Consultancy Services
BFA Consultancy services offer expert knowledge of professional cultures at work, and how these impact on organisations’ ability to change and develop. Clients consistently invite BFA to offer our consultancy expertise where there are sensitive ‘trust’ issues crucial to their success (e.g. professional sensitivities, personality factors, reactions to the impact of change).
We tailor our consultancy approach to your setting, identifying with you:
- what you want to achieve
- key people to work with
- your needs in relation to changes
We offer our consultancy services in confidence: we take a partnership approach, working in close collaboration with our clients. We work directly with individuals, teams, and whole services; clients also commission us to develop service standards, produce guidelines, or write strategies, plans and reports.
Changes and developments in services
BFA focuses on the changing expectations and service standards that face leaders and professionals in their organisations. We understand that leaders and professionals experience change as a constant, and not always positive, feature of organisational life.
We work alongside leaders and professionals to address key questions:
- what’s good about what we do?’
- ‘how do we want to enhance it?’
- what must we change to meet new expectations?’
We help services to achieve the changes they identify, and can offer tailored additional support, conflict resolution, coaching, development programmes.
CASE EXAMPLE 1
Implementing a changed ‘Transitions policy for young people aged 14-19’ with multiple teams across a local authority
BFA was asked to design the implementation process to support multiple teams to understand and implement these new guidelines on ‘Transitions’ policy. Breda Flaherty worked with the Steering Group to identify how teams needed to change, and facilitated the workshops which introduced the guidelines.
‘Your solution-focused approach really helped us towards the changes we needed to make’
Project Leader
CASE EXAMPLE 2
Action planning for change, following Healthcare Commission investigation into Sutton and Merton PCT’s service for people with a learning disability
Breda Flaherty and colleague, Peter Mumford, designed an innovative stakeholder involvement process to create a shared plan for action on changes to services, following an HCC Inquiry. We designed a series of linked meetings and workshops to gather contributions on what to change and how to do it. We successfully involved:
- people who use the services, and their advocates
- more than 70 members of staff
- more than 15 family members
- Strategic Health Authority, Department of Health, PCT Board, Learning Disability Partnership Board
- The Plan was adopted by the Commission in March 07 and is now in Year 1 implementation.
- The Commission ‘commended’ our innovative approach to Action Planning
Read more at healthcarecommission.org.uk
Team development and ‘Awayday’ events
BFA offers tailored events to Teams, Boards, and networks of multi-agency stakeholders to:
- plan strategy and implementation of change
- take stock of progress
- think about their effectiveness, and address difficult issues
CASE EXAMPLE 1
Board & Executive Team Awayday
An aspiring Foundation Trust needed to review
- direction and progress to prepare for FT Board arrangements
- key working relationships between Executive and Non-Executive Directors
We met individual Board members to diagnose issues and needs for change. We facilitated the Board Awayday, which covered contentious ground, in a constructive way. The Board re-focused its priorities, decision-making processes, and performance management system. It is now pushing forward on FT status, and sustaining improved working relationships.
‘Thank you for a very effective day; we were concerned about the sensitivities, but your style kept us constructive’
Chairman
CASE EXAMPLE 2
GP Partners Awayday
Drawing on many years of experience of General Practices, BFA supported a GP partnership through a period of difficult disagreement about:
- flexible working arrangements,
- succession to the senior partner role following the senior partner’s retirement
- creating a changed partnership agreement
‘Your facilitation was a pivotal moment for our practice’
GP Partner
Conflict Resolution & mediation
Clients consistently invite BFA to address sensitive ‘trust’ issues crucial to their success (e.g. professional sensitivities, personality factors, reactions to the impact of change).
We act as a confidential broker - we hold individual discussions, move beyond vested interests and standpoints, and design constructive events, designing learning to create solutions to long-standing frustrations.
CASE EXAMPLE
Conflict resolution between professionals and managers:
Significant changes had been introduced rapidly in this service Directorate, leading to conflict between professionals and managers, a drop in performance standards, and low morale.
- BFA held confidential conversations with individuals and facilitated dialogue across small groups.
‘You provided the opportunity for confidential discussions, the chance for everyone to contribute, to understand the background to the situation, without having to go over it all on the day of the main event.’
Team member
- The final facilitated event brought the whole Directorate together:
‘I found the final event to be very successful, in terms of planning. The session outlining the rationales behind the changes we had experienced was very useful, as was the final session to collate everyone’s views on how to improve matters, with ‘quick wins’ that could be quickly implemented’
Team member
Large-scale involvement and
consultation processes
BFA offers extensive experience in the design and facilitation of large-scale involvement and consultation processes, working with multiple stakeholders across professional, managerial, and service user groups, This work may involve wide groups of stakeholders in linked large-scale events to:
- plan a significant change
- consult on change proposals
- respond to a critical incident, inquiry, or report
- develop service standards or guidelines
CASE EXAMPLE
Patient and Public Involvement - national consultation to create the Centre for Involvement
With extensive experience of facilitating PALS and PPI networks over many years, BFA was commissioned by Department of Health leads to:
- co-design the consultation process on establishing a national centre on PPI.
- facilitate a national steering group - a broad stakeholder group of patient representatives and PPI Leaders
- design a series of linked national meetings to gather views and design elements of the brief for the centre.
The NHS Centre for Involvement is now established at the University of Warwick, a consortium comprising The University of Warwick, The Centre for Public Scrutiny, and LTCA, and is funded by the Department of Health.
‘Your design ideas, and facilitation expertly involved very different groups, and helped lead us to a positive outcome’
Project Lead
Read more at nhscentreforinvolvement.nhs.uk
