Camden CCG is a clinically led and member driven CCG with 35 GP practices across the London Borough of Camden.  With a population of approximately 254,000 and a predicted population increase of almost 23,000 in the next 10 years the CCG continues to experience growing pressure on local health and care services for which they must assess local needs, agree priorities and commission services.

Camden CCG is one of the five CCGs which now form North Central London CCG, with shared commissioning arrangements that aim to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan as it looks to move to an Integrated Care System.

The Challenge for Camden CCG

Camden CCG identified that they needed a tool to help track and monitor their commissioning priorities, including their QIPP (Quality Innovation Productivity and Prevention) programme of quality improvement and efficiency savings.

They wanted to work in a standardised way and be able to view, monitor and report on their portfolio of projects across the organisation.  Prior to Verto, reporting requirements were very intensive and laborious.  Information came from multiple diverse sources in varying formats, mainly spreadsheets, documents and emails which required manual and time-consuming co-ordination.   Segments of the organisation held data in siloed parts of the CCG’s intranet system but there was no single place where the whole programme picture was visible.  The CCG also wanted to be able to view and report on information ‘through different lenses’ to be able to produce meaningful information up and down the organisation.

Camden CCG knew that different project leads had varying levels of project experience, so the tool chosen had to:

• be quick and easy to learn and use
• enable the project delivery team to work to consistent processes
• be able to easily and accurately monitor and report on project performance and outcomes
• provide a birds-eye view of project implementation
• reflect their working practices and governance

Our Solution

Camden CCG chose Verto’s cloud-based programme and project management solution to manage their portfolio of projects and QIPP monitoring and reporting.   Verto was chosen as it was extremely configurable and gave the CCG maximum flexibility and usability.

“The transition to Verto took place with very little disruption.  Verto was configured to reflect our project management structure and processes and then we blended that with good practice recommendations that the Verto team suggested based on their experience to get the best possible system”.

Stephanie King, QIPP Business Manager, Camden CCG

Stephanie’s role involves encouraging project leads to provide project updates with Verto now used across a number of different programmes of work including:

• Primary care
• Community care
• Unplanned care
• Planned care
• Mental Health
• Children’s and Young People
• Quality and Clinical Effectiveness
• Continuing Healthcare

Reporting is now done automatically using configured reports to inform the CCG and NCL Governance Framework.  Verto is used to assess and manage project risks and issues to ensure timely intervention.

The system also provides a substantial document repository which provides organised traceability and project provenance.

The benefits

With Verto, the CCG’s updates on their transformation and QIPP projects are held in one place.  This meant that they can quickly run reports at various levels from sponsor highlight reports to detailed management reports knowing that the information was ‘live’, accurate and able to be analysed at different levels and from different perspectives.

“The way that Verto provides a single version of the truth across all of our projects is fantastic.  At any time, you know that the information you are looking at represents the most up to date view of what’s going on.  The information we get from Verto enables us to swiftly pinpoint projects that need time and attention”.

Stephanie King, QIPP Business Manager, Camden CCG

Verto has now been in use at Camden for over two years now.  Plenty of time to really test the mettle of the system and cement the relationship between the Verto team and the CCG.

Verto gives the QIPP planning and monitoring team reliable and current updates at the touch of a button.  This means they can now measure progress, project future outcomes, track benefits and plan with more confidence.

Camden CCG have embraced the wider significance of the system delivers around business continuity.   Because Verto holds a comprehensive historical record within its change history function, new staff or people covering leave can very quickly see the life-story of a project and are not bogged down chasing an understanding of what has gone on before.

“It’s been so great to hear so many of our users say, ‘that’s really easy isn’t it?’.  They like the look and feel of the system and the fact that it helps make the process of keeping on top of their projects just really, really easy.”

Stephanie King, QIPP Business Manager, Camden CCG

We continue to support Camden CCG within North Central London as partners plan to move towards an Integrated Care System.  The CCG is also developing a borough-based partnership to delivery early integration priorities for 2019/20 which will involve new programmes of work, collaboration and project delivery.