Taking it Teal, Addressing Challenges, Taking NHS and Social Care into the Future

By Jane Pightling and originally published on LinkedIn

This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. EE Magazine has republished Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

When we consider the current challenges and approaches in Health and Care the reasons to “Take it Teal” become self-evident. The challenges are big and complex and making what we already do more efficient will not help. Indeed, there is evidence that some of these previous initiatives have been counterproductive and have disengaged staff and left citizens dissatisfied with the service they received.

The programme to develop Integrated Care Organisations is already underway. Based on subsidiarity, there is no central blueprint; local health and care systems are designing what can improve health in their own neighbourhoods and across their own systems.

Moving towards self-organising systems and self-managed teams requires a similar approach.

There is learning and experience that can be shared but each system and organisation will need to make it their own.

It makes sense to align subsidiarity in the systems and neighbourhoods with subsidiarity in the services that support these neighbourhoods to give them the agility to meet local needs.

Health care used to provide treatment for episodes of illness. Its task was to fix the problem and discharge people back to their usual lives. It now needs to deliver long-term support to growing numbers of older people and those living with long-term conditions. This means enabling self-care and self-management of long-term conditions.

To be successful health staff need to focus on what’s important to the citizen they are supporting and provide person-centred care.

The educational, coaching and developmental techniques used to support citizens to step up and take control of their health and wellbeing are the same approaches that can support staff to take control and manage their own work.

Working in this way restores the autonomy removed from workers in recent times and gives them back the ability to make a difference. The improved job satisfaction and customer satisfaction which results improves recruitment and retention rates, another key issue in today’s health sector.

Our current approach to health, treating our illnesses and conditions, is not sustainable. We need to work upstream, promote wellness and prevent illness. Health is social; there is a physical element to this and a great contribution that medicine can make but we need a broader appreciation of what makes us healthy and feel happy and well. We recognise that our neighbourhoods and communities play a vital role and we are developing towards being able to value them and work in ways that respect this.

In organisations we know that the culture in which we work has a dramatic impact on our performance and our staff wellbeing.  Creating organisations and working in ways that maximise the health and wellbeing of our staff and respect and value our communities is a moral imperative. These new ways of working enable us to do this.

In health care we are now more accepting of the emotional and spiritual aspects of health; we can prove the benefits of compassion and more holistic approaches to care with patient outcome data.  It therefore makes sense that we should view wellbeing and wholeness for our staff in the same way.

Creating workplaces where we welcome the whole person allows us to address issues of equality and diversity in context, not as a separate issue. It allows us to value and harness all the talents and passions of our staff to their work, not just the sliver of person that might be reflected in a job description.

It enables us to model health promoting approaches for other organisations in our systems and treat our staff in the way we hope they will treat the citizens they support and care for.

Safety, quality and continuous improvement have long been a focus of healthcare with varied success. Self-organising approaches release the energy of staff and teams committed to doing their best for the people they care for. These staff are best placed to spot the dangers, experience the frustrations and identify the improvements that will deliver the biggest advantages for the people they support.

Continuous improvement is an integral part of the self-management team approach.

Adopting self-organising approaches in teams and supporting them to pursue their own improvement agenda rigorously will produce the safety and quality we aspire to.

Adopting this approach allows organisations to align their operating process with their approach to delivering to their purpose and providing care and support to improve the health of their communities.  Whether we look at NHS values, the 6 Cs or the 7 principles of care, this way of working enables us to live them.

If we are serious about preserving these values and principles and creating a way for them to not only to survive but thrive into the next 70 years, this is the way forward.

Republished with permission.

Featured Image by Jane Pightling. Block quoting added by Enlivening Edge Magazine.