Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning

In the NHS, Psychological therapies and intervention delivery should be strategically managed and actively led at National, Board and IJB level in a manner which creates confidence around effectiveness, efficiency and patient safety. It is anticipated that this would be extended to any future organisational structures such as the National Care Service.

Planning should have the goal of sustainable development of local services to meet the Local Delivery Plans and commitments, including access standards.  Effective strategic management should involve oversight and planning at a level above that of service delivery of treatment and which has a focus on ensuring all options for early intervention and prevention are prioritised.

In Scotland leadership is provided by local Directors of Psychological Services enabling clear strategic management, governance and innovative leadership oversight and planning across all levels of need and systems. Effective leadership will provide a culture of accountability and continuous quality improvement and make sure there are good working environments for staff which ultimately leads to compassionate person-centred care for the public.

This should be supported by:

• Strategic Management Group: There should be direct accountability for psychological therapies and intervention from the Director of Psychology who is well networked within senior (e.g., NHS Board) levels. They should also have an appropriate mechanism and business management leadership group to ensure coherent and comprehensive planning across local systems of care, linked to national planning and strategy, financial provision and governance.
• IT Systems: should support collection of information with minimum investment of time and effort, and feed meaningful and clinically relevant back to staff and people who use the services including routine outcome measurement to support decision making and effective, meaningful informed choices. This should support the use of routine outcome monitoring which can be a critical underpinning of evidence based and collaborative clinical decision making.
• Research, Audit and Evaluation: Service should support staff and facilitate research and evaluation to support the development of innovation in delivery of services. Research posts should also be considered as core roles within Psychological services and where possible, links with local Universities will be fostered to make sure high quality research is published and shared to support learning and high quality care across all systems of delivery. Clinical Research posts will be considered within services to support recruitment and retention and innovative service delivery. Views of those with lived experiences will be regularly sought and analysed through audit and research as a core expectation.
• Disinvestment: There should be disinvestment in psychological therapies and interventions which are not safe or are ineffective, inefficient or not cost effective. Psychological therapies and interventions are not always benign and opportunities to monitor adverse events should be explored.