Designing new service models for digital inclusion in healthcare
Our first pathfinder is up and running. Read about how we co-designed the first iteration in Sheffield.
Following on from my recent post about how we’re using co-design to drive our pathfinders, I want to share our first example.
Our first Pathfinder is in Sheffield. It’s focussed on understanding how we can embed digital inclusion into existing NHS services, specifically through Social Prescribing.
We’ve reached step four of our process in Sheffield, Test and Refine, with our two pilot neighbourhoods starting the process of testing their new service models that we’ve co-designed.
How did we shape the new service models?
At the beginning of the NHS Widening Digital Participation (NHS WDP) project, we invited expressions of interest from anyone with an idea of how they could embed digital inclusion into healthcare.
In Sheffield, we’ve taken their idea and refined it based on the needs and concerns of patients and service users that we’ve spent time with.
Through the co-design sessions, we identified 13 key themes that each of the neighbourhoods ideas needed to address in order for them to be taken forward.
We took the proposed ideas and mapped them out as a version 1.0 model for each neighbourhood. We then facilitated a workshop with the key stakeholders to review their model against the themes and recorded how each of the neighbourhoods would address them.
How will we know if the new models are working?
During the same session, we worked with the two neighbourhoods to identify how they will measure progress and engagement at each stage of their new service. This is vital to ensure that we can track patients and service users through the new service and identify where they drop out of the journey. This can then help us work with service users again to understand why they are dropping out.
What do the models look like?
We’re on version 2.0 of the service models for each neighbourhood.
Version 1.0 was a representation of their initial idea. Version 2.0 is the refined version, taking into consideration the needs and concerns of their patients and service users.
What next?
With these new models agreed, the neighbourhoods are now in the process of hiring and purchasing the people and resources that they need to run the new services.
Once they’ve been running for a couple of months we’ll be jumping back into the neighbourhoods to evaluate how the new services are working. This is where we can we’ll be looking at the metrics that are being captured and diving deeper into any areas that may not be working as well as expected. We’ll again be working closely with patients and service users to make sure we understand the real ‘why’ and work with them to refine the service model.
I’ll be sharing more about Sheffield and our other pathfinder projects as we go.
In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more about the NHS Widening Digital Participation project or our design approach, get in touch — tim@goodthingsfoundation.org.
