Attain was commissioned by Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to help them understand their workforce and assist them to improve productivity and generate financial savings.

The project had two main work streams:

  • A qualitative review and re-profiling of the current workforce, to help the Trust find greater economies and efficiencies including optimising the Trust’s IMS Maxims implementation
  • A quantitative workforce model to help understand the impact of a range of initiatives

What We did

  • We assigned a lead to each Acute workforce area to engage key stakeholders in the corporate, administrative and clinical functions.

  • Focusing on the directorate leads, we utilised available evidence around schemes that had worked in other areas at similar sites and in similar health economies.

  • Modelled a workforce baseline: The model was built using the available local data, matched at a speciality level, in Excel, to allow an activity driven model to be created that would allow the Trust to understand the workforce need.

Outcomes

  • We identified schemes for greater economies and efficiencies in the workforce.

  • We identified benefits through better implementation of the IMS Maxims and ways to standardise approaches and data collection.

  • Provided performance evidence to press for system wide changes to reduce demand rather than reconfiguring their staff.

  • Developed a workforce model, allowing the Trust to calculate the workforce need at a speciality level and easily adjust activity levels.