5 steps to make Integrated Neighbourhood Teams a success

As described in the Fuller Stocktake report, Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) are an effective way to improve health and tackle health inequalities at a local level. Through multi-disciplinary teams that cross the boundaries of traditional primary care, community care and social care, they also make strides to improve the patient experience while offering staff new and rewarding ways of working. 

So where do you begin in making them work for your region?

5 steps to setting up an INT 

While every INT will be different, this step-by-step framework creates strong foundations for a service that will run effectively for your patients, and for your staff.

Step 1: Listen 

Put together a listening exercise across all the organisations that deliver care, support and services in the relevant area – including primary care, community care, secondary care, social care, and the voluntary sector. You could send a survey, set up open forums or run focus groups with a representative from each provider. 

The goal is to understand everyone’s priorities and ideas for where the INT can be most useful. By involving others early, you not only make sure that your INT has the right focus, but that everyone is involved and invested. 

Step 2: Review results

Take a look through all the findings from your listening exercise to identify key themes or priorities. Then choose one problem or goal for your INT to focus on first. You might choose to prioritise one of the key needs described in the Fuller report: 

• Urgent care or same day demand for people who are generally well but get an acute illness

• Proactive, personalised  care for people with complex needs

• Preventative care

Step 3: Plan the service 

Once you have a clear objective for your INT, create an integrated stakeholder team with representatives from the relevant organisations and service providers. 

Together, learn more about the care needs and preferences of the relevant population group, and define the core functions you’ll need to deliver. 

Step 4: Create a workforce strategy 

Now you know what services you’ll need to deliver, think about the staff and skill mix required to deliver a safe and reliable integrated service:

• What roles will you need?
• How many of each role do you have available in the area?
• How will staffing your INT impact provision of existing services?  
• If you need extra staff to make the service feasible, how and where will you find them? 

Step 5: Put the right tools in place 

Once you know your staffing requirements and any obstacles you face, look for workforce solutions that can help you overcome them.

Beyond creating clarity around the rota, the right workforce management platform can improve visibility, enable flexible working across organisational boundaries, take on the burden of clinical governance, and solve staffing shortages.  For example, Lantum includes:

• A rota tool combined with a staff bank so you can bring all your staff together on one platform

• