Ask anyone who works in healthcare if there are improvements they could make, and you’ll immediately be given ideas without them having to think too hard. But actually putting these ideas into action is where the challenge begins.

People Powered Results’ 100 Day Challenge seeks to pull these ideas from people working on the front line in health and social care settings and give them the tools and support to get cracking.

September saw the launch of two 100 Day Challenges in Greater Manchester, an area already well known for it’s forward thinking and innovation. The two localities of Bolton, and Tameside and Glossop have posed themselves challenging questions to explore and experiment with over the 100 Days, both ultimately asking how we can put people at the centre of their care.

It builds on the vision laid out in the Greater Manchester Population Health Plan, and draws on the learning from national programmes such as Realising the Value and Integrated Personal Commissioning, bringing them to life and making them real.

The launches brought together Senior Leadership, Managers and frontline teams from the two localities. Combining people from primary and secondary care, voluntary sector, social care and people with lived experience, the teams have chosen to improve the care for frail people over the age of 65, people who are approaching the end of their life and people who are at risk of developing diabetes.

Teams were encouraged by their sponsors to be creative, think bold and work together rapidly, comparing relationships during the journey to a formula 1 pitstop, also representing their current situation as Gollum…! Highlighting that sometimes organisations can be protective and having a need to let go of ‘my precious’ in order to work with communities and people more effectively.

From this, ambitious goals (not targets) were set by the teams, that are intended to stretch the teams and help them be ambitious and creative which included; Reducing unplanned admissions of those on the frailty index in their areas by 60%, Seeing an improvement in at least one lifestyle measure for 75% people coded as pre-diabetic within neighbourhood Practices and ensuring 100% of people on the Gold Standard Framework for End of life care have a conversation about what matters to them.

Everyone quickly jumped into networking with one another, taking part in exercises to think outside the box, generate ideas that will support person centred care planning, neighbourhood working, self management/healthy lifestyle choices and combining non clinical and clinical resources for the future. Teams pulled these ideas into actionable work plans for the first 30 days, and key relationships were built, to make their transition into the 100 days as smooth as possible.

So what next? Motivation is high and the teams are ready to get going with developing and testing their ideas - with coaching support from the People Powered Results team and local coaches, as well as Sponsors and leaders who have given the team's permission to work differently with others and communities and are on hand to unblock barriers if needed. The health and social care world is now their oyster, and it’s time to be creative and test out their new ideas. All the teams understand there is a lot of work to do, but they are excited to see the impact it has on the people they are working with.

People Powered Result’s 100 day challenges work with multi-disciplinary, cross system teams to improve quality of care within their specialisms over 100 days through a rapid testing programme. Since its beginning, the People Powered Results team have spread their wings all over the country, working with teams from Stockton-on-Tees to Somerset, West Essex to Stockport and many places in between.

We cannot wait to catch up on days 25 and 50 to see how their 100 Day Challenge journeys are progressing. Watch this space!

Images credit: Polly Redfern