Update 14 – 15.2.12
- We are nearly there now; our first Go Live date is 27th of February for Cullompton and you should all have talked through the new pathways in your teams.
- I am busily putting together an Information Pack for our first responders so that they know the out of hours and logistical arrangements which could be useful to them. These information packs will be given out as a priority to our first responders and CCT Coordinators but once you have seen them please let me know if they would be of use to other staff groups.
- We have made a website for information which you should shortly be able to access and we will be giving out advertising information around the time of each Go Live date.
- We are hoping to obtain approval for our year 2 plans very soon which will unfortunately be smaller than we first hoped but should still help support our community teams.
- We have invited a group of staff to a workshop this Friday lunchtime to help us walk through our new admission avoidance pathway from a patient perspective so we can understand how it will work.
- There will be some additional training opportunities coming up in the next 3 months on End of Life, Nutrition, Risk Assessors and Falls so please keep an eye out for these.
Update 13 – 03.2.12
- Interviews took place for the remaining CCT Coordinator on Monday 30th
- On the 31st of January we are carrying out more Pull Training with Nicky Skinner form the Onward care Team to help staff feel more confident about helping to get our patients out of the acute hospitals.
- Team leads have started talking through the 2 new Pathways across Mid in team meetings, so if you haven’t had this yet you will soon.
- As the project will be starting at different dates in each area through a staged implementation plan, you will be circulated a poster with the start dates next week.
- The next Mid Devon Project Steering Group is Wednesday 1st of February.
- For some parts of Mid Devon this may all feel very different when the new staff start, as this will be the first time Crediton and Okehampton have ever had access to rapid response workers.
Update 12 – 30.1.12
- Interviews took place for the remaining CCT Coordinator on Monday 30th
- On the 31st of January we are carrying out more Pull Training with Nicky Skinner form the Onward care Team to help staff feel more confident about helping to get our patients out of the acute hospitals.
- Team leads have started talking through the 2 new Pathways across Mid in team meetings, so if you haven’t had this yet you will soon.
- As the project will be starting at different dates in each area through a staged implementation plan, you will be circulated a poster with the start dates next week.
- The next Mid Devon Project Steering Group is Wednesday 1st of February.
- For some parts of Mid Devon this may all feel very different when the new staff start, as this will be the first time Crediton and Okehampton have ever had access to rapid response workers.
Update 11 – 20.1.12
- Successful Interviews took place on January 16th and 17th and posts have been offered to rapid response workers in Crediton and Hospital Discharge Facilitators for Tiverton and Crediton. We have shortlisted for the remaining CCT coordinator post and interviews are on the 30th.
- The additional band 4 community nurses have started, in Tiverton/Cullompton we have Karen Stocker and for Crediton/Okehampton we have Gill Hope. Welcome to both.
- We attended another GP meeting this week in order to have introduced the pathway to as many GPs as possible and at both events we attended, the new pathways were positively received.
- The new pathways will now be shared with each team by your team leads. This will give you a chance to discuss how the new pathways will work in practice.
- There are still a few places left for the Pull Roadshow on January 31st if you would like to attend please let me know.
- We are aiming for a staged implementation of the project Cullompton will go first around end of February, then Tiverton then Crediton and Okehampton. We have put the localities in this order due to our predicted start dates for the remaining new staff who will be joining us. More info to come on these dates.
Update 10 – 17.1.12
- Interviews took place on the 16th for remaining Rapid Response Worker posts and a Hospital Discharge Facilitator for Tiverton. Interview for Crediton Hospital Discharge Facilitator is 17th.
- A small group from our project attended the GP clinical forum last Friday to talk through the pathway and consider a case study along the lines of our pathway workshops in December. We had a fascinating discussion and received some positive feedback about the project plans so far. We will also be attending a further GP meeting this week in order to have introduced the pathway to as many GPs as possible
- Just to remind all that this project is for the benefit of Mid Devon as a whole and if any teams would like me to attend a staff meeting or to pop in for a quick update wherever you are based, then please let me know.
