solution

eNgageSpace's capability to quickly create interactive and secure consultation websites with full survey , discussion, stakeholder communication and data analysis tools provided – all as an integrated package - was a perfect solution. The robustness of the application was of particular importance given the nature of the Inquiry, in relation to other software systems shortcomings in functionality.

Provision of a Help Desk and practical support to participants was also part of the overall offering.

The benefits

Participation was wide and results excellent and analysis delivered within one week of the Consultation end date.

The findings of the Inquiry were published in an Interim Report, Aspiring to Excellence, on 8 October 2007. The Interim Report was subject to consultation until 20 November 2007 involving an e-consultation, written submissions from key organisations, and meetings in England and the Devolved Administrations. The e-consultation received 1440 responses from individuals and organisations. Overall the e-consultation elicited 39,850 specific responses to the 45 Recommendations.