The Service Improvement Programme (SIP)

What is the SIP?

The SIP aims to ensure that healthcare services support service users and clinicians to work together and communicate effectively.
The SIP will:

• work with clinicians, patients, carers, local health professionals and national and international experts to identify changes which can help people to use the three key support tools effectively
• test ways in which clinicians can support service users to set and follow up on goals to aid recovery and maintain well being
• support staff and service users to implement the most effective changes in local health services to ensure reliable and sustainable self management support in the future

How will the SIP do this?

The SIP follows internationally recognised quality improvement approaches whose key characteristics are:

• looking at the way mental health services work to identify changes that can be made
• identifying new ways to do things to achieve the necessary changes
• testing changes on a small scale before implementing them
• measuring the impact of tested changes to find the best solutions
• implementing changes only when they have been shown to work
• spreading the implementation of successful changes throughout the NHS

What are the benefits of the SIP?

For people living with long-term condition:

• Healthcare services that support them in setting and achieving their goals
• Healthcare services built around sharing a responsibility with clinicians for managing their own health
   
  For clinicians:
• healthcare services designed to make better use of their time and skills (particularly those developed as part of ADP)
• greater clarity about their roles and responsibilities in supporting self-management
  shared responsibility with people living with long-term conditions for managing their healthcare

For healthcare services:

• professional practice designed to support self-management and encourage people with long-term conditions to help them play an active role in managing their own healthcare
• more efficient and effective use of skills and resources across care services (specifically avoiding unplanned/urgent demand for services)
  improved patient satisfaction

Key steps to take

The SIP has four key overlapping stages

1. Understand how local health services operate
2. Identify what needs to change to help set agendas, set goals and follow up and to remove what gets in the way
3. Test new ways of doing things to help clinicians and service users to interact in an effective and productive way
4. Implementing successful changes and spread implementation throughout the NHS. 

Your views

We are always looking for feedback from healthcare professionals and service users. If you would like to make a comment or suggestion, or would like to get involved in this part of the initiative, complete a feedback form or contact Hannah Nettle, Project Manager on:

• 020 3513 6006 or 0791 274 2271
  or
• email cocreating.health@swlstg-tr.nhs.uk