Client Case Study -

Competency Based Employee Development Programme in the NHS

Think Associates Ltd have developed and implemented a web-based application to support the development of over 900,000 staff in the National Health Service

The Department of Health “Agenda for Change” programme is the largest and most fundamental change to the way NHS staff are managed, developed and rewarded since the organisation was founded in 1948.

Nearly 1 million NHS staff have newly-negotiated pay and conditions. Alongside greater scope for pay progression and, in many cases, pay rises, the NHS has implemented a competency-based development programme to give staff the knowledge and skills to work in the new healthcare world. This Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) programme also allows the organisation to check that staff are applying these competences effectively, which will ensure that the NHS are receiving “value for money” for their investment in pay, ultimately in terms of improved and efficient patient care.

The challenges of the KSF include:

• How to avoid overwhelming the service with the paperwork that can be associated with programmes like this.
• How to demystify and simplify a process based on a 300-page A4 document, and present information in a straightforward and lost-cost way to busy healthcare managers
• How to ensure that the programme is implemented consistently and equitably across over 600 individual NHS organisations
• How to aggregate and analyse data about the progress of the roll-out, and the resulting organisational intelligence about employee development needs

Think Associates Ltd was contracted by the Department of Health to develop, implement and support a computerised application called e-KSF. e-KSF is a web-based, self service tool available to all NHS staff to manage all elements of the KSF process, from creating and managing competency-based role profiles, to recording individual staff’s progress and crating, storing and analysing the development plans that staff put in place with their managers to close gaps and build on strengths.

We worked with the NHS to develop a system from the ground up, and e-KSF was first launched in the service in 2004. It is currently being actively used by over 400 NHS organisations of all types and sized, across the UK. One of our NHS clients has called e-KSF “one of the biggest successes in public sector IT”, and we’re told that Think Associates consultants are valued for their flexibility, pragmatic solutions, and their ability to work at all levels of the organisation from policy-makers to managers and staff on the wards.

Think Associates Ltd are continuing to work with the Department of Health, and individual NHS organisations at all levels, to ensure that as many staff as possible get the benefit of the e-KSF and KSF. We are helping the NHS to use e-KSF data to inform future policies and programmes, and we provide project management, training and change management support to organisations wanting to implement and make the most of the e-KSF system.

We’re keen to share, and build on, our experience of implementing the IT elements of what we believe is the world’s largest competency-based employee development programme.

We’d like to talk to you if:

• You want to refresh and reinvigorate your existing competency-based processes
• You need support and advice on selecting, building or implementing computerised employee development and HR systems
• You’re interested in using competence-based approaches to improve the way in which you measure, manage and develop your organisation’s Human Capital.

For more information, please contact us.