What a strange week. I’m sure you have them. My initial reaction was that it had been a pretty unsuccessful one, but on second thoughts perhaps a little reflection is in order?

I have been holding staff ‘focus sessions’ to help me understand what works well along our care pathway and where we have issues that need sorting out. My first group was small but beautifully formed. The second we changed from a focus group to more of a one-to-one and the third, I have to admit this, made me rethink the phrase small but beautifully formed from earlier in the week. In a nutshell, very few attendees came along. Lots of apologies right at the last minute and absolute commitment to attend the next all-day event (coming up soon!) when I will replay this diagnostic material back to my stakeholders.

So what went wrong? Are staff really engaged? I’ll ask on the day to see if we can get underneath this dilemma. Future involvement is critical to the success of both the project itself and the sustained implementation of any service changes we make. So, is it my method of involvement that does not suit? Was the time or the location wrong? Is it that people want to be given the chance to comment but don’t really want to spend the time it takes to do the research? Are there more important things for staff to be doing?

Or is it just that our frontline staff don’t get the opportunity to sit down, away from the day-to-day operational tasks, and reflect? Is it difficult for them to find time to develop ideas and change the way they work as a result – you know, that system of continuous improvement? This could be a significant strategic issue for us. How can we expect to get the group of people who play a major role in the delivery of our services involved in thorough review and redesign unless we find ways to release them from their jobs to have the input that such a programme as this demands?

Redrawing this pathway will take a huge amount of people hours over a number of weeks. The optimum solution will elude us if those best placed to understand the issues and come up with the solutions are only able to contribute a little here and there when they can. We already know that things will be very challenging for us over the next few years. Resourcing frontline involvement will be critical if we intend to improve quality and productivity to maximum effect.