Chief Investigators: Professor Mari Carmen Portillo, Professor of Long-Term Conditions. School of Health Sciences. University of Southampton, Dr Louise Johnson, Consultant Therapist and WASP Project Lead, University Hospitals Dorset 

Team:

Dr Beth Clark, WASP Personalised Care Facilitator, University of Southampton

Matthew Wood, WASP Digital Lead and current ARC Wessex Statistical Intern

Dr Hayden Kirk, Consultant Physiotherapist & Clinical Director Adults Southampton, Solent NHS Trust 

Janine Ord, Head of Population Health, Dorset Integrated Care Board

Fran White, Director of Policy, Innovation and Partnerships, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board

Aisling Flynn, Lecturer in Occupational Therapy and Post-Doctoral Researcher, Bournemouth University

Sally Dace, Patient and Public Involvement Representative

Luisa Holt, Research Fellow, University of Southampton

Partners: Dorset Integrated Care Board, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton.

Start: 1 October 2024

End: 31 March 2026

Aim(s)

To evaluate if and how the Wessex Academy for Skills in Personalised Care (WASP) programme has led to improvements within healthcare services, and the impacts for patients, services and the wider health system. 

Background

Personalised care focuses on tailoring health services to individuals’ needs and preferences.  People who receive personalised care have greater satisfaction, and are more likely to feel in control of their own health and wellbeing. Services that work in a personalised way are likely to use their resource more efficiently - by offering people the right support, in the right way, at the right time. 

Despite the benefits, widespread adoption of personalised care has been slow.  There are many reasons for this – including having healthcare staff who are trained and believe in its importance, and having systems that support its delivery. 

Since 2018, the Wessex Academy for Skills in Personalised Care (WASP) has been helping NHS services to improve personalised care delivery.  This support involves three parts:

1. EVALUATION –understanding current care by collecting the views of service users, frontline clinicians, managers and people who plan services (commissioners)

2. LEARN – training healthcare teams, so they have the knowledge, skills and confidence to change how they work

3. IMPLEMENT – supporting services to identify and deliver improvement projects, with measurable benefits for patients

In this research, we will evaluate impact of the programme.  This is important to:

·       know how to improve WASP in the future;

·       learn how to accelerate the adoption of personalised care within the NHS;

·       demonstrate impact, so we can spread the benefits more widely.

Design

We will create a series of case studies from services that have already completed WASP, highlighting learning from the programme, if/how this has been put into practice, and the benefits to service users.

We will use interviews and surveys to collect information from healthcare staff, who are working in services that completeWASP in 2024/25.  This will allow us to understand peoples experience of the programme, and the impacts this leads to.  Interviews will take place at several timepoints, understanding learning development over time. Results will be considered together.

Patient, public and community involvement

Patient and public feedback has been incorporated into this proposal.  Throughout the research, we will work with patient contributors, including a co-applicant, to shape and develop the research programme, ensure we are capturing the most important impacts, and to develop accessible ways to share our findings.

Dissemination

We will use the findings to create recommendations for how the WASP programme can be improved and spread in the future, reaching more people with long term conditions. We will share results at conferences and in academic journals; and presenting in a range of accessible formats, using the WASP website, social media and in the community.