Rigorous collaborations

We can help you develop effective collaborations, including support with design, management and evaluation.

Wanting to collaborate is never enough; the real question is how best to do it. Collaborations require structure and method to thrive. We introduce rigour into collaborations without dampening the enthusiasm that brought them together in the first place.

Supporting highly effective collaborations and networks is at the core of what we do. Our approach focuses on asking three questions:

●       What is the purpose your collaboration intends to achieve?

●       Which form(s) should your collaboration take?

●       How might you foster the right structure and culture for your collaboration to thrive?

Whether you need support to build a social movement, run an improvement network, or develop place-based collaboration – we have a range of engaging, powerful and fun approaches that can shift collaboration from the frustrating and inefficient to creative and effective partnerships that deliver improvement.

Our services

Developing, sustaining and measuring collaboration is not easy, but we can support you to create and maintain meaningful and effective networks.

Our services are split into three areas:

• Scoping and design: from early explorations for stakeholders considering whether and how to start collaborating to co-designing and developing a formal network. We can support all aspects of the process to ensure that your collaboration has a clear purpose and is set up to meet the needs, scale and ambitions of partners.
• Supporting: we support networks at various stages of maturity, offering bespoke solutions based on needs of the network. This can incorporate event support, leadership coaching, engagement and evaluation.
• Impact measurement: we help leaders to reflect on progress, opportunity areas and key learning that the network produces. We also offer ways to measure the health of a network itself. We apply a range of research methodologies to evaluate the extent to which collaborations are meeting their purpose and assess levels of engagement across the partnership.

Our experience

We have supported networks across health and care to develop, sustain and measure their collaboration. These include:

• Childhood Obesity Programme Network: We are supporting Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity to develop a learning network of more than 40 partner organisations working to reduce the childhood obesity inequality gap in Lambeth and Southwark. Through co-designing the Network, we are supporting them to strengthen relationships and share learning across the partnerships. Our approach incorporates a discovery phase to understand the needs of the partners; a testing and learning phase to co-design the network; and learning events to embed shared learning in the network.
• ImproveCareNow: ImproveCareNow is a learning network of more than 100 hospitals and clinics dedicated to improving care, cost and outcomes for children with inflammatory bowel disease. Working in partnership with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Kaleidoscope provided a range of services as part of the support for ImproveCareNow. This included facilitating numerous workshops and digital events, quality improvement coaching as well as measurement development and prioritisation.

We have also:

• showcased network learnings with the Children and Young People’s Diabetes Network
• developed a learning network with HelpForce.

What our clients say

“Kaleidoscope used a rigorous approach to develop a comprehensive case study of the National Children and Young People’s Diabetes Network and showcase its learnings. They used an effective blend of interviews and workshops to enable network leaders to reflect on the network’s progress and evaluate its achievements.”

Oliver Smithson, Programme Manager, The Health Foundation

“We’ve all been involved in collaborations which haven’t worked. Kaleidoscope has helped the Association of Groups develop in a way that has avoided the pitfalls and achieved the benefits of systematically working together. Kaleidoscope has enabled us to have workshops and events that are interactive, insightful, and even a little bit fun.”

Sir David Sloman, when Chief Executive, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

“Working with Kaleidoscope has really helped generate a helpful and healthy balance between free form discussion, structured conversation and decision making. They created an environment where everyone is able to contribute equally and openly, which has been critical to our ability to work together effectively.

Amanda Pritchard, when Chief Executive, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Could we help you?

Can we help with your collaboration and network needs? Get in touch to talk about the options.