Case Studies

Background

Gloucestershire PCT was formed on the 1st October 2006 and replaced the three former Primary Care Trusts in Gloucestershire (Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, Cotswold and Vale and West Gloucestershire). The organisation serves a population of approximately 602,000 and covers the following district council areas: Cotswold, Cheltenham, Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Tewkesbury Borough and Stroud.
The main role of the PCT is to:

• engage with the local population to improve health and well being
• commission a comprehensive and equitable range of high quality, responsive and efficient services and;
• directly provide services where this gives best value.

Challenge

The PCT needed to produce a 3 year Strategic Framework (2008-11), which captured the views of representatives from local strategic partnerships, service users, carers, voluntary and community groups, as well as health and social care staff. The Strategic Framework wanted to address issues such as what the representatives would like the PCT to prioritise in the future, give the PCT their reaction to a set of proposals and to ask for suggestions for other services local people would like to see improved. The purpose of the Framework was;

• to set out clearly a range of proposals for priorities for the PCT in the coming three years;
• to provide a range of involvement opportunities (workshops, on line questionnaire, news media article;
• to respond to requests from communities to provide targeted ‘seldom heard’ group sessions e.g. university students, secondary school pupils, youth MPs, black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, people with learning and physical disabilities.
• to analyse the responses accurately and efficiently, meeting the required deadlines of PCT Board and Strategic Health Authority

“Having talked to Eurosis about interactive voting at the NHS Confederation Conference and Exhibition, I knew that their audience response system was just what we needed to help achieve these aims”, says Becky Parish, Assistant Director, Patient and Community Involvement.

Solution

To support the development of the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust’s Strategic Framework 2008-11, a series of eleven workshops with representatives (described as “Offer Conversations”), were held. Electronic voting technology was used to allow participants to vote anonymously and to receive instant feedback on the collective response to the proposals.

Comments collected from representatives over the year, were distilled into a set of proposals that the PCT wanted to discuss with local stakeholders. “We invited ‘seldom heard groups,’ as well as stakeholders from each of the six district council areas in the county and individuals or groups who have a countywide remit to the workshops. As we were able to use the demographic facility within the electronic voting software, we could easily identify how each group voted on individual proposals enabling the PCT to highlight how seldom heard groups felt specifically on issues raised” comments Becky Parish .

Conclusion

The floods in Gloucestershire in 2007 reinforced the value of public Bodies and local communities working together towards a common goal – to deliver the very best for local people both in terms of personal well-being and access to timely and responsive services.

Over 500 local people participated in this process and it proved to be popular with participants and staff alike. “The interactive voting system definitely contributed to making the workshops a success. Following the analysis of the results via the excellent reporting facility within the audience response system and discussions with the PCT’s Involvement Group, two further feedback and ‘checking back’ sessions (described as “Offer 2”) events were held, prior to the Strategic Framework being submitted to the PCT Board for approval” states Becky Parish Assistant Director of Patient and Community Involvement. Becky continues “It is important to us that people’s experiences of the NHS meet their expectations. We also need to ensure that as well as purchasing high quality care and treatment, services represent value for money. Utilising the interactive voting session within the workshops, allowed us to prioritise proposals quickly and concisely, whilst enabling the primary care trust to see which group would be most affected by them if they came into force”.

Comment

“Utilising the electronic voting system provided an innovative method for the PCT to receive views on what our partners, service users and residents want us to prioritise in the future. The electronic voting system gave us an instant reaction to a set of proposals and gave respondents the opportunity to provide us with suggestions for other services local people would like to see improved”.- Becky Parish, Assistant Director, Patient and Community Involvement, Gloucestershire PCT