Together We Are Stronger – Galvanising a Cross-Sector Partnership to Deliver the UK Vision Strategy

Jenny Pearce, Chief Executive Vista & Chairman of the Vision Strategy Group for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland

Aims:  To share Vista’s experience of leading local implementation of the UK Vision Strategy (UKVS) through multi-agency partnership  To comment on opportunities, pitfalls and barriers to partnership working  To summarise actions to date & issues identified  To reflect on key learning points

Introducing Vista:  Local society - Improving lives for people with sight loss  Services across the sight loss pathway  Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland – 6,000 people on register

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland  Three local authorities (2 unitary and one 3-tier council with 7 districts)  Two Primary Care Trusts  One Hospital Trust  Vista spans all three local authorities

UK Vision Strategy _ A fantastic opportunity for partnership working – but implementation through partnership is a daunting prospect

… it is clear the future holds great opportunities. It also holds pitfalls. The trick will be to avoid the pitfalls, seize the opportunities, and get back home by six o'clock. ~ Woody Allen 1980

Opportunities:  Coordinated inter-agency responses  clear pathways  better services = better reablement & autonomy  Better relationships across agencies  prevention of avoidable sight loss  Improved cost effectiveness

Pitfalls and barriers:  Different languages and culture  Different targets  Shared decision making is difficult  All plan and no action  Visually impaired people not heard  Limited resources & capacity  Momentum lost (must get home by 6 o’clock!)

UK Vision Strategy – what an opportunity for Vista!  Helping us to meet the needs of visually impaired people better  Leading the way locally  Improving working relations across agencies

But - Challenges for Vista:  How to influence the decision makers?  How to achieve buy-in & ownership?  How to keep up the momentum?  Points mean prizes – but resources are limited!  Capacity at strategic level very limited

What did we do?  Presentation to decision making Programme Board – commitment given  Strategic event planned (not a launch)  Local authority strategic leaders encouraged to come to event... Came as partners, not guests – fully funded the event

Strategic Event  Invited strategic leads across all sectors  What’s in it for them?  Excited them with the vision  Gave them a task (spread the word)  Fed them !!  Set up steering group for conference

Operational Conference  Multi-agency steering group led by Vista  What’s in it for them? – clear outcomes  Jointly funded  Devolved work (not always successful!)  Not just for health and social care  Continued with footwork to raise profile  Kept Programme Board up to date

Aim of Conference (not a launch) To ensure that promotion of eye health, prevention of sight loss & supports to enable inclusion & independence for people with sight loss are embedded into the workplans of all relevant departments & organisations across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland

The 3 priorities:  Promoting eye health  Preventing avoidable sight loss  Supporting inclusion & independence for people with sight loss Simple, clear messages

Conference Programme  High level speakers, but also …  Visually impaired person /carer/ DVD  Networking with visually impaired people – what do they want & need?  Displays  Action planning central to the event  A start, not an end – say what happens next

Sir Winston Churchill - November 1942 “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Vision Strategy Group  Good initial buy-in – they were keen! (but ongoing involvement needs ongoing encouragement)  Linked into LSPs and Personalisation Boards  Setting strategic action plan – not another strategy  Vista still leading the process

Action Planning:  Key strategic areas arising from UKVS mapped against NIs & England Implementation Plan  WCC guidance ‘Improving Eye Health Services’  Mapped activity & identified gaps  3 interlinked plans – health, children, adult social care

Progress  Children’s plan virtually completed  Partnership across 3 health trusts & Local Optometric Committee implementing WCC guidance  Priorities identified for Adult Social Care (3 local authorities + Vista) Target for all – end of 2009

Initial Actions:  10,000 leaflets distributed across early years settings to encourage parents to take children for eye tests. Further leaflet programmes planned; seeking ways for optometrists to collect evidence of effectiveness

Initial Actions (cont’d)  Initial plans for job fair for disabled people, with major focus on people with sight loss  Grant awarded to take eye health awareness into rural areas  Dep’t of Health grant application for Vision Strategy Partnership Manager

 Initial Actions (cont’d)  Leicester City ‘STOP Smoking’ campaign focussed on smoke free eyes & risks to sight posed by smoking  Campaign to have an Ophthalmology clinic in Rutland is gaining support

Issues:  Current data collection against NIs does not identify visual impairment - evidence hard to identify  Strategic leadership needed across agencies to maintain progress – eg across 3 separate health trusts  Responsibility delegated down too low – risk of diverting VSG into operational activity before priorities agreed

Issues (cont’d) - England Implementation Plan (EIP):  EIP not linked with NIs  EIP does not reflect local priorities  EIP focussed on outputs, not outcomes  No reporting mechanism to feed back progress against EIP to England Implementation Group

Meanwhile, at Vista …  Reference Group formed, to link in with and respond to VSG  Broadcasting good news messages locally and nationally  Strategic Review

Strategic Review  Repositioning Vista with focus on wider sight loss, prevention and awareness raising  Helping Vista to continue as leading provider to people with sight loss in the area  UKVS is a vehicle for delivering Vista’s strategy

Main learning points re local action:  Partnership is vital  Need a Champion  Influence the decision makers  What’s in it for them?  Links to existing priorities & targets - LSP/ LAA / NIs / WCC  Embed Vision Strategy aims into existing work plans

Main Learning Points (cont’d)  Action plan, not another strategy  Agree targets  Responsibility and accountability - shared plan for embedding, roll-out and monitoring  Keep the momentum going!  Lots of hard work – but it’s worth it!  … and it won’t be done by 6 o’clock!!

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. Peter Drucker

Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. Plan more than you can do, then do it. anon

Good luck!