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The future of care delivery is completely dependent on digital systems in some shape or form, and it is no longer maintained that the sole responsibility for digital is the IT department.

Digital Champions

Our digital champions are fundamental to ensure our workforce across MPFT collaborate on system use, support and innovation.

Our 300 digital champions are growing in number by the week and form a peer support network that collaborate on everything from the basic IT query to innovative recommendations and sharing of best practice.

The digital champions are a community of clinical, care practitioner and corporate services staff, with champions across nearly every one of MPFT’s service areas. They are essential in every service area for feedback, engagement and assisting with buy-in on new innovations and adoption of systems once they become available. Our digital systems are nothing without the staff to use them for delivery of care.

It is our ambition to grow the number of digital champions year on year, to maintain our quarterly review meetings and to continue our daily collaborations and updates on our Microsoft Teams channel.

Communication

One of the key thematic outcomes from our 100+ hours of digital engagement sessions is the need for new communication, engagement and consultation approaches to keeping our workforce up to date with the latest system features design, training and advice.

Through our digital engagement surveys approach, 92% of respondents did feel informed about new IT plans and upcoming systems downtime. However, through our engagement discussions, it was clear that there was still a lack of awareness on certain new systems’ features that were available and not being used, as highlighted in our digital upskilling and confidence theme.

“Digital is crucial and COVID-19 has reminded us of its value, but it needs further development. We don't know what we don't know.”
Paul Garner, Palliative Nurse Consultant, Palliative Care Services

The workflow, infrastructure maturity and digital upskilling themes cross over with this communications theme that we need to ensure we are maximising the use of our existing systems. This will ensure we realise benefit through digital systems across as many relevant areas of the Trust as possible.

The in-depth engagement approach highlighted a significant issue that needs to be improved over the course of this digital strategy.

We cannot solely rely upon our current communications approaches of committee updates and internal communications cascades, Trust website updates, Intranet updates, Twitter posts, MPFT Facebook Group posts, MPFT newsletter articles, digital champions channel updates, IT Training course sessions and training videos releases.

The existing approaches are essential, but we need to find a way of ensuring our message is seen and the benefits for reviewing our communications content is understood.

Through active two-way discussions in our engagement sessions, we have been able to demonstrate new systems such as the Staffordshire Integrated Care Record and sell the benefits of its use at the same time. Despite wide-spread communications the fact that our staff are able to see GP, acute, community and social care data at the click of a button for all Staffordshire citizens was not understood.

It was only through a meaningful conversation that the individual use case and value add was fully understood by our staff, and the Integrated Care Record (ICR) system started to be accessed.

Communicating changes and updates

Through our change management processes we will ensure that our proposed system updates, downtime, training and communications of new system features are managed. This will ensure our staff are fully aware of any impact on their care processes, the benefits associated with pending changes and how working practices will be impacted.

This is just one example, there are many others. Whilst MPFT Digital have significantly progressed our communications scope and frequency over the last few years, our system suppliers have also increased the pace and frequency of change across our systems.

Our Microsoft platforms are just one area where new features are being released weekly, yet the awareness of these features and how to use and apply them is simply not being cascaded with the consistency and pace required.

MPFT Digital will ensure our IT Training and Service Development departments make the most of our strategic partnerships with our key software suppliers. This is so we are aware of, and are able to have influence on, our supplier roadmaps. We will keep our workforce continually updated about what is coming next, when, and how it can be used.

We will keep our training courses updated with new key features too, collaborating with our Quality Improvement (QI) colleagues and digital champions to ensure we prioritise the most useful system areas for training and communications.

We will also encourage the digital champions and other staff members to join the Microsoft 365 Digital Champion group where staff can find out about the latest updates, ask questions, access resources and insider views from Microsoft 365 which they can share with their peers. This community will connect staff with like-minded users, enable members to share and learn from each other and give exclusive access to Microsoft product experts. This will ensure we consistently keep abreast of the latest features, tips and software approaches from the Trust’s largest software supplier.

Our digital engagement approach for the creation of this strategy has been so productive in sharing information and fostering a culture of excitement and collaboration that we will continue this approach in some form over the coming years. Through this intensive approach, a mutually beneficial increased understanding has been gained between each service area we have engaged with.

Whilst we cannot maintain the frequency and the volume of the engagement sessions we have held in the creation of this strategy, we will work to create new means and regular touchpoints between MPFT Digital and our service leads and wider workforce.

“We hope digital would make processes easier but often it is slow, hard to find things, best use of systems is not communicated effectively to staff”
Lesley Scott, CPN/Acting Quality Lead Psychosis East Staffordshire Pathway

Through our transformation schemes, we will continue to follow the PRINCE2 best-practice guidance with clearly identified roles and responsibilities in place, communications plans and senior end users of the systems being transformed as key members of each project team.

With active collaboration and consultation throughout every transformation scheme, it will ensure that every new system change and deployment has every chance of success.

  • Growing our digital champion community and the culture of shared responsibility for learning and improving our digital systems awareness
  • Improving and maintaining our understanding of Trust services and care pathways. This will help MPFT Digital understand which communications are pertinent to which areas of the Trust
  • Staying ahead of the curve on new systems features and communicating these consistently to our workforce, making it clear what the use case is in non-technical language so that these messages are understood
  • Keeping our workforce up to date on which systems are best used for which purpose, which are the most secure, and which systems to avoid making use of and making our guidance on this clearer
  • Reviewing service systems use and workflow processes and sharing best practice across our services
  • Making use of our strategic supplier partnerships through regular service review meetings to gain greater access to system updates and training offers
  • Hosting ongoing digital engagement approaches with our workforce such as drop-in digital clinics for focussed support, advice and training

  • Quarterly Digital Champions forums and ensuring we have digital champions across all service areas
  • Receive, co-create and share ideas through the In Our Gift staff engagement platform
  • Digital Toolkit will be created and maintained by MPFT Digital, QI, Information Governance (IG) to support staff in knowing what system to use and how to use them
  • Creation of an MPFT Digital Communications Plan including approaches and solutions for targeted communications (e.g. only users of sexual health services get a communication related to a change to that system)
  • Microsoft 365 features and benefits training materials will be created and maintained with each new feature update
  • Promote and encourage staff to join the Microsoft 365 Digital Champion Group
  • All health, social care and business systems will have service review meetings and horizon scanning technical roadmaps in place
  • IT Training and clinical systems roadshows and support clinics will be scheduled across our services
  • Introduce a standardised digital champion job description section for all staff that pledge to be part of the community
  • Creation of the MPFT Innovation Hub, a platform for front line staff to have a voice and seek guidance from external and internal experts, providing information on new digital systems and low-level technology
  • Leveraging the benefits and access of social media through new approaches such as podcasts and blogs

Measures for success

  • Our staff are aware of new systems features and the art of the possible through regular updates and feedback
  • Our MPFT Wiki Knowledgebase and Chat Bot is used daily for staff to self-serve information and processes 
  • Our care pathways in review are fully documented in standardised mapping tools

  • Our digital champions numbers exceed 500 active members that share insights, updates and collaborate
  • Our In Our Gift ideas collaboration platform transitions ideas from reality and the impact is measured
  • Our Communications, Quality Improvement, Organisational Development, Recovery and Wellbeing College and MPFT Digital work in partnership with service users on significant digital transformations

  • Our successes are shared through our communications team, with the wider NHS through national Blueprinting platforms
  • Our partnerships with education, regional, voluntary and suppliers co-design updates and case studies which share best practice and organisational digital achievements

  • Digitally enhanced care for our service users is in practice daily and evidenced through robust, consistent communications, collaboration and engagement
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