Summary

Using the provision of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) funding, PCNs can tailor the workforce more specifically to their population needs. Multi-disciplinary teams are made up of the various additional roles and wider neighbourhood team specialists.

The diversity of need for our patient groups is both wide and deep. To meet the local population needs, there is a need to equip the appropriate skilled workforce. The current workforce situation across the NHS means that GPs or advance nurse practitioners may not necessarily be required to be the healthcare entry point. When we consider the 30- 40% of access which does not require a clinical response, multi-disciplinary teams make much more sense as a workforce equipped for dealing with:

• administrative queries
• personalised care
• well-being and low-level mental health intervention
• general support

Care navigation has a pivotal role in both Primary Care Networks and at practice level, in ensuring pathways of care and interventions are captured and communicated for true oversight.

Having a multi-disciplinary team made up of various roles, allows a more specific and wider determinant response to patient care but also in creating a robust and appropriately skilled workforce which meets the diverse needs of a population’s health, care and wellbeing. It is also important to note that some of the additional roles can be grouped to offer ‘as a service’ and can also be made up of people with varying backgrounds and skills to build a diverse team.

It is important to educate and make patients, key stakeholders and staff aware of these roles and how they can help, if people don’t know about them, they will not be referred into and underutilised.

Benefits for Practice

• a more sustainable and resilient workforce
• job satisfaction – being able to work at the role ceiling and having autonomy is empowering
• improved access through direct routes – within the practice and Appropriately out into community neighbourhood services
• options to signpost patients away from clinicians when a clinician is not the most Appropriately skilled response
• ability to pool resources and gain efficiencies – streamlining
• working as a team generates a sense of belonging, integration and job satisfaction – supports retention and staff wellbeing
• more innovation in how you deliver patient care

Benefits for patients

• a workforce whose skills mirrors the changing needs of patient and citizen communities
• seeing the right professional and having the right conversation – managing the whole person not just their diagnosis, especially for long term condition patients
• improved access, smarter pathways to discharge, and improved outcomes of care and satisfaction
• increased personalised care

Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme Roles (ARRS) Information

Summary

The NHS ARRS scheme is a program designed to help support primary care networks (PCNs) in England. It provides additional funding to support the recruitment of additional staff such as clinical pharmacists, physician associates, and social prescribing link workers.

The goal of the scheme is to help PCNs provide better and more comprehensive care to their patients, as well as to alleviate some of the workload on GPs and other healthcare professionals. The scheme is part of the NHS Long Term Plan, which aims to improve the quality of care provided by the NHS and to help ensure its sustainability for the future.

The Additional Roles Quick Guide covers what ARRS roles are, what their remit is and what the required training/education and supervision. The AHPs (Allied Health Professionals) working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams case study, looks at Applying allied health professionals roles in a new way. The roles explorer includes job description packs, case studies and career frameworks for each role.

Guidance

These summaries can be utilised to help design job specifications for your ARRS role recruitment. The AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams case study has examples of how peer organisations have implemented these AHP roles. You can use these to generate ideas about how you might implement these roles into your services. You can also use the resources in the roles explorer as part of your recruitment strategy and career marketing. Case Study AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams – https://www.ewin.nhs.uk/tools_and_resources/ahps-working-differently-integrated-community-care-teams

Link

For quick information on the ARRS roles view the: Additional Roles Quick Guide.

For more detailed information including job description packs, case studies and career frameworks, go to the Health Education England roles explorer.

For the AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams case study click here.

NHS England South East Region Practice staff webinars

Summary

The NHS England South East region Primary Care Transformation programme has developed a series of webinars to help support practices to better understand utilisation of roles in practice to help support practice leadership and staff.

Guidance

An NHS Futures site platform has been developed to help guide through all of the webinars that have taken place that include:

• South East MSK First Contact Practitioners webinar
• South East General practice celebratory event
• South East Podiatrists, OTs & Dietitians in Primary Care webinar
• South East Paramedics in Primary Care Online Session 1 and session 2
• Paramedic ARRS South East Regional Webinar
• NHS England South East GP Assistant Webinar

And more.

Links

Access the futures site here.

RCGP Multidisciplinary Team Working Toolkit

Summary

Royal College of General Practitioners Multidisciplinary Team Working toolkit aims to support practices exploring how to develop their clinical teams and create a way of working that is better able to meet their population needs for both urgent and routine primary care.

This toolkit focuses on a number of key areas:

• demand and capacity
• determining optimal skill mix
• workforce design
• teamworking
• example roles

Guidance

This toolkit is intended for general practice and primary care teams who are thinking about introducing new clinicians into their multidisciplinary team and need some help and support. It is aimed at supporting GPs in clinical supervisor roles.

The toolkits top takeaways are:

• ask other professionals about their roles and professional backgrounds – if we don’t understand each other, it’s harder to work well together
• encourage teams to share insights into how the other services work – and make sure someone finds out any details no one is sure of
• don’t assume that others will have been kept up to speed with changes within the organisation – be proactive in checking that everyone understands new initiatives and structures
• incorporate some ‘socialising’ into multi-disciplinary team meetings. This helps to develop that vital personal connection. It will improve the effectiveness of working relationships

Within this toolkit you will also find links to other useful resources.

Links

To view the Royal College of General Practitioners Multidisciplinary Team Working toolkit, click here.

Health Education England Multi-Disciplinary Toolkit

Summary

The resource is a toolkit created by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to help healthcare professionals work effectively in multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) to improve patient care. The toolkit provides guidance on the roles and responsibilities of MDT members, workforce planning and design, effective communication, decision-making, and team dynamics. It also includes practical tools such as behaviour change models, guides on team effectiveness, e-learning programmes and a guide effective communication. The aim of the toolkit is to support the development of high-functioning MDTs that can provide the best possible care for patients.

Guidance

This resource will be particularly useful for NHS organisations currently doing workforce planning. The resources provided in this toolkit will mostly be of benefit to leaders; however line managers may also find some of the resources provided on communication and working across boundaries useful.

Links

To view the Health Education England Multi-Disciplinary Toolkit, click here.

The King’s Fund: The Health and Care Workforce

Summary

The King’s Fund: The Health and Care Workforce article discusses the challenges faced by the health and social care workforce in the UK. It highlights the shortage of workers in the sector and the need for more investment in workforce planning and development. The article also focuses on the issue of staff retention and suggests that the key to improving retention rates is to create a supportive and flexible working environment that values staff and provides them with opportunities for career development and training, as well as the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workforce and the need for policies and initiatives to address issues of discrimination and inequality.

Guidance

This resource is a useful quick read for NHS primary care leaders to understand the challenges facing the NHS workforce and the prevailing line of thought on solutions. It also highlights the reasons as to how multi-disciplinary teams can play a part in alleviating workforce pressures.

Links

To view the King’s Fund article on The Health and Care Workforce click here.

Supervision Guides

Summary

The supervision guidance for primary care network MDT teams breaks down the principles of supervision, best practices for supporting staff and guidance on training and developing the workforce. It begins by explaining what supervision is, why it is important, and who can provide it. The guidance then outlines the different types of supervision, such as clinical and managerial, and the benefits of each. It also provides recommendations for the frequency and duration of supervision sessions.

Guidance

This resource emphasizes the importance of confidentiality, the need for clear objectives, and the importance of feedback. It provides resources and tools that can be used to support effective supervision within PCN multidisciplinary teams.

Link

To view the supervision Guides, click here

Induction checklist

Summary

Properly inducting staff in primary care organizations is essential to ensure that new employees are able to adjust to their roles and responsibilities quickly and effectively. An induction process helps to provide new staff members with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform their duties efficiently, and it also helps them to understand the organization’s values, goals, and policies. The resource is an example template for an induction checklist for multidisciplinary team staff in general practice.

Guidance

The NHS has created an induction checklist for multidisciplinary team staff in general practice, which is essential for delivering high-quality care to patients. It ensures new staff members understand policies and procedures, their role, and responsibilities, as well as other team members’. The checklist also improves consistency in care delivery and provides a framework for ongoing development and training. Practices should ensure its completed by all new staff and reviewed regularly to maintain relevance and effectiveness.

Link

To access the induction checklist, click here.

Promoting multi-disciplinary teams

Summary

It is important to keep patients up to date with the latest changes in the health care system including the expanded patient-facing primary care roles. The NHS has several resources for promoting its role to patients.

Guidance

Promoting MDTs can help to raise awareness of the different healthcare professionals that are available to patients, this can help to shift patient mindsets from a GP first view of healthcare. We recommend you only focus on promoting roles available in your practice or Primary Care Network to avoid confusing patients with information about roles that do not exist in your local services. In addition to this, if you plan on grouping your MDT staff to create new local services, promoting these roles with other community providers like education providers, social care and community support can help increase your service uptake.

Links

To access the communications resources, use these links:

• Help us help you campaign: NHS General Practice Team ; includes assets highlighting the wider general practice team, including receptionists.
• Your general practice team toolkit; highlighting the wide range of healthcare professionals in primary care
• for more advice on using these resources visit the Communications for Primary Care Providers section: General practice teams – Help us help you campaign.
• you can also find guidance from Health Education England on promoting multi-disciplinary teams and additional roles here.

Health Education England Promoting New or Alternative Roles

Summary

The NHS additional roles are an important part of the new ways of working and delivering care part of the people’s promise. It is good practice for primary care organizations to promote their additional roles and multi-disciplinary teams because it can lead to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. Additional roles and multi-disciplinary teams allow for a more comprehensive and coordinated Approach to patient care, which can result in better management of chronic conditions and a reduction in hospital admissions.

You can use the Health Education England Promoting New or Alternative Roles resource on NHS futures to help you promote these roles.

Guidance

Promoting these roles and teams can help to address workforce shortages and improve recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals.   By highlighting the benefits of these resources, primary care organizations can better inform patients about what to expect in the healthcare system and demonstrate their commitment to providing high-quality, patient-centred care.

Links

To access the Health Education England Promoting New or Alternative Roles resource click here.

Case Study AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams

Summary

For an example of new ways of working and delivering care you can read the AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams Case Study.

Guidance

The AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams case study has examples of how peer organisations have implemented these AHP roles. You can use these to generate ideas about how you might implement these roles into your services. You can also use the resources in the roles explorer as part of your recruitment strategy and career marketing.

Links

To read the AHPs working differently: Integrated Community Care Teams Case Study click here.

Role Diversification