Case study: Kingsgate and Dearden working together to achieve workforce change in the NHS
Kingsgate has been providing transformation and turnaround support in healthcare over the last 15 years. The team has a wealth of operational and executive experience and are adept at financial and operational analysis, planning and operational delivery.
Its sister company, Dearden HR, is a boutique HR consultancy firm with a long history of supporting NHS organisations – successfully completing over 1,200 consultancy assignments at all levels of the NHS including the Department of Health and NHSE/I and individual Trusts.
Kingsgate Dearden are strong believers in the People, Process, Technology (PPT) Framework. People do the work; processes make this work more efficient; technology helps people do their tasks and automates processes. Organisations can achieve efficiency by balancing the three.
Kingsgate Dearden offers more than traditional consultancy; we work alongside our clients with active, practical help to drive immediate results AND deal with difficult people issues. We pride ourselves on creating bespoke solutions for each of our clients.
The client and the challenge
We were asked to support and deliver a workforce change programme for a large Midlands Trust’s estates and facilities team. This followed a TUPE transfer or staff into the Trust from previously privatised services. The Trust were looking to review operational efficiency and create a ‘one team’ approach to work in estates and facilities.?
What we did
The overall objective was to support the development of a robust workforce model in estates and facilities that supported an e-rostering approach. This model would provide future opportunities for proactive recruitment and role reviews and was needed to support the Trust’s Cost Improvement Programme (CIP).
The project was divided into four workstreams:
·???????Premium pay and workforce efficiency
·???????HR processes
·???????Infrastructure changes
·???????People, leadership and culture
And included:
???????The creation of a programme board with agreed milestones and KPIs to support a spotlight on workforce management
???????A review of a number of different estates and facilities functions
???????A review of temporary staffing with a series of improvement interventions to reduce reliance on temporary staff
???????A review of bank/agency and recruitment and retention payments to ensure these were in line with the market and allowed for effective recruitment
???????Provision and review of benchmarking data from other similar NHS Trusts
???????Support for the implementation of Allocate for e-rostering
???????A focus on staff engagement and ownership, alongside team building
???????A supporting OD programme, with specific leadership development support, to embed best practice and focus on the sustainability of change.
What we achieved
The Trust realised ￡250k savings in year, reducing spend on non-contracted pay by ￡650k over a three-year period.
The benefits of introducing e-rostering included:
???????a more accurate payroll system
???????better shift planning
???????a fairer rostering system
???????freeing-up of senior staff time to spend more time on delivering estates and facilities activities.
E-rostering has also enabled departments to plan shift rotations well in advance and forecast staffing requirements. This has helped reduce reliance on agency staff and monitor overtime.
The associated OD plan has meant these changes were implemented with the buy-in of all staff and teething problems were minimised. Dearden HR undertook a diagnostic assessment of leadership skills in the senior management team which allowed it to develop a comprehensive 6-week leadership development programme.
Senior management that went through the leadership development programme reported high satisfaction with the course, reporting it left them feel more confident and capable to navigate change and implement new initiatives.
We agreed long-term success measures with the Trust, including improvements to staff engagement and advocacy in response to the NHS Staff Survey. Initial results have already resulted in an improvement and the Trust aims to build on these results in the longer term.?