Circle Case study

How Mood helps NSCHT drive business value out of their information

BACKGROUND

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust (NSCHT) is a leading provider of mental health, social care, learning disability and substance misuse services in the West Midlands. It is one of only two specialist mental health Trusts rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Trust needed to improve the management, dissemination, and availability of meeting outcomes, committee reports, and project work. The Trust’s overall aim was summed up in the promotional strapline for the project, “All our actions. All our projects. All in one place.”

THE CHALLENGE

The Trust had a robust – albeit complicated – matrix of inputs/reporting from frontline managers into documentation in various formats. Directors and leaders (particularly Executive Directors) had to individually review Action Logs from Highlight Reports, Board Papers, and Committee Assurance Reports, to see the Trust’s management landscape.

As a result, two clear goals were set:

  1. Increase the Trust’s efficiency
  2. Support faster achievement of the Trust’s core strategic objectives by reducing the incidence of missed or overdue actions.

To achieve this, the Trust endeavoured to provide all staff with a single secure point of web access where owners could oversee all actions, update and report on progress and keep track of actions. However, they required a solution that could support these efforts.

THE SOLUTION

CACI’s Mood no-code software augmented NSCHT’s secure web access in the following critical ways:

  1. It created an opportunity to develop functional solutions rapidly along with trial designs with users.
  2. It gave the means to create interlocking functional “modules” and initiated the Trust’s building of three capabilities which formed the foundation of their new Unified Knowledge Layer (UKL):
  • Meeting Manager
  • Action Manager
  • Personal Dashboard

Meetings are set up using Meeting Manager, where users can assign attendees, set out agendas and supply links to papers, allowing attendees to access everything they need in one location. Notes and actions can be captured during or after the meeting and are available to everyone. Actions can be assigned following the meeting and can be edited in Action Manager. Interested parties can then view the outcomes, papers and more in this single place, including browsing back to earlier meetings. Filters also allow for focus on a single meeting type, theme or even a single accountable owner.

Actions, whether from a meeting, project checkpoint or even a performance review, can all be input directly into Actions Manager.

Alternatively, actions can be uploaded in bulk from a spreadsheet. Actions can be viewed through several filter-enabled lenses, such as an executive owner, action lead, topic, project, overdue, etc. They can be updated online and are visible instantly to all interested parties.

The Personalised Dashboard gives a user immediate visibility of all actions assigned to them. This presents a clear view of priorities so they can provide updates or delegate as necessary.

Added beneficial features include the solution’s Single Sign-On design, which links the Active Directory and removes the need to sign into UKL. It also includes Access Controls, where certain information can be available only to a restricted, need-to-know audience.

THE RESULTS

  • NSCHT is now equipped with new digital functionality and is currently implementing it across the wider organisation. The Trust regards the UKL as one of the primary choices for implementing new, digitised management information and intelligence – including upcoming new modules for stakeholder engagement and Active Listening.
  • With fewer actions missed or completed late, various initiatives are now completed more efficiently, with less time spent on chasing updates. Management time is also more dedicated to items with the greatest priority, and senior management are better able to gauge the landscape to assess the general health of activities.
  • Mood’s no-code design helped the Trust rapidly design a prototype alongside key Trust staff and make it available for trial. While the solution was developed incrementally, user value was delivered from an early stage.

We are delighted to announce the launch of an exciting new way for our people to manage their actions, meetings and projects – the Unified Knowledge Layer (UKL).

The launch of the UKL is the culmination of a two-year project, initially begun as a key deliverable of the Corporate Recovery Group. It will be rolled out in a sustainable, phased period over the Spring.

Liz Mellor, Chief Strategy Officer, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS

THE FUTURE

CACI has been delighted to work with NSCHT and enjoys the working relationship, leadership, and creative input received from the NSCHT team throughout the process. The Trust’s leadership team is keen to continue broadening the use of UKL both through encouraging use by all staff and by extending functionality over the next few years into new modules delivering added capabilities.

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