South-West London ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship opens for applications

Call out to NHS and local authority staff who are pioneering digital innovations within their SWL organisations.

Today, South-West London ICS and DigitalHealth.London open applications to the SWL ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme, supporting change makers employed by NHS and Local Authority organisations in South-West London to design and lead health and care transformation projects underpinned by digital innovation.

The Fellowship is designed to equipthe Fellows with new skills and knowledge, from building good business cases and using Agile as a project delivery technique, to structuring a good evaluation, and implementing change management principles. The programme is designed to connect fellows to like-minded peers, influencers in the system and people who can mentor them.

The South-West London ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship build’s on DigitalHealth.London’s Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme but is specifically for staff employed by NHS and Local Authority organisations in South West London.

The programme provides Fellows with the opportunity to be part of an action focused learning community focussed on accelerating the pace of digital transformation within their respective NHS organisations. The individuals taking part have access to workshops, resources and events throughout the year to share challenges and experience, learn from experts and collaborate to co-design solutions.

So far 112 individuals have taken part in the Digital Pioneer Fellowship programmes and all of their projects have led to improved patient care and/or experience either directly or indirectly. Over 10 million patients and 140,000 NHS and social care staff were estimated to be impacted by the projects of the 37 Fellows that took part in the third cohort of the Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme^*. 60% of Fellows on the third cohort reported a promotion, new job or secondment during the support and 80% could cite specific examples of positive gain from the network. Across the first three cohorts, 22% of projects accelerated their pace of adoption due to the Fellowship and 55 digital technologies have been adopted in total.

Matthew Laundy, Chief Clinical Information Officer, & Martin Ellis,  Chief Digital Information Officer, South-West London Integrated Care System said: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Health Innovation Network (HIN) to deliver South-West London Integrated Care System’s Digital Pioneer programme. 

This programme is the first of its type to be delivered at an integrated care system level. Our goal is to enhance digital leadership skills, facilitate health and care transformation, and establish a supportive and collaborative network throughout the region.

We are excited about the opportunities this collaboration will bring and look forward to working together to drive innovation and improve health and care outcomes for the people of South West London.”

Sara Nelson, Programme Director, DigitalHealth.London said: ““As a nurse with over 30 years of service to the NHS, I appreciate how challenging the changes brought about by technology can be if staff aren’t given the support, advice and time to develop the professional skills that they need. I am extremely proud of the individuals we have supported previously through our Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme for the contributions they have made to bringing digital innovations into London’s NHS to support patients and staff. We are very pleased to be partnering with South-West London ICS to be delivering a new Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme specifically focussing on the SWL patch – the inclusion of a truly ICB wide programme will, I think be a gamechanger.”

Samantha Mason, Health and Care Lead, South London Partnership, said: “Social care services are facing many challenges including supporting more people with more complex needs to live as safe and as independent lives as possible, having a sufficiently skilled and sustainable workforce and decreasing budgets. There is a huge opportunity for innovation to help tackle these challenges and the South-West London ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme is a fantastic initiative to support this innovation. The SWL ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship will help individuals working in social care and public health in local authorities across South West London to develop their innovations and share their learnings. I would encourage any individual working in a local authority on a health and care transformation project which includes a major digital element to apply to be part of the programme.”

For more information about the South-West London ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship programme, join a discussion with the team running the programme and some of the Fellows who have been supported previously on the South-West London ICS Digital Pioneer Fellowship 101 Webinar on Wednesday 17 May 10-11am: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkfu-trDotHNRNEPkRw5HRaj9xZ0pwzvaz