Guy\u2019s and St Thomas\u2019s NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) provides a full range of hospital and community services for people in three London boroughs, as well as enjoying an international reputation for specialist care ncluding cancer, renal, orthopaedic and cardiovascular services. It employs around 16,000 staff and has an annual turnover of \u00a31.5 billion, with more than 800,000 patient contacts per year in community services alone. In 2015, in response to long-standing staffing and quality challenges, and inspired by the example of Buurtzorg in the Netherlands, GSTT secured funding from Health Education England and commissioned Public World to support a \u2018test and learn\u2019 initiative to provide holistic services through self-managed teams in Lambeth and Southwark.<\/p>\n
Through a series of workshops with senior managers and frontline nursing staff, we co-designed the project and established a working group drawn from GSTT itself, social care leaders in the two boroughs and other stakeholders, including our representatives. We organised a study visit to Buurtzorg and arranged learning and development support for the initial members of the self-managed teams and their coach. We also ran a workshop to support the management\u2019s thinking about the changes required to enable the teams to be well supported by the Trust\u2019s administrative services.<\/p>\n