Camden NHS Primary Care Trust
Linda Stannard, Head of PMO, Camden Primary Care Trust (PCT), explains the benefits that Camden PCT has gained from establishing a programme office and its relationship with programme management specialist, Bestoutcome.
London - December 2008 – HEALTH SERVICE PROCUREMENT REVIEW:
"Like
much of the NHS, Camden PCT is undergoing change in many different
areas. New services are being introduced, we are seeing a move to a
commissioner/supplier model and the demand for performance information
is gathering pace. To meet these challenges, an increasing number of
projects and programmes are being run across the organisation. These
projects were being run very well, but the quantity and diversity of the
programmes posed a governance challenge – there was no central
reporting function, which meant that there was no way of collating all
the information on each project to analyse it and offer support. The
other challenge was that projects were not being run in a generic way.
There was no standard form of project management across the
organisation.
We recognised that we needed a central resource to
undertake these functions and initiate central governance for the many
diverse projects underway across the PCT.
This resource should be
able to: make certain that proposed projects and programmes have
clearly defined business outcomes and are supported by a sound business
case; make information available to those involved with the project to
enable them to identify risk and make informed decisions; and improve
the PCT’s ability to successfully run projects by training, supporting
and mentoring project managers and sharing good practice.
It is
usual in the NHS for projects to be run alongside someone’s day job. We
wanted to ensure that people had the necessary knowledge to run projects
and balance them with their day-to-day work.
To help establish
the programme office, we decided that we needed to draw on experience
from outside the NHS. We wanted to gain from working with people who had
experience of setting up project offices, who could look at our
situation with a fresh pair of eyes. While we have very capable people
within the NHS, we wanted to approach this project differently.
Camden
PCT undertook a tendering exercise and looked at four companies.
Bestoutcome won the tender. The company has an extensive background in
programme and project management and could also provide a specialised
project management software tool, PM3, which would provide improved
governance across the entire portfolio of projects being undertaken by
the PCT. The programme office was set up in February 2008. It was
important that it hit the ground running, as operating plan projects
began in April and we decided that it would be involved in delivering
the operating plan projects for this year. So we had to establish the
programme office while getting people started on their projects.
Together with Bestoutcome, we wrote a project strategy for establishing a
PMO, with a project plan which included establishing processes to drive
the project forward, communication of our aims and the roll out of PM3
across the organisation (factoring in training staff in its effective
use).
Importantly, Bestoutcome introduced the organisation to a
planning methodology called ODPM (outcome driven project management),
which is driven by business outcomes – the final goal is carefully
defined and then intermediate outcomes that are needed to achieve this
final goal are identified. The company undertook training of key staff
in this area and then one member of the programme office, an experienced
trainer, took ownership of the training within Camden PCT and tailored
it for an NHS audience.
In my time at Camden I have run several
large projects for the PCT, but I have never before used specialist
Project, Programme and Portfolio management software. Bestoutcome’s
software, PM3, supports outcome-based project management and gives us an
oversight of all 120 current projects – project office staff can see
where project managers are up to in terms of workstreams and milestones,
and can determine how projects will link to similar projects in other
areas. This overview allows us to pre-empt risks and offer advice and
help to those running the project.
PM3 can be set up to
automatically send a monthly update report to all project sponsors which
is something we have adopted. The software is also capable of
generating a high-level financial report, which we will be using next
year once the programme office is fully utilising the software – we felt
that it was important to be up and running as an office and a service
as quickly as possible, then implement the software gradually.
The
software is customisable, which has enabled us to tailor it to suit our
organisation. For example the value management criteria in PM3 were
originally designed for the private sector, and didn’t necessarily apply
to the NHS focuses of patient care, quality of service and value for
money. Bestoutcome has given us the advice to enable us to use our NHS
knowledge to tailor the software tofit our NHS needs. Being able to
effectively monitor all of Camden’s projects has obvious governance
advantages. We are able to focus on gaining the desired outcomes across
the board and we can use this central resource to avoid duplication of
effort. By next year we will be seeking to recognise projects that can
be linked together rather than conducted separately. Working practices
have already changed.
The project management process has been
tailored for our organisation and standardised, to give us one way of
approaching projects and programmes. Project managers are benefiting
from the organisational overview, support and advice that the programme
office offers. We’ve found that even in this short time people are
already well engaged with the office, which heralds a big change in
working practices. The programme office is enabling Camden PCT to
improve the delivery of our projects and our relationship with
Bestoutcome is really positive. It’s a two-way relationship, the company
and our organisation have learnt from each other. The team is not part
of the organisation, which means that they can take a step back from any
issues we may have – we are able to bounce ideas off them and gain new
insight.
We have found that employing an external consultancy
such as Bestoutcome to support the development of the programme office
has been highly beneficial. They approach a project and an organisation
very differently than someone from the NHS would – and as they are
willing to adapt they can ensure that their expertise is utilised in the
best way for that particular organisation. In establishing an effective
programme office we have begun to enable the organisation to work in a
common way to achieve each project’s differing goals thereby delivering
benefits to the NHS."
