News

In the nation's critically important race to get as many eligible patients vaccinated against COVID-19 as possible, local collaboration and team working between all COVID-19 vaccination sites is now of the highest priority.

One good example of how community pharmacy and Primary Care Network (PCN) vaccination sites can cooperate effectively comes from Bishop Auckland in County Durham.

Peter Horrocks and team members from Knights Pharmacy (photo credit: Knights Pharmacy)

A collaborative model has been developed between the pharmacy site, which is part of the Knights Pharmacy group, and the general practices in Bishop Auckland that are running the PCN vaccination site.

The team-working commenced from the point the pharmacy site was selected by NHS England and NHS Improvement, with the regional team organising a call between the pharmacy and PCN leads to discuss how a collaborative approach to working could be put in place.

The agreed model involves the pharmacy splitting planned clinic days between the National Booking System (NBS) and the PCN, so the general practices can directly book some of their patients into the pharmacy site slots. The initial focus was on helping the practices maximise the number of clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) patients that could be vaccinated.

The PCN and pharmacy site have also coordinated the timings of their vaccination sessions at the weekends to try to avoid patient confusion as to which site is operating at any one time. Both these approaches have helped maximise vaccinations at both sites and avoid patients double booking appointments.

Peter Horrocks and team members from Knights Pharmacy (photo credit: Knights Pharmacy)

Peter Horrocks, Superintendent Pharmacist at Knights Pharmacy explained:

"The first week the pharmacy site was operating, the appointments all booked up quickly via the NBS, but by the second week, bookings filled up more slowly. We also found that some patients were travelling a significant distance to get vaccinated and the pharmacy team wanted to make sure local patients were also getting the chance to be vaccinated within their community.

"Once we agreed a plan with the PCN and regional team to remove some booking slots from the NBS, the practice teams very quickly filled the appointment slots with CEV patients. After two clinics were successfully run for the general practice booked patients, we agreed with the practices and the PCN to continue this approach."

(From an article on psnc.org.uk, February 18 2021)

ICW Member Peter Walmsley wins 2020 Travel Photographer of the Year title in Colours of Life category With a photo of Bangalore flower market

WINNER: Colours of Life - Peter Walmsley, UK

Winner's Biography

Peter Walmsley first became interested in photography through his chemistry teacher who ran an after-school club. He struggled with film for many years until a whole new world of image creation opened up, with the arrival of digital cameras. He joined a local camera club where the combination of supportive learning and regular competitions helped him to improve and gain various photographic qualifications. He subsequently became a judge in the Southern Counties Photographic Federation.

Peter earns his living as a civil servant, helping to deliver aid projects to developing countries. This aligns with a significant interest in foreign travel, particularly to east and south east Asia, which led in turn to an interest in street photography as a means to capture local culture as seen through daily life.

First latest publication, entitled 'Transitioning from Risk to Resilience', delivered in partnership with Fusion Risk Management Inc. and with contributions from a number of experts. The onslaught of the devasting impact of the pandemic, together with the global effects of climate change, has clearly shown that the traditional enterprise risk management models based on analysis of historical trends are no longer valid in isolation. Agile adaptation to changing circumstances in a new enterprise resilient management model is now required for organizational survival and success.

Download here

ICW Chief Executive Claire Ward was the guest speaker at the Special General Meeting of the Employment Related Services Association. The meeting took place virtually on 11th December and was an opportunity to present the work of the ICW to an organisation where its members are seeing more need for collaboration and collaborative working. The membership of ERSA work across much of the public sector where commissioning is increasingly focussing on collaborative working.

This year's ICW Collaboration Awards, held at the Lansdowne Club in London and streamed live internationally, provided a great opportunity to share some of the great examples of collaborative working in action. Particularly in times of crisis we see how organisations pulling together can overcome many challenges. We are delighted to congratulate all those organisations short listed and to share the list of winners.

Industry Award: Babcock Devonport Dockyard
Supply Chain Award: Sellafield Limited
Public Sector Award: Wiltshire Highways Services
Defence and Security Award: RAF Hades Technical Support
Covid-19 Response Award: Babcock UK - Devon Air Ambulance
Third Sector Award: ATOS - ANTZ
Infrastructure Award: Area 9 SRN Alliance
Service Sector Award: MOD Modus Services
Social Impact/Sustainability Award: DIO - AMEY Defence
Chairman's Pathfinder Award: EDAROTH - Lambeth Council
Collaborative Leadership Award: Odilon Serrano

Video and further details available shortly.

ICW is pleased to have been able to work with the Cabinet Office and industry partners in the development of the Construction Playbook. This innovative policy document marks a significant step forward in supporting government departments and agencies to harness the power of collaborative working with industry to deliver better outcomes and value for money. We look forward to working with the Cabinet office to support its implementation.

Download the Construction Playbook here

ICW will be moving on the 1st December to a new address.

Our new address will be:

Evergreen House North
Grafton Place
Euston
London NW1 2DX

Telephone (Main number): 0203 691 1530

It is with sadness that ICW has heard of the sudden death of Bev Waugh.

Bev served for many years on the ICW Management Board as the Atkins representative. David Hawkins paid this tribute to Bev...

"I had many interesting and valuable sessions with Bev, and her strong support for the ICW was always appreciated. She was a super strong character with a brilliant mind that contributed a great deal to the Atkins-ICW community."

We send our heartfelt condolences on behalf of all the ICW community to her family, friends, and colleagues.

On 7–10 September 2020, ICW successfully ran its first classroom-based Leaders Course since the Covid-19 lockdown in March.

With an emphasis on safety, we have to give a massive thank you to our hosts at Scarmen Conference Centre, Warwick, for ensuring the strictest levels of cleanliness, social distancing and availability of PPE. All delegates have expressed their appreciation for the many steps taken to ensure social distancing and the highest levels of sanitation and cleanliness throughout their stay.

On the course itself we welcomed delegates from public and private sector organisations. Benefitting from cross learning, and the unique material of the course, we are pleased to say all delegates successfully passed our testing requirements and will be invited to become members of ICW.

Equipped with new skills, perspectives and contacts, they will return to their respective organisations to play leading roles in the effective adoption of collaborative working. We at ICW will follow their collaborative journeys with interest!