News

In 2023 we launched our Digital and Data Academy, delivered in partnership with Multiverse and funded through the Apprenticeship Levy, helping to build new skillsets in data, AI, and transformation.

Learners from every division of the Trust span a range of clinical and operational functions – from Support Officers, Service Managers, Analysts, to Clinicians and Nurses.

Staff are strongly encouraged to share their new knowledge across the Trust. Regular Data, Digital, and AI Academy Roundtables, chaired by Chief Nursing Information Officer Emily Burch, bring together learners and leaders to share learnings and success stories. Emily Burch, Chief Nursing Information Officer says: 

"Strengthening and developing digital literacy and leadership across our organisation is crucial for fostering a culture that promotes innovation and meaningful changes in patient care. This focus is a key aspect of our digital strategy and serves as the foundation for our collaboration with the Multiverse Digital Academy. We are committed to building a community and sharing best practices in digital innovation and learning within mental health supporting our teams in applying their newly acquired skills to improve patient care long after they complete their learning.

“The insights shared through initiatives such as our roundtables and the best practice playbooks we are developing not only enhance our practices at NLFT, but also aim to serve as valuable resources for other Trusts seeking to drive innovation. By investing in our people and championing digital excellence, we are creating a workforce that is prepared to meet the challenges of the future, ensuring our services remain efficient, effective, and centered on patient needs." 

 

Teams are seeing the benefit of new skills, driving impactful changes that enhance patient experience and operational efficiency. 100% of learners understand how the Academy contributes to the Trust’s strategy and supports their professional career goals. Sarah Wilkins, Chief Digital and Information Officer says:

“Multiverse has been an invaluable partner, and the Digital Academy has been transformational for our staff. It’s really opened their eyes to the power of data and how they’re using it, creating a huge impact for our services. We’re seeing staff becoming more confident – they’re proactively using data insights and asking important questions like “Have we thought about this? This is what we’re seeing in our service, is this true in other areas of the Trust?” It’s a real step change for us.” 

Sophie Macken, Business Support Officer says: 

“I’ve learned new skills that have enabled me to become a leader in driving impactful change that benefits both service users and colleagues. The benefits have been immense. I’ve been able to build significant confidence and see the team taking real ownership and pride over their data. I now have a voice that is heard and I look forward to seeing what my future career path holds.” 

Creating time savings for clinicians

By reducing time spent on manual data entry, teams across NLFT are finding ways to increase time spent with patients.

Mitasha’s story

Using her skills gained through the Multiverse Business Transformation Fellowship, London Prisons Service Lead Mitasha analysed the current reporting in her department – and found that several team leads were spending 2-3 days per month fulfilling mandatory, time-intensive reporting requirements as part of the Care Programme Approach.

After conducting iterative testing, Mitasha implemented improvements to the reporting process that collectively saved team leads 45 hours per month. We has been invited to share learnings nationally with other healthcare providers in Healthcare in Justice to roll out a similar process in their services.

Improving patient experience

Ferenkeh’s story

Ferenkeh, a Consultant Social Worker, tackled a significant challenge facing Barnet Inpatient Mental Health Wards: a high number of patients who were clinically ready for discharge, but waiting for care assessments. Addressing delayed discharges is a priority for us to improve patient experience.

Using his analytical skills gained through the Business Transformation Fellowship programme, Ferenkeh engaged with local authority service managers to pinpoint bottlenecks in the discharge process, particularly around communication and documentation. He proposed enhancements to the documentation forms to ensure they captured all necessary information and streamlining the process.

By employing data visualisation techniques using PowerBI, Ferenkeh effectively illustrated the issues and tracked progress, reducing the number of active patients awaiting assessments from 25 to one, within a nine month period.

To ensure the sustainability of these improvements, Ferenkeh recommended establishing a dedicated discharge team in Barnet, who will continue to own the process.

Unlocking actionable insights from data

As employees become more proficient in using data tools like PowerBI, they’re able to streamline processes that previously required manual support from data specialists.

Nikitha’s story

Nikitha is a Business Intelligence Analyst. She spotted that the team was receiving a high rate of queries related to readmissions – and decided to take a deep dive into the data.

Leveraging new skills in hypothesis testing and predictive analysis gained through the Data Fellowship Programme, she explored the impacts of key demographics like gender, ethnicity, and length of stay on readmission rate. The results suggested that gender had a significant impact on readmission rates, and indicated that tactical interventions may be required to reduce readmissions of male patients.

Nikitha’s findings will be shared with the Population Health team, who will investigate further and understand root causes at borough level, to recommend interventions to employ.

Read the blog post from Multiverse on their website.