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National Networks

 A national clinical network

34 local cancer networks were responsible for implementing the National Cancer Plan.  We were engaged to design and facilitate a series of meetings to bring together the lead nurse, doctor and manager from each of these local networks. This national network met for a day at a time every 2 months for a year to support each other in a rapidly changing environment to implement the National Cancer Plan. We designed the workshops to combine three elements:

• Real time work on a shared task - our experience is that this is what produces energy when people operate as a group which a shared interest and desire to influence.

• Opportunities for mutual support and networking

• Topicality – a design which allows people to raise burning issues, which are by their nature unpredictable.

Although the core membership of the network was stable different workshops brought in new participants appropriate to the theme. We successfully designed a process which allowed the centre to bring timely information and guidance, test this against local perspectives and thereby produce rapid, informed feedback to the centre. This helped shift local networks from feeling ‘dumped on’ and led to a recognition by local and central players that ‘we’re in this together and so better make the best of it’.

Prisons and Health

The Prison Health Task Force commissioned us to help establish a national Primary Care Development Network. The purpose was to bring together people from HM Prisons and the NHS to improve connections between local prisons and local NHS services; to improve understanding of each others’ worlds; to increase understanding of the principles of primary care; and to encourage people to believe that change is possible.

We designed and facilitated a national conference that brought together 140 prison officers and governors, civil servants, clinicians and NHS managers to share experience of providing services and to consider how networks can be used to bring about change.

National chief executive networks

We were commissioned by the NHS Leadership Centre to create national network meetings for chief executives from different parts of the NHS (ambulance trust chief executives, acute hospital trust chief executives and so on). This was at a time of great structural change. The day-long meetings took place twice a year and gradually adopted a pattern of encouraging participants to invite ‘significant local others’.

We were invited to tender for this work because of our experience at the King’s Fund of forming and developing an urban primary care network which brought together GPs, community health professionals, managers, planners, academics from several UK cities interested in primary care development.

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