Supporting an NHS trust to achieve organisation-wide digital change
We supported Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT to create an effective governance framework for their ambitious digital strategy.
The challenge
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust asked Kaleidoscope for support to align their programme of digital transformation more closely to wider strategy. It was proving difficult for them to choose from a wide range of digital opportunities and to determine which projects were likely to provide the best value for money and support the Trust’s wider goals.
While there was consensus that digital was a key part of the future, there was no consensus about what role it would play. There were also several important sticking points in the day-to-day process, but no clear understanding of why things were so difficult.
Many people were impacted by the problems but it wasn’t clear who owned them, and the stakeholder terrain was very complex.
Our approach
We worked closely with the Trust leadership in two phases.
We began by undertaking a rigorous qualitative assessment of current opportunities and challenges. From this work, it became clear that the key challenges were not technical but cultural. A divide had developed between technical specialists and operational leadership.
We developed a clear set of recommendations to address the capability gap that was leading to the Trust’s current challenges, including changing governance and roles and responsibilities within the Trust.
We then supported the Trust to implement one of the key recommendations, the establishment of a strategic digital Board, which would be able to create the conditions for success for the Trust’s digital strategy.
Results
As a result of our thorough approach, we were able to:
- articulate a clear narrative about why digital strategy was proving so challenging for the Trust
- provide a set of practical recommendations to address long-standing and apparently intractable problems
- support Trust leaders to identify a new governance model that will enable them to plan confidently for a digitally-enabled set of strategic goals.
Finally, we provided a design for the new digital Board, including a stakeholder analysis, purpose, roles and ways of working, and risk analysis.
We valued Kaleidoscope’s support and expertise in helping us make organisational-wide digital change. Their external perspective and independence meant that we were able to have conversations we would have struggled to have otherwise.
Dr Ewen Cameron, Director of Improvement and Transformation
