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Knowledge Translation: example in practice

Ann Crosland Professor of Nursing Department of Pharmacy, Health and Wellbeing

University of Sunderland

Shona A Haining BSc PhDHead of Research & Development

NHS North of Tyne

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Public health evaluations

• A range of PH projects requiring evaluation

• Innovative funding of evaluation• Top slicing of budget from each

project• Combined budget from each project

and commissioned evaluation of all projects together

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Advantages of combining budget

• Larger amount

• One set of commissioning process

• More attractive for external bidders

• Economies of scale

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Commissioning evaluation

• Identify project – specific aims• Write up tender• Advertise – open and national • Assess – based on tender criteria• Award• Secondment of research staff in PH

team• Monitor

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The bid• The proposal set out:

– The multi-disciplinary context within which the work would be carried out and supervised

– An outline of both the public health and research experience of the staff who would undertake the evaluations

– A proposal for a secondment of two university staff with North Tyneside PCT on a job share basis

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What happened next• Service Level Agreement was drawn up

and signed by the two organisations• The secondment was finalised and staff

were given access to PCT resources for the duration of the project

• A Steering Group of the Researchers, commissioners and R&D Manager was set up

• Individual project groups were already meeting so the researchers joined these groups

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The first steps• It became clear early on that the

original NRF outcomes for the projects were unrealistic

• Concerns that this could lead to delays in getting the evaluations up and running

• Meetings were held to identify suitable outcomes at and organisational, commissioning and individual project level

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Outcomes

• Organisational-better commissioning skills

• Commissioning-commissioners able to identify realistic and measurable outcomes

• Individual project-outcomes measureable within the timescale and more closely aligned to the immediate objectives of the projects

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Reporting back• Quarterly Steering Group meetings

kept key decision makers up to date• Specific brief reports were produced

for each project with a focus on informing future commissioning decisions

• An overall report was produced for the PCT

• A workshop was held to feedback findings to key stakeholders

• Two presentations at UKPHA and FPH conferences

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Benefits of this approach

• Individuals

• NHS organisation

• Academia

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Individuals

• Timely outcomes for commissioning decisions

• Commissioning for patient led NHS – commissioning / provider split

• Assisted in making future commissioning decisions

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Organisation

• High quality independent research

• Capacity building for evaluation skills and evaluation “language”

• Shared learning between projects, barriers, enablers, outcomes

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Organisation (2)

• Commissioning evidenced based services

• Procurement process

World Class Commissioning competencies

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Benefits to the University• Developed a better understanding of

current issues facing commissioners• Kept staff in touch with the world of

public health practice• Helped build capacity for research and

knowledge translation• Built on the University’s reputation for

high quality relevant research and evaluation

• Contributed to academic outputs

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Knowledge Translation in action

Academia NHS

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Implications for future

• Need for more innovative models for joint working

• We need more staff who can move between and span the different worlds