The Improvement Unit

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Our Improvement Unit helps wider health and care organisations including NHS trusts, health systems, integrated care boards (ICB’s), GP practices and primary care networks with a range of programme management and change expertise.

We have a track record of achieving excellent outcomes for our clients and supporting effective cross-organisational and cross-sector collaboration.  We achieve this by working in partnership with our clients to fully understand their needs and then developing tailored solutions – underpinned by our operational excellence ethos and drawing on our breadth of experience in project management principles including ‘Lean’ service re-engineering and agile continuing improvement, all using Prince2 methodology.​

What we do

  • Project and programme management of small, bespoke interventions to major change and improvement strategies or nationwide initiatives that involve many stakeholders
  • Use industry-leading methodologies and expertise including ‘lean’ service redesign, ‘plan, do, study, act’ continuous improvement, stakeholder management, agile and Prince2 project management, and process re-engineering.

Being of the NHS, for the NHS, there are inherent benefits in using us over the larger consultancy houses:

  • We focus on creating value – not profits – and delivering competitively priced, effective support at scale. We share your values!
  • Our NHS experience and health system relationships are unparalleled.
  • Our place on all the major NHS and public sector procurement frameworks makes us very easy to access
  • When you need people and resource quickly, we can help.

Design and delivering strategy

  • We will work closely with you to understand your organisation, engaging with stakeholders, service-users and staff
  • Our consultant will design, develop and deliver strategic change – bringing in relevant expertise and capacity when and for as long as needed
  • We offer bespoke, tailored programme management in line with best practice, designed with you.

Recovering and improvement

  • We combine our experience and expertise to provide a fast turnaround of any performance challenge and have access to a wide range of subject experts. We are also, through our networks, able to draw upon external expertise if required
  • Robust governance and control is always maintained with effective and efficient reporting and review to provide assurance of progress
  • We take a flexible approach to delivering both quick and sustainable results
  • We provide a diverse programme of sustainable financial and quality improvement to any process, service or system using our structured change approach.

Day-to-day business support

  • We can support you with a wide range of day-to-day business activities such as business case development, culture change, digital innovation, new ways of working and tackling health inequalities
  • We will support you to meet your objectives and responsibilities.

Publications

Please find our Annual Review below

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News and views

Blog

Upholding equality, diversity, and inclusion in times of financial cutbacks

Robert Beardall, Inclusion Unit Project Manager, MLCSU As a professional navigating the financial landscape of the NHS and…

News

New partnership to ensure a robust continuing healthcare assessment service

We are excited to announce a partnership between NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU’s Personalised Healthcare Commissioning Team and…

Blog News

Navigating new waters: The NHS’s response to financial strain and industrial action

Nicola Ainscough, Head of System Delivery, MLCSU The recent communication from NHS England, referencing the letter titled ‘Addressing…

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How we can help health systems

Developing health systems

Acting as an independent and trusted partner within the system to facilitate working across stakeholders and integrate elements of the provider system…

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Developing health systems

Workforce resilience and transformation

Supporting systems to build a sustainable and integrated workforce, transforming systems, organisations and the workforce experience to improve resilience.

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Workforce resilience and transformation

Communications and engagement

Supporting ICSs with approaches to design and deliver effective communication, engagement and behavioural insights as a key enabler for system change and…

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Communications and engagement

Digitally enabled transformation and IT

Digitising care and partnering with systems for the transformation of digitally enabled service delivery (and other supporting processes) across vision, planning and…

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Digitally enabled transformation and IT

PHM analytics and decision support

Applying intelligence-led understanding of the health of the population to support the redesign of care and improve patient and financial outcomes across…

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PHM analytics and decision support

Place and primary care transformation

Supporting providers to work together at a place and neighbourhood level to manage common resources, integrate community teams, improve health and reduce…

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Place and primary care transformation

Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Redesigning how health and care works across England - placing people at the centre of their own health and care and utilising…

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Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Personalised healthcare commissioning services

Providing end-to-end funded care services, including patients as active partners in identifying their healthcare needs and then commissioning care to meet these.…

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Personalised healthcare commissioning services

Business enabling services

Delivering a wide range of support functions through transactional services, business partnering and transformation that drives efficiencies and releases value and time…

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Business enabling services
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