- For the benefit of the project; first responders are the community staff most likely to be called out to a crisis in a patient’s home. I will shortly be sending out a letter to our first responders to make them aware of where we are at so far.
- As you can imagine there are lots of logistical queries about accessing out of hours pharmacies, equipment and so on, we are gathering information on these which will be shared with your health and social care teams before the end of February when we will be at Full Implementation.
N.B The year 1 Funding is for Spot Purchasing to avoid admission, Rapid Response workers, Hospital Discharge Facilitators, CCT Coordinators and band 4 community nursing.
If you have any queries regarding the above update please contact me at Rachel.thompson5@nhs.net or mob 07772 043 754 RT 17.1.12
Update 9 – 11.1.12
- A belated Happy New Year to you all
- We are still aiming for full implementation by end of February 2012 but the schedule is becoming increasingly tight.
- Our interview processes have been slightly delayed over the Christmas period due to being unable to successfully appoint some interviewees. During January we will now be interviewing for the Crediton hospital discharge facilitator, the Tiverton hospital discharge facilitator, the 2 remaining rapid response workers and the additional Tiv/Cull CCT Coordinator.
- Unfortunately although the money for Year 2 will continue to fund the developments agreed for year 1 there will not be as much money as we anticipated left over. We have therefore had to reduce the large number of fantastic suggestions we received to one or two development plans These plans are being shared with GP colleagues during January and we will update you as soon as we know the outcome.
- You may start to hear the term first responder being used by your team leads. For the benefit of the project these are the community staff most likely to be called out to a crisis in a patient’s home.
- The two new pathways for admission avoidance and timely discharge have been written up; final versions are being agreed this week and should be with you shortly.
N.B The year 1 Funding is for Spot Purchasing to avoid admission, Rapid Response workers, Hospital Discharge Facilitators, CCT Coordinators and band 4 community nursing.
Update 8 23.12.11
- A big thank you to everyone involved in the project for all your hard work so far, which we realise has been in addition to your normal workload. We are making very good progress and it will be exciting to see all the plans coming together for early next year
- We are about to recruit to hospital discharge facilitator role in Crediton and social worker post for Okehampton plus the remaining rapid response workers for Credition.
- People called out to crises in the community who arrive first are, for the sake of the project, being known as first responders and we are aiming to get some additional risk assessor training in place for these staff around February so look out for the dates.
- From January there will be only 8 weeks to full implementation so there will be a big drive to sort the remaining logistical problems for our new pathways.
- I heard today about a successful case in the Okehampton area where a care home bed was spot purchased and a potential hospital admission was avoided. If you have any positive examples of cases where we have avoided admission or speeded up hospital discharge then please let me know.
- Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy and Peaceful New Year.
N.B The year 1 Funding is for Spot Purchasing to avoid admission, Rapid Response workers, Hospital Discharge Facilitators, CCT Coordinators and band 4 Nursing
If you have any queries regarding the above update please contact me at
If you have any queries regarding the above update please contact me at Rachel.thompson5@nhs.net or mob 07772 043 754 RT/25.11.11
Update 7 16.12.11
- A big Thank You to all those staff who attended the Pathway workshops on the 13th and 15th.The staff who came helped us to think through how the new pathways will work. If you missed these please get an update from colleagues and or team leads, we need to get everyone involved in thinking about our future service pathways for admission avoidance and timely discharge.
- We tried our experimental Pulling workshop this week which received positive feedback and we will now add in all the suggestions from the volunteers to take this forward in the New Year. Another big Thank you to all who contributed
- Our recruitment for Year 1 is continuing to progress. Only two rapid response posts in Crediton left to recruit for, which will be done in January. First CCT Coordinator interviews done on 13th and next interviews on 22nd, both band 4 community nursing posts are moving to start dates. Hospital Discharge Facilitator posts are out to advert
- Although we are aiming for full implementation of the year 1 part of the project by end of February; we will be starting a few small tests of change beforehand. This testing period should allow us to get some feedback about what will work best and make some further amendments as we go along
N.B The year 1 Funding is for Spot Purchasing to avoid admission, Rapid Response workers, Hospital Discharge Facilitators, CCT
Coordinators and band 4 Nursing
Update 6 9.12.11
- Just a reminder that there are still places available at the Project Workshops next week, For Crediton on 13th of December please let pa Sally Wilson and for Tiverton on the 15th please let pa Sharon Lambden know. They are both from 1pm -3pm and all staff are welcome to attend one. The workshops will introduce the project, define our new pathways and explore how we will develop these pathways across Mid Devon; so we really need to hear your thoughts and ideas.
- We are testing out some training next Monday on how to improve our skills in” Pulling” patients out of acute hospital care, which we hope to develop into a proper training workshop for the New Year.
- Our recruitment for Year 1 is moving forward quite quickly. The second set of rapid response interviews took place last Monday, Tiverton band 4 community nurse interviews also done, first CCT Coordinator interviews next Tuesday and Crediton and Okehampton band 4 community nursing interviews next Monday . The Crediton CCW discharge post is out to advert and the Okehampton interim social worker started last Monday.
- The Mid Devon Project Steering Groups next meeting is on December 14th,GP consortia next meeting on 15th and we are hoping to share our plans for year 2/3 at these meetings
N.B The year 1 Funding is for Spot Purchasing to avoid admission, Rapid Response workers, Hospital Discharge Facilitators, CCT Coordinators and band 4 Nursing
If you have any queries regarding the above update please contact me at
Update 5 5.12.11
Please also note Project Name is now agreed as Mid Devon’s
“Better Health & Care at Home”
The project title will be at the top of all future electronic updates.
Approval to recruit has been received for hospital discharge posts which are a combination of Health and ASC posts and we are aiming to get these out to advert as soon as possible.
A very big thank you to all who attended the Year 2/3 workshop last Friday, we had good representation from across the whole of Mid Devon. Thank you to Gary Patch for facilitating this very positive session where lots of excellent ideas for service development were generated. All the ideas were shared with the group and rated according to complexity and impact. They will now be collated and written up ready for presentation to the Project Steering Group on the 14th of December and then the GP Consortia. Once the ideas are in a clearer format we will circulate them for your information and once we have agreement from the GP consortia about the next steps for years 2&3 we will need to start the recruitment process in January 2012
The Task and Finish groups are progressing with the practical work on operational delivery for our full implementation from the end of February and have been working on a project logo
N.B The year 1 Funding is for Spot Purchasing to avoid admission, Rapid Response workers, Hospital Discharge Facilitators, CCT Co ordinators and band 4 Nursing
Update 4 25.11.11
Please also note Project Name is now agreed as Mid Devon’s
“Better Health and Care at Home”
- All additional posts for Year 1 are either at advertising/interviewing stage or we have interim staff in place.
- A project summary has been written and is now circulating, more detailed project paper due out next week
- Our weekly task and finish group are developing plans for the four work streams (training, logistics, pathways, external support) to achieve full operational delivery of new care pathways by end of February 2012.
- Invites went out this week to workshops on 13th and 15th of Dec to introduce the whole project to our health and social care staff.
- Although Year 1 work is well underway our year 2 funding starts in April 2012 and we need to start developing our plans for this in order to recruit for Year 2 from January 2012. This means we need our Year 2 ideas in place by Mid December 2011 to share with the Project Steering Group.
- The Planning workshop for Year 2 service developments will be held in the boardroom at airport headquarters Exeter from 1-3 pm on Friday 2nd of December. Please discuss with line managers and aim to send one representative from each health and social care team.
- If you are unable to attend the Year 2 planning workshop then please email me your thoughts and ideas by 2.12.11 so we can try to include them in the discussion.
Update 3 18.11.11
Mid Devon Pathways
- This is a 3 year project. Year 1 plans are well underway but in early December 2011 we will start firming up plans for resource allocation in years 2 and 3 .Team Leads will be invited to send representatives to a workshop to help the planning process. More information to come out next week.
- Distribution lists are now set up to circulate this electronic update both across Mid Devon and more widely to help keep everyone informed.
- All year 1 posts are either out to advert or recruited to, Some ASC posts have been appointed to as interim whilst we try to agree permanent funding.
- As well as having additional staff to increase our capacity we also need to look at the way we currently work and the way we will work in the future, with this in mind we have set up a Task and Finish group.
- The Task and Finish group who now meet every Friday have agreed four main work streams to discuss the proposed changes in detail and to assure operational delivery 1.Training 2.Logistics 3.Pathways 4.External support. Team leads from each cluster have been assigned to work on these 4 streams until the end of February 2012.
The Mid Devon Project Steering Group met on November 16th to review project progress; this is where health and social care representatives meet once a month with our Mid Devon consortia representatives and our commissioning links. The proposals for resource allocation in Years 2 and 3 will be discussed at the next steering group meeting.
- There will be 2 Workshops in December for Health and Social Care staff which are aimed at introducing the Project, sharing the plans for year 1 and exploring the potential changes in the way we will work with urgent care and hospital discharge. Dates are Crediton 13th of December and Tiverton 15 th of December more information to come out next week.
Update 2
Mid Devon Pathways
- Thanks for the feedback; the electronic update will be coming out regularly now to keep you all up to speed on the project.
- First Task and Finish meeting took place last Friday with team leads, to set the scene and start defining our work streams, we will now be meeting weekly usually on a Friday after panel, until beginning of March 2012 . Rachel to set up draft terms of reference before the next meeting.
- Our main agreed link with GP practices is Richard Ward. Practice Manager from Chiddenbrook surgery Crediton and he will be joining the Task and Finish group as often as he can. Rachel is meeting with commissioning link re formal reporting this week
- Our main project priority continues to be recruitment, Okehampton and Crediton band 4 nursing advert is out and so is Tigerton’s band 4 nursing, first lot of rapid response interviews done 3.11.11 Julia Brown to give rapid response update at this weeks meeting. Approval to recruit for CCT coordinators received, now aiming to get advert out asap and Sharon Dunn to help with recruitment processes and change management for CCT coordinators.
- 2 workshops to take place shortly there will be one in each cluster. This will introduce staff teams to the project, the changes in resources for year 1 and will help develop plans for operational delivery of the new pathways. More info to come about this from cluster managers. We will use project presentation slides to explain national and local context. Name of the project to be hopefully decided at these workshops ideas so far are either “Futures Project” or” Mid Devon Pathways” or “Independence project”
- Further work required on new flow chart for spot purchasing to help clarify the process. Please note The priority for spot purchasing money is admission avoidance.
N.B The targets for year one investment are: – money to spot purchase beds for admission avoidance, more Rapid Response Workers, more CCT Co- ordinators, more Hospital Discharge Facilitators, more band 4’s in Community Nursing
Update 1
Mid Devon Pathways
- Our project has made a good start, we have decided on the targets for year one investment. These are:- money to spot purchase beds for admission avoidance, more Rapid Response Workers, more CCT Co- ordinators, more Hospital Discharge Facilitators, more band 4’s in community nursing
- We have set up a Project Steering Group with our key partners and gathered the relevant national and countywide background papers.
- Our main priority to start with has been to get all the approval to recruit forms in, these are now gradually coming back approved and we will be moving to advertise as soon as possible.
- We have written a project paper as both background and a reference point to the project and developed an introductory power point for staff teams to help explain what we are doing.
- We are now trying to set up a Task and Finish group between our two clusters for team leads to meet regularly with cluster managers and project manager to look at the impact of the additional staff, service redesign, new pathways and training.
- We have started to think about additional CCT Coordinator roles and the Hospital Discharge Facilitator role and how these will work.
- We are discussing the wider reporting mechanisms required to feedback about the progress of the project.
- We have customised a new flow chart for spot purchasing which should clarify the process.
- This is the first draft of an electronic update we hope to circulate regularly to try to keep you all up to date.