Trust takes part in transformation project to enhance and redesign crisis referral pathways

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust is taking part in a project to revamp crisis referral pathways, enhance collaboration with mental health charity Mind, and streamline services for faster patient treatment.

Sponsored by NHS England (NHSE), the 26-week innovation project will be led by two members of Trust staff – alongside colleagues from NHS England’s North East and Yorkshire region with guidance from the national CLEAR team.

It follows another Clinically-Led workforce and Activity Redesign (CLEAR) project which started last year focusing on developing new models of care and reducing waiting times in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Hull and the East Riding.

This project will examine the patient journey of those in mental health crisis and will examine how the service can provide more personalised care, in line with NHS England’s ambitions to transform patients’ experience of mental health treatment.

It will focus on how patients are referred to the crisis team with a view to streamlining processes, ensuring consistency, improving performance and its monitoring against waiting time standards – as well as exploring how the home-based treatment team can be most effectively used to support patients at high risk.

The project aims to generate recommended new ways of working and workforce redesign to optimise roles, increase capacity, enhance patient care and improve staff experience.

As with all CLEAR projects, this work will follow the four stage CLEAR methodology under the guidance of clinicians from the national CLEAR team: clinical engagement, data analysis, innovation and recommendations. The project is due to be completed by July 2024.

The first CLEAR project at the Trust focused on reviewing and enhancing the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Hull and East Riding to enhance care, tackle waiting times and reduce length of stay through new models of care and ways of working. The work has examined the challenges faced by both teams, explored opportunities to enhance the CAMHS urgent treatment pathway and the potential for further system collaboration to support children and young people after discharge. This first project will present its final recommendations for improvement in January 2024.

Background on the CLEAR Programme

CLEAR is a national programme, originally developed in partnership with Health Education England and now sponsored by NHS England, regions and systems, that trains and enables clinicians to develop new skills in data analysis, transformation and leadership while delivering redesign projects in the NHS.

It is hosted by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and delivered by the trust and 33n, a team of NHS clinicians, education specialists and data analysts who are united in their passion to improve services, address workforce challenges and enhance patient care.