North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT)
commissioned Capita Symonds to provide strategic programme and
property management advice for a significant change management
programme in North Bristol NHS Trust’s application and subsequent
successful tender to NHS Bristol and NHS South Gloucestershire for
the delivery of a new children’s service under the NHS
contestability initiative.
The Community Children’s Health
Partnership is a new service run by North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT)
for all Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and
Community Children’s Health (CCH) services across NHS Bristol, NHS
South Gloucestershire and Children and Young Peoples Services
(CYPS) areas. The new partnership – run in conjunction with
Barnardo’s – is the largest of its kind in the country providing
specialist community services for some of the local areas most
vulnerable children and young people.
The challenge
Capita Symonds has worked on this
project for over 18 months, the scope of work has evolved and there
was demand for continuous transfer of knowledge and skills. This
included interpreting commissioner’s output specification and
principles for achieving quality services as well as assisting with
verification of the estate information prior to submitting Best and
Final Offers (BAFO). This ensured that the submission was robust
and well informed.
Our team integrated with the
Partnership, providing support to the Estates & Accommodation
work group, and operational management team. From contract award,
the challenge was to resolve immediate accommodation solutions,
support the development of new accommodation specifications and
work on the development of a five year estates strategy, aligned to
the services delivery objectives.
The solution
Capita Symonds supported NBT’s
proposals to secure the new Children’s Service tender. Our role
included participating in management and role out of the
stakeholder and communication strategy as well as strategic
programme management and property advice. This enabled NBT to model
their tender to reflect modern thinking in the provision of
children’s services accommodation and minimising future
risks.Following the success of the tender, we
have continued to support the Trust’s delivery of the future
clinical strategy through development of a modern and effective
estate strategy, which is dedicated to the specific needs of
Children’s Services.
We brought to the project many
benefits:
- Providing commercial knowledge to
advise NBT regarding BAFO
- Demonstrating credibility to the
Board members which supported NBT’s initial bid and tender
- Establishing project structures to
facilitate and support the Trust to robustly manage the
programme
- Understanding complexity and
challenges of the process and timescales. Identifying and
challenging assumptions and uncertainty
- Providing a committed and consistent
team to support the project
- Reacting quickly and efficiently to
programme changes.
We worked with NBT to design a package
of services that provides value for money and fits within their
existing budget. The customer-consultant relationship is very
positive and is viewed to operate as a partnership to add
significant value.
The benefits
The extensive health care experience
and skill set provided by Capita Symonds complimented the NBT team,
to support their success in securing the Children’s service
commission. We continue to support the implementation and
facilitation of the new service.