Early Years Toolkit​

Processes

Let’s assume a particular PCN has expressed an interest in setting up a child health hub or wishes to focus on an early years programme within an existing CHH

• Meet with the project team to ensure that there is a lead Clinician and local project manager support to progress transformation.

• Funding needs to meet with the local project team to ensure that the project team has the capacity and ability to deliver on the transformation project.

• Is the local project manager used to supporting teams with setting agendas, minuting, circulating invitations, preparing reports to management and others? Most project managers in our area have been grade 8a or above.

• ICB processes

• Finance

• Filtering of finances

• Complicated; it is not always clear when funding is entering the ICB from NHSE. Similarly, organisations find it hard to track money from the ICB.

• Each organisation has their own financial processes and governance structure for managing funds.

• We are still experiencing blockages within the system in ensuring that the payment has reached where it is needed.

Financial Plan

• • Some of the local teams have had some issues in building a financial plan. Essentially, this is a costed plan of action, preferably against the 4 key interventions: case finding and population health management, community workforce development, integrated neighbourhood team development and grant funding for innovation projects initiated by the local community. 

  • An Excel template was developed to help support teams to develop this – Download an example of a Project Phases and Activities and Financial Plan. 

Business Case

• • Within the ICB, Business cases often need to go through various governance boards before final approval. There is an incredible amount of paperwork associated with presenting to various boards and to and fro before it can be presented. This adds to duplication, time lost in actual delivery. If you miss a board deadline, you often have to wait another month to present your case.

GDPR Issues

• Each site had its own issues with using patient-identifiable data. Brent had hired a CHWW via their PCN, but any WSIC data that we used could not be shared with GP practices, despite patients being from their surgery or accessed by the CHWW to visit households. This impacts on case finding. 

• It also posed a major obstacle for the Harrow site. CHWWs were hired via VCS, and honorary contracts were organised. Patients selected for the pilot were from two main practices, but different PCNs. This, again, is being worked through, but is causing a delay before we can start helping patients.

• K&W Federation (Brent pilot) experienced issues with regard to their information agreements being expired. This has slowed down the project but is a wider problem that needs to be reviewed outside of the pilot.

Questions to ask before you start

• • • • What is motivating you to focus on early years?

      • What is it that I /we would like to change, and how might that be measured?

      • Who else shares the desire to make change? (This can be one or more others who have the time and energy to give.)

      • Do you have a functioning GP Child health hub/ Children and Young Persons integrated neighbourhood team or INT?

      • Do you have a neighbourhood children's centre /family hub in the catchment area you are interested in?

      • What do we know about these children already? (What routine or public health data, parent and child feedback, professional experience?)

      • Is there a specific cohort of children we want to concentrate on? (E.g. belonging to an area, practice, PCN, children’s centre, nursery school, housing estate, etc.?)

      • What assets are there already in the community which could help?

      • What project support do we already have /need if we want to take this on?

Generic Project Management Tools

• • • • Terms of Reference

      • Action Log

      • Risk Log

      • Project Plan

      • Financial template