Consultants' catch up
Life for an implementation consultant at NICE is nothing if not varied. May has seen a range of visits for me across the South West, including introductory meetings with Local Authorities, follow-up visits to some acute NHS trusts, mental health partnership trust and PCTS, and a meeting with researchers at the University of Bristol who are undertaking work looking at implementation of clinical guidelines.
The Local authority (LA) visits (to county councils and unitary authorities) are providing a good opportunity to introduce the work of NICE, particularly the public health programmes and the clinical guidelines of relevance to children and adult social care, to authorities who may be less familiar with NICE guidance. They are also an opportunity to explore how implementation is being addressed in those authorities who are more familiar with NICE guidance and the implementation support available to them from NICE. These visits give us an opportunity to identify LAs who have examples related to the implementation of NICE (e.g. through partnership working) that could be shared with other organisations. All the implementation consultants are encouraging LAs, as well as NHS organisations, to submit examples of shared learning about NICE implementation to the NICE website.
As you will be aware, NICE produces various tools to support implementation of its guidance. These have been predominantly aimed at the NHS, but we are currently reviewing our implementation support materials and advice to ensure that developments are made where necessary so that they are suitable for LA audiences. We have been asking for feedback on our suite of tools when we meet with LAs, as well as identifying individuals who might like to get involved in workshops and give feedback.
A significant part of my role involves working out in the field (literally sometimes for me in the West Country - recently I was diverted due to road closure and my satellite navigation was convinced I should be turning into a field where the cows were coming out for milking! I do take public transport wherever practical!). However, we implementation consultants also contribute to the wider work of NICE (Steve and Val have given examples in the last two catch up articles). This last couple of months has seen me and Jenny Lewis, Implementation Consultant in the North West, being part of a project group developing a guide looking at how to generate practical change similar to our 'How to put NICE guidance into practice' guide. This new guide will be due for publication later in the year and a future Into Practice article will give you more details.
So another month goes by and I look forward to working with you in the South West.
Jayne Chidgey
Email: jayne.chidgey@nice.org.uk
