Two trusts in Gloucestershire have successfully brought together mental health, physical health and learning disability occupational therapy staff ahead of a merger, after consultation helped modify grander plans for integration.
Rebecca Shute, the head of profession at 2gether NHS Foundation Trust and Trish Dowling, head of profession at Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust, told a session at RCOT’s annual conference that the 250-strong occupational therapist workforce across both services had long wanted to work together.
Said Rebecca: ‘We heard of stories of an occupational therapist from one trust leaving the house of a person with dementia and bumping into an occupational therapist from the other organisation on their way out.’
The leads drew up grand plans for the next 12 months, including the return of mixed rotations for band fives; a new practice development programme; the deployment of tools from RCOT’s ‘Improving Lives, Saving Money’ campaign in all services; and robust sharing of skills.
Said Rebecca: ‘We thought: this is exciting, this is a gift - we got very excited about it all.’
However, when the plans were presented to clinical leaders, they questioned how the plans could all be instituted at the same time as delivering ‘business as usual’ services. In particular, after an extensive period of service redesign and changes for staff, they wondered if there could be a problem in bringing together the ‘blues’ and the ‘greens’, the lanyard colours from each trust.
Having spoken with the clinical leaders and the workforce, the pair decided to refocus on how the workforce could be supported to feel valued now to ensure they would feel important going forward with any potential changes.
Adds Rebecca: ‘We didn’t want to increase that sense of being ‘done to’ in the occupational therapy workforce.’
Together, the pair found ways to celebrate the best of occupational therapy practice. When the area’s integrated care system held an event for allied health professionals, the pair made sure that
occupational therapy was highly visible. Julia Scott, the RCOT chief executive, also visited a special event to network staff.
Effort was also made to help staff to build relationships and feel more connected. That included joint leadership meetings; sharing training and CPD opportunities that already existed within the trust; sharing contact lists and the a Facebook CPD page; and inviting staff to shadow other teams.
Crucially, the work was led by staff rather than being issued in ‘top down’ edicts. There was no mandate for the shadowing to take place so that staff would buy in to the work.
The results have been positive ahead of this autumn’s merger, with the leads feeling that the staff are ready for whatever changes may happen in future.
Says Rebecca: ’It’s good to be brave enough to say we didn’t quite get it right but we’re listening.’