In Practice: Working with communities for better health and care
About the project
The Working with Communities for Better Health and Care learning programme was developed as a collaboration between New Local, Cumbria Learning and Improvement Collaborative (now Boost), and the North-East Yorkshire Leadership Academy on behalf of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS). New Local also supported North Cumbria’s quality improvement work on coproduction with communities/VCSE sector and facilitated workshops at the LoC in the Lakes conference.
Collaborating with New Local and system partners to create our Working with Communities modules was really valuable. New Local provided us with their knowledge and insights to support us in developing four comprehensive modules on how and why community-powered practice is so important to achieving better outcomes for the people in our region.
Karen Kirk – Head of Learning and Improvement – North East North Cumbria ICB
Who we worked with
North East and Yorkshire Leadership Academy (NEYLA) and Cumbria Learning and Improvement Collaborative (CLIC).
How we did it
- We developed the learning programme by building on the ideas and principles in New Local’s publication A Community Powered NHS: Making Prevention a Reality.
- To inform the development of the learning programme we undertook a desk review of existing learning provision, interviewed key contacts in the ICS, shared ideas and tested concepts through workshop sessions at the LoC in the Lakes conference, and collated relevant practice examples from North East and North Cumbria.
- A co-designed learning programme was developed comprising four modules which could be delivered either as a whole programme or as standalone modules. The format was designed for each module to be an interactive, facilitated learning session, with accompanying pre-reads, resources and exercises for the individual learners.
- Each session was piloted with a group of 10-15 participants from the ICS, and adjustments made based on their feedback. A final set of learning programme materials, facilitation guides, and a programme design guide were produced and shared with CLIC, together with Train the Trainer support, for their ongoing use.
- Alongside the learning programme we helped to review the results of a coproduction survey and produced a learning briefing on how community-powered practice could be further advanced and embedded across the NENC system.
What was achieved
A co-designed learning programme, Working With Communities for Better Health and Care, is now available to support people across the NENC ICS. Participants can use an online booking system to book onto individual modules or complete the course in full:
- Module 1: Essentials of Community Power
- Module 2: Community participation in decision-making
- Module 3: Mobilising community assets
- Module 4: Growing a community-focused organisational culture
Following this, New Local worked with the team to update the content with additional case studies and to equip system leaders to cascade the content across the ICS through a train the trainer approach.
What’s next
The coproduction work is being taken forward in North Cumbria by ICP leaders developing a coproduction charter, developing a plan for co-production for north Cumbria, and mapping and connecting current co-production activity that is happening at place.
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