Bringing together diabetes leaders to transform the workforce
The challenge
Workforce challenges were holding back the improvement of care and treatment of people with Diabetes in the UK.
Diabetes UK, the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists and the Primary Care Diabetes Society came together to identify the issues across primary and speciality care. Those problems meant the system was not working well for people with diabetes, clinicians or services.
The aim for this work was to see a shift to systems-level thinking, and a shared focus on what works best for people with diabetes.
Kaleidoscope was tasked with bringing together expert stakeholders to identify the activities needed to develop a really effective diabetes workforce.
Our approach
In order to identify key activities central to delivering an effective diabetes workforce, we brought together a diverse group of professionals to act as advocates for change.
This group was made up of 38 representatives from 12 stakeholder groups across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. They contributed to a collaborative process over three participative workshops and 12 semi-structured interviews.
We used a range of engaging techniques; providing accessible pre-reading materials, direct questioning in breakouts, polls, chat forums and open discussions. This allowed the group to identify priorities and develop a written plan outlining how these could be taken forward as a Theory of Change.
The multi-stakeholder workshops built collective ownership, and people could see how their input directly shaped the outputs. It also ensured the activities were pragmatic and relevant to the people who would be impacted.
The results
Diabetes UK now has greater strategic focus and agreed activities that can affect change immediately and on a longer timeframe. Seven priority activities were identified, including:
- sharing and celebrating innovation from areas of excellence by regularly showcasing and sharing best practice and developing awards submissions,
- taking time-consuming admin away from clinicians by implementing group appointments for device education to see more people with diabetes,
- using data to address data sharing blockers between primary and secondary care, and developing risk stratification algorithms to identify and proactively care for high-risk people with diabetes.
Using participative methods and collaborative workshops, stakeholders from across the four nations reported feeling invigorated and hopeful about driving positive change across borders and perspectives and improving collaboration with national and local groups.
Kaleidoscope’s approach enabled us to develop concrete actions that we can take forward with our primary and acute care partners. The energy and engagement shifted our thinking and provided a sense of hope for the future in a challenging context. I would not hesitate to recommend the team and indeed already have.
Helen O’Kelly, Assistant Director of Policy, Campaigns and Improvement, Diabetes UK
The project team
