Meaningful Measures Ltd recently partnered with KERA Consultancy Ltd and West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership to evaluate personalised care and workforce training that had taken place within West Yorkshire (WY) over the preceding two years.

The NHS long term plan committed to the roll out of personalised care, which at its heart requires conversations that facilitate someone to be an active participant and explore their health and wellbeing within the context of that individual's life. A key component of this in ensuring a high standard of training for staff.

In response to Covid19, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Personalised Care Programme developed a training offer to upskill and support the expansion of personalised care approaches within the Integrated Care Board (ICB) workforce. The training programme aimed to upskill the voluntary sector, health and social care workforce across West Yorkshire & Harrogate in delivering vital support to address inequalities and the needs of their most vulnerable communities during Covid19 and beyond. Supporting the development of the VCFSE sector to embed digital approaches within their ways of working is one of West Yorkshire Health and Care System's key aims. In doing so, they hope to support and encourage more of the ICBs communities to access support online. The aim of this evaluation was to understand how the personalised care training provided by WY ICB had impacted staff.

An online survey was open to anyone who attended the Personalised Care Training delivered or commissioned by WY ICB between January 2020 and December 2022. Ninety-two people responded to a survey and three quarters of respondents identified themselves as Social Prescribing Link Workers, Health and Wellbeing Coaches and Care Coordinators. Survey respondents were invited to one of three focus groups, coordinated by Kera Consultancy and held online and led by Meaningful Measures staff.

Results

●Two thirds of respondents indicated the combination of having knowledge of personalised care approaches and the confidence to apply these approaches meant they could apply these either every time they see a patient or client, or frequently.

●Personalised care skills were most frequently applied with people who presented with mental health needs, long-term conditions and health inequalities.

●Some respondents identified that the training also helped with housing issues, with care home residents and with parent carers.

●30% of respondents increased their use of multidisciplinary team approaches.

●Over 50% of respondents reported they had increased the amount of shared decision making happening in their consultations.

●Over one third reported an increased understanding of and ability to adapt their approaches to minority groups.

Recommendations to support embedding personalised care

Six areas were identified from analysis of the focus groups which could build a stronger culture of personalised care across WY.

1.Workforce engagement – a need for ALL staff engagement including managers at 'place level' to achieve buy in and create space for personalised care to be the norm

2.Training needs - greater involvement of the workforce in training needs analysis, the design and delivery of the training agenda

3.Co-design - the involvement of VCFSE workforce including volunteers in the co-design of training would encourage wider buy-in and a more joined up approach to personalised care across WY

4. Workforce consultation and 'visioning' - opportunities for a 'visioning' exercise would optimise the value of the training programme and how it contributes to achieving the WY personalised care agenda, and encourage ownership of the agenda by those who deliver personalised care

5. Marketing of training courses - changes to the marketing of future training would help the workforce across different care sectors understand what training is most relevant to them

6.Training is not enough - an approach to systematize personalised care through better induction, professional development (e.g., via webinars and peer support) is key. This would allow sharing of good practice and support personalised care to be embedded sustainably. 

You can read the full evaluation in the report.