The context

 

The regional lead for Liaison and Diversion (L&D) – mental health service within custody suites and prisons, required better visibility of the services across London to support performance analysis and aid contract management of these services.

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Our role

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PCG provided analytical support to NHS England and L&D providers (made up of mental health trusts and third sector organisations) across London to improve the data quality of the numerous datasets that were submitted. This was vital as many of the datasets had been developed locally and lacked the structure of mature datasets to draw meaningful insight from. PCG advised on the importance of reporting accurate information for the region which can only be achieved if the data itself is accurate.

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Following our review of the data sources, we developed a solution using Microsoft Power BI – a data visualisation tool - side-by-side with the stakeholders to create a bespoke system that met the needs of both the providers and commissioner.

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A key aim was to reduce workload by pulling together lots of information into a single repository. This had further significance given how stretched the hospital staff, police custody suites staff and third-sector colleagues were in this demanding area of health.

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We used an agile approach to develop the tool, iteratively developing with regularly engagement with the key stakeholders as well as seeking feedback from the users and data owners e.g. metropolitan police and trusts.

 

We also developed templates and tools to aid with data quality to ensure that the dashboard could be easily populated in the future and any data quality issues dealt with in an automated way (where possible) or automatically flagged for the attention of data administrators.

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The outcome

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Our developed tool has acted as a key enabler for both the commissioner and providers, supporting intelligent reporting and understanding of L&D services across London. It has also reduced the time invested on monthly analysis and reporting, freeing up capacity to focus on providing a better service for service users.