Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust - board development and clinical governance transformation

GGI was appointed as the dedicated governance partner to BHRUT, a large acute trust in north east London, to deliver a comprehensive programme of board development, together with a trust-wide quality and clinical governance transformation programme. At the time of appointment, the trust had been placed in quality special measures.

• Implementing a structured board development programme including a series of workshops, pre-board dinners with invited expert speakers, the co-development of strategic papers for the board to inform session discussions, one-to-one personalised board member development, and coaching.
• Developing a new quality governance structure and then embedding it.
• Clearing a large backlog of outstanding serious incidents (SIs) and developing a standard operating procedure for SI management.
• Delivering a comprehensive training and engagement programme with staff across the organisation on topics such as incident reporting, duty of candour, and risk management, including video training resources and an innovative and engaging flyer and poster communication campaign on key patient safety issues.
• Implementing a patient safety summit to facilitate learning from incidents and continuous improvement. The summit was praised the by then Health Secretary for its impact in creating a learning culture.
• The development and implementation of a structured programme of targeted development support for both individuals and divisions. The programme aimed to increase the capacity and capability of staff and was designed to leave a legacy in the trust that became the foundation of a long-term approach to staff development and talent management for continuous improvement. Staff who joined the programme left with increased confidence in their clinical governance skills and became an additional mentorship resource for the organisation.

The programme of board development support saw the board grow its collective capacity and regain the ability to focus on immediate strategic priorities, as well as on critical developmental issues.

The programme of work succeeded in supporting the trust to exit quality special measures.