Developing a community of practice to support virtual wards systems

The challenge

South East London ICS wanted to ensure shared learning and collaboration across six boroughs in South East London operating virtual wards programmes. Virtual wards (also known as hospital at home) allow patients to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital.

The ICS asked Kaleidoscope Health and Care to support the design, development and facilitation of a community of practice (CoP) to support virtual wards across south east London.

CoPs connect people with common goals and offer a highly effective way to spread new innovations, best practice and share learning. They also offer participants opportunities to build relationships with peers, providing support and community. CoPs rely on participants’ inherent motivation and the deliberate cultivation of a culture of generosity and contribution among members.

Our approach

To align the CoP with its core purpose, we brought together virtual ward leaders from across south east London for a collaborative design workshop. Our goal was to ensure the CoP was community-driven, putting co-production at the centre so that it directly serves participants’ priorities and objectives.

Following the design workshop, Kaleidoscope facilitated engagement opportunities for the CoP, including four virtual meetings, six drop-in sessions, and one face to face event. These sessions focused on the priority topics identified by members during the initial design workshop, ensuring continuity with community needs and interests.

Additionally, we administered a digital workspace for the CoP on the Future NHS collaboration platform. This online portal enables CoP members to participate in discussion forums, view latest data reports related to virtual wards programs in south east London, and access clinical protocols documents relevant to their work.

Impact

The initial design workshop produced three key outputs guiding the structure and activities of the CoP:

• a charter statement created by members to clearly articulate the CoP’s purpose and principles
• proposed discussion topics reflecting the needs and shared challenges identified as most relevant by the CoP members
• identification of key logistics such as frequency of meetings and communication requirements.

We surveyed members regarding the value of the CoP, which continues to meet: 89% of respondents reported that their participation in the CoP is a worthwhile use of their time and will help improve virtual wards programmes in south east London.

Nearly 90% of CoP members who took part in community events said they would recommend these events to a friend or colleague. Participants praised the events as informative, insightful, providing spaces for shared learning and collaboration, and facilitating valuable networking.

The Future NHS workspace acts as an ongoing hub for idea exchange, peer learning, resource access, and information sharing within the community.

The Kaleidoscope team is one of the best I’ve worked with. They used their expertise and experience in building effective networks to create a community of practice that has created common understanding, shared learning and problem solving – this has had a hugely positive direct impact on the development of our virtual wards/hospital at home service offer. Not only did they facilitate impact and improvement, but also went out of their way to make their sessions invigorating, inclusive and joyful. We would not hesitate to work with them again.

Ekuba Edjah, Assistant Director – Virtual Wards /Hospital at Home,
South East London Integrated Care System

Project team

George Dellal
Maduran Sundaresan
Rebecca Loveless
Zoe Horwich