In 2010, NHS England set a £20bn challenge to all NHS organisations. For this acute hospital Trust it translated to a 5% target, amounting to £30m within a two-year period. The Trust established a formal Transformation Programme and set an ambitious target of £19m in the first year, and £9m in the second. The first stage was to establish a Programme Management Office (PMO) and governance framework for the programme.

What We did

  • A plan was developed which identified savings, milestones and accountabilities related to each business unit.

  • Development of standard programme documentation and tracking mechanisms.

  • Establishment of a Quality Impact Assessment process with supporting documentation and tracking of quality indicators to ensure that patient safety and quality of care was not compromised through the stringent cost reduction process.

  • Management of an extended PMO team comprised of clinical leads, operational leads, finance managers, HR and workforce business partners to ensure a whole-system approach to the cost saving process was achieved.

Outcomes

  • Change leadership of the Trust’s Service Improvement Team to become Transformation Business Partners and form a PMO delivering the above savings.

  • Established a formal governance and reporting structure including an Executive Transformation Delivery Group, and the Transformation Steering Board chaired by the Chief Executive.

  • Preparation of the monthly Transformation Trust Board papers, and regular communications regarding the Transformation Programme for circulation publicly and internally.