Case Study: Home treatment team

Jodie is a newly qualified staff nurse working with a home treatment team (HTT). Service re-configurations have meant that the service is able to fund a ‘crisis house’ in the locality to enable service users in crisis to take refuge in this service for up to 4 days, or until the crisis is over. An experienced nurse manager (Stan) has been appointed to set up this service, appoint staff and establish operating policies. Some of the staff from the HTT have been offered the opportunity to move across to this service and work with Stan, and Jodie has asked for the transfer. What should Jodie expect from Stan in moving this project forward?

Consider this case study in light of the NHS’s National Improvement and Leadership Development Board’s  framework centred on the creation of five conditions common to high performing health and care systems. To remind you, here they are again, with the key point in each emphasised.

These five conditions are:

1. Leaders equipped to develop high quality local health and care systems in partnership. Leaders of organisations in local health and care systems are able to collaborate with partners including patient leaders across organisational, professional and geographical boundaries in trusting relationships to achieve the same clear, shared system goals for their communities.
2. Compassionate, inclusive and effective leaders at all levels. Compassionate leadership means paying close attention to all staff; really understanding the situations they face; responding empathically; and taking thoughtful and appropriate action to help.
3. Knowledge of improvement methods and how to use them at all levels. Individuals and teams at every level know established improvement methods and are using them in partnership with patients, communities and citizens to improve their work processes and systems.
4. Support systems for learning at local, regional and national levels. There is sufficient training, coaching and organisation development capacity to meet development needs and enable and support learning and improvement.
5.  Enabling, supportive and aligned regulation and oversight. At the same time, central organisations help local systems find the support and resources they need. The constituent parts of the oversight system behave consistently and ‘speak with one voice’. (NHS, 2016: 18)