4. Developing your project plan
At this point, you need to develop a detailed plan to take you through the project step by step.
As the project facilitator, your job is to set the timeline and make sure everything runs on track. You need to make sure clinical staff and others are involved at the right level, so that individuals do not get too bogged down in the detail. You might be a project worker, or this project might form one element of your day job. Either way, you will need protected time to oversee and direct the filming and editing of staff and patient interviews. For more information about time required, see the sample project timeline. It is important that in your usual role or day job you do not work directly alongside staff taking part in the project, as you need to be objective – particularly when it comes to interviewing and observation.
An important task is to clarify the roles of those involved in the project. You need a key senior person who is really enthusiastic and influential to agree to lead and be accountable for this piece of work. You may need to turn to them when improvement ideas touch on areas outside the responsibility of the staff who are participating in the project. You must also develop a project working group, which will involve key members of staff from the service and their management team, so that you do not overload clinical staff with details of project organisation.
Key points
- Follow good project management principles – particularly in engaging stakeholders. For detailed advice on how to run a project, see the NHS Institute project management guide.
- When working out the project timescales, think about how well the patients are. If you’re working with patients who are likely to be unwell, you may need a shorter timeline. To give you an idea of a realistic timeline for a project, see the example project timeline. For more flexible approaches, and other ways of managing the project, see section 15: Adapting the approach to your budget.
- For any staff event, agree dates well in advance, at a time when people tend to be able to meet. For the staff feedback event, allow at least two hours, and for the joint patient-staff event, at least three hours.
- In our experience, the ideal amount of notice to give patients was two weeks. Any less might mean that fewer people are able to attend – but any more can also lead to reduced attendance, as other plans take precedence.
- Book the venues well in advance. Make sure you have thought through arrangements for food, accessibility, transport and clear signposting. Try to achieve an atmosphere that is not too formal or clinical but that is sufficiently professional for staff to take it seriously.
- Offer travel expenses, refreshments and a small payment to thank the patient for their time and effort.
- Plan the co-design groups at a regular time, so people can plan around them.
- Because experience-based co-design is a service-improvement approach, you do not need to seek research ethics approval. However, it is advisable to notify your local research ethics committee and follow your organisation’s clinical governance and information governance procedures particularly regarding patient confidentiality and informed consent. (For more information, see the Department of Health Confidentiality Code of Practice and the Royal College of Nursing’s informed consent in health and social care research).
- If you are involving external people in undertaking some of the work with you – for example, the interviews – you may need to meet internal policies in the NHS, such as setting up honorary contracts through local R&D departments. These are likely to require Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks, which can take 6-12 weeks. Make sure you have enough time for these to be processed.