About Dr Foster
Dr Foster is the leading independent supplier of research, analysis and communication products for and about UK healthcare. Dr Foster has formed a joint venture with the NHS Information Centre to support the information needs of NHS and Social Care organisations. The company is committed to helping create more user-led public services through using information to improve understanding of the needs, attitudes, behaviours and experiences of citizens and service-users.
Dr Foster has unrivalled strengths in:
- Understanding how to turn public sector data into information and knowledge that can support planning and decision-making.
- Communicating information effectively both to the public and to the professionals responsible for delivering services.
- Helping to support professionals turn knowledge into action.
Dr Foster commissioned David Bowles Associates to advise on the achievement of its business plan objective to enter the local government market. David Bowles Associates subsequently engaged Social Care Strategies Ltd to provide specific expertise on social care policy, practice and organisation.
Trailblazer Programme
Dr Foster’s Trailblazer Programme has provided a unique opportunity to develop and apply tools which will help the Local Authority and its partners make a practical reality of Our health, our care, our say goals:
- Better prevention and earlier intervention.
- More choice and a louder voice for consumers.
- Tackling inequalities and better access to services.
- More support for long-term needs.
The programme focuses on the specific responsibilities of the Director of Adult Social Services of:
- Undertaking a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
- Identifying and meeting individual needs.
- Promoting social inclusion and well-being.
- Leading a whole systems approach to supporting communities.
- Co-ordinating integrated workforce planning.
At the same time as supporting delivery of national policy and performance objectives, the programme has offered participants a comprehensive suite of analyses custom-made to meet the specific requirements of Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. The analyses and tools provided will empower local commissioners to manage more effectively the relationship between needs, resources and outcomes.
The application of Dr Foster’s commissioning tools will help to achieve more streamlined business processes, enabling efficiency savings to be identified and realised. The ultimate goal is to provide Local Authorities with the information they need to provide more cost-effective services delivering better outcomes for the whole population.
Better information to inform complex decisions
The Trailblazer Programme was established and run as a partnership between Dr Foster and the Local Authority to produce analytical inputs and intelligence for local Joint Strategic Needs Assessments. The final output for the programme has been designed as a series of analytical reports and data sets which will directly feed into the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. These will identify:
- Different communities within the Local Authority and their likely needs
- How populations will change over time
- Projections for required service levels for different potential service configurations
These deliverables will provide innovative insight and valuable intelligence for the Local Authority. They will provide the basis for planning how strategic goals can be achieved, including:
- shifting the balance between intensive and universal services
- moving from intervention to prevention
- achieving the right mix of in-house and external provision
An information management strategy for the future
A key benefit of Dr Foster’s offer to Local Government is the development of an information strategy that covers:
- Key data sets: What are the key data feeds need to support ongoing planning of services and where should they be sourced from.
- Data linkage: how and where data from different organisations can be linked without infringing privacy legislation
- Storing and updating data how data can be updated and processed to allow the JSNA to be updated or amended in future with minimum duplication of effort.
- Data gaps: What are the key data gaps and how might they be filled most effectively
A new approach to segmentation
One of the central elements of the Dr Foster approach to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment is the development of segmentation models that allow more efficient targeting of services. In developing these models and the data that supports them, Dr Foster ensures:
- A flexible comprehensive approach that can apply across all public services: the approach to identifying communities and their needs can be applied across public services in general from health and social care, to education, housing and community safety. The aim is to deliver an approach that can provide a common understanding of community needs across all local government services.
- Uniquely detailed analysis: Dr Foster can analyse national data sets such as NHS health data, Office of National Statistics data and education data down to individual level to provide detailed insights into the behaviour of different communities. This level of detail allows much more accurate identification of communities.
- Bridging public and private sector: Dr Foster is expert in using private sector data sets on populations in addition to public sector data. A balanced combination of the two is required to provide the clearest possible insight into local populations and their needs.
Social Care Strategies Ltd contribution
David Bowles Associates and Social Care Strategies Ltd have enabled Dr Foster to build a profile and reputation within local government adult social care services. This has been achieved by:
- Identifying business opportunities within emerging national policy.
- Building networks and relationships at national, regional and local level.
- Identifying and creating marketing opportunities.
- Advising the company on business strategy and tactics.
- Enabling product development to be sharply focused on the real day-to-day challenges faced by Directors of Adult Social Services.