As part of its development journey, the East Midlands Acute Provider (EMAP) Network needed support to identify a shared vision and purpose, agree collaboration priorities, assess capabilities and determine a future governance model.
With extensive experience of working in and with NHS organisations at board level, a collaborative team from Arden & GEM and Carnall Farrar worked closely with nominated representatives from the client to co-design and deliver a workshop programme with clear objectives and outputs. EMAP now has a collaborative vision, agreed priority programmes and a confirmed future governance, leadership and funding model.
The challenge
From July 2022, provider collaboratives became a mandated part of the health and care landscape across England, with all acute and mental health services required to join a local arrangement. Within the East Midlands, eight acute providers had already formed an alliance and were working at scale, through partnership, to improve services and outcomes for patients.
To continue its development journey, EMAP needed a trusted partner to support the identification of priorities, undertake an assessment of capabilities and recommend a future governance model.
As an NHS organisation with an established approach to leadership and board development, Arden & GEM was engaged to co-design and deliver a development programme for EMAP which fostered ownership and mutual accountability. To ensure the right capacity was in place in a timely manner, Arden & GEM worked with tactical partner, Carnall Farrar, to co-deliver the programme.
Our approach
With extensive experience of working in and with NHS organisations, the project team comprised leadership, OD and strategic change specialists with board level expertise. The team worked closely with nominated representatives from the client to co-design a programme based on current evidence, best practice and national policy, underpinned by a problem solving approach.
Designing the workshop programme
Two workshops were designed to bring together board members from each organisation to explore vision, purpose, aims, capabilities, functions and form with a clear output agreed for each session.
Content was shaped by the key findings and themes from exploratory interviews which took place with representatives from each EMAP member including Medical Directors, Chief Executives, Chief Operating Officers and Directors of Strategy.
- Workshop 1 output: A strategic intent document – including a vision and purpose for EMAP, and agreed collaboration priorities and direction.
- Workshop 2 output: Governance options appraisal and agreed future governance structure, collaborative leadership requirements, resource and funding model, and capabilities required.
Delivering tailored sessions
The delivery team used a number of different interactive approaches and frameworks to ensure consensus was built among all participants. As well as covering areas of specific focus, each workshop also maintained a strategic direction to ensure content was iterative within future sessions.
The outcomes
By working closely and collaboratively with member representatives to co-design a workshop programme with a clear focus and outputs, EMAP now has:
- A collaborative vision and purpose
- Agreed priority programmes for collaboration
- A development workplan agreed by the board
- An agreed future governance, collaborative leadership and funding model.
"The East Midlands Acute Provider Collaborative (EMAP) is now in its second year of partnership working with Arden & GEM. The partnership provides both additional capacity for priority EMAP programmes of work, as well as access to the breadth of expertise and experience that Arden & GEM have in providing support service to health and care organisations and systems.
One of these priority work programmes has been Board and Governance Development for the collaborative. Carnall Farrar and Arden & GEM provided a team with experience of delivering executive development programmes to providers and provider collaboratives, and who had held senior roles in similar organisations previously. This enabled peer to peer discussions to be held in a skilled way, on often challenging topics and decisions relating to collaboration. The team brought great current awareness of other systems and provider collaboratives and played this in to ensure that we were looking upwards and outward in addition to the internal focus, as well as taking into account our specific EMAP requirements and focus areas.
The programme has been well received by EMAP and colleagues in our constituent organisations, supporting our growth and maturity around our governance and leadership structure, our funding model, and how we prioritise future priority collaborative programmes of work."
Keith Girling, Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust