Health Education England's CIO James Freed looks at the need to learn faster and govern smarter in the digital age.

1. Digital Culture at the Board
James Freed, CIO, Health Education England
Programme Director, Building a Digital Ready Workforce
@jamesfreed5

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Reference: The Lord Darzi Review
of Health and Care: Interim report,
April 2018

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We need to be here

5. www.england.nhs.uk
BDRW on a slide
WIDENING DIGITAL
PARTICIPATION DIGITAL LITERACY
CE
O
Nurs
e
Dr
AHP
Social
Worke
r
Patient/
Citizen
CHANGE
• Culture
• Assurance
• Future
focus
CHANGE
• Empowerment
• Staff development
• Changing attitudes
CHANGE
• Staff development
• User needs
• Service
• Sharing and listening
Non-
clinicia
n
Local health/
care
organisation(s)
CI
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Informaticia
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@NHS_HealthEdEng @jamesfreed5 #DigitalReady

6. What do leaders think of ‘Digital’?
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“Why can’t people working in Informatics Services just explain
things more simply? …teach them to try and be ‘can do’ and
to speak like a Yorkshire man to a Yorkshire man! ”
“Despite being Chair of my
local STP I find it hard to
champion the use of
technology in how we meet
and collaborate across our
area. Usability and reliability is
key as I always have the fear
that the technology won’t
work.”
“I see a few cases where Health
CEOs are lauded for their
success in adopting new Health
Technologies, but many more who
have lost their jobs when things
haven’t gone to plan”
“There is a sense it is
one of the solutions and
the NHS is not
embracing the digital
age but Chairs don’t
understand how – it is a
world of mystery.”

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8. What is a digital organisation?
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People
• Planning for the future
• Culture (openness, experimentation, sharing and social power)
• Staff capabilities
• Focus on user’s needs
Process
• Processes need to be fast, integrated, light and meet users’ needs
Technology
• Risks are understood and assurance is received (cyber/ GDPR)
• Tech is scalable, interoperable, flexible, fixable, resilient and fit-for-purpose

9. …prototype resource for boards
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10. • Lancashire and South Cumbria STP
• Second and third sites in Leeds and Staffordshire
• Two sessions minimum
• First session: develop a consensus on what digital means to the
board
• Second session: develop an action plan based on shared priorities
• Sessions designed to provide awareness,
capture imagination and build a narrative.
…and a prototype implementation
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11. The first session
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“You made us have a conversation we wouldn’t have had”

12. • Distribution of briefing papers in advance resulted in board members getting up
the knowledge curve, and offer a resource for future board engagement
• Co-design and delivery with the host board ensures that the organisation has its
finger print on the process and does not feel ‘done to’; it also ensures the
transfer of knowledge and profile raising of the technology specialists with the
board
• The design that was tailored to trust issues worked well, and ensured that the
interactive discussion was well grounded in trust-specific issues
• It is helpful to have independent facilitation of the interactive session, and this
resource can be developed by means of ‘training the trainer’
• Direct involvement of the Chief Information Officer and Chief Clinical Information
Officer helped build relationships, trust and a shared passion and understanding
for what has been done and the future direction
• This model is not proven for primary care and social care
Midpoint results
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13. Digital Leadership = Leadership
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Thank you
James Freed
james.freed@hee.nhs.uk
@jamesfreed5
With special thanks to:
John Deffenbaugh
Declan Hadley
Manda Thornton
Bruce Elliot
Maeve Black
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS
Trust
Lancashire Care NHS Foundation
Trust