Multidisciplinary Team Working toolkit
Expanding practice teams brings the opportunity to embed new skills into primary care, widens the range of services offered by general practice and works towards resolving some of the challenges currently faced in primary care.
Teamworking
When starting to think about how you approach team building and team development it may be helpful to think about this in two ways:
- What do practice leaders need to do to foster a sense of team? For example, through team meetings and protected time for development
- How do we make sure that there are opportunities for career progression and development for all new practice team staff?
The style of leadership that best suits each multidisciplinary team will vary. The NHS Leadership Academy has developed a leadership model that has prompts to help leaders in a traditional organisation or network. The Leadership Centre has produced a guide on system change through Leadership.
You can approach your local at scale providers, for example, federations, acute hospital trusts to support you with finding solutions for these questions.
Where to start
- Does the team have a clear purpose?
- Does the existing team understand what any newly introduced roles will do, their roles and responsibilities?
- How do you build a high performing team with shared responsibilities for patient care?
- How to ensure members working across multiple practices/primary care networks feel a sense of belonging?
- What impact can you expect from the introduction of new roles and the wider team?
- How will you monitor patient safety and quality of care?
- What indicators might you choose?
- What will be the impact on prescribing activity, A&E attendances & admissions and, first outpatient referrals?
- How to use technology and digital tools to improve team working and delivering care?
- How will you actively manage the change process?
Communication
- How do patients see the new roles integrating into the team? Do they have any concerns and how will you address these concerns?
- How will you make sure that patients are signposted to the most appropriate member of the team?
- How will you communicate effectively as a team? What support tools might you use?
Person-centred Care and Continuity
- How do you transition from a more single GP approach to care to team based care?
- What will the impact be on continuity and coordination of care?
- How do you promote self-care in the new way of working?
Learning and Support
- How do you build an effective learning platform to span the needs of the team and support integrated working with other healthcare professionals outside of your organisation?
- How will indemnity work?
- How will the new roles be supervised and who will review their training needs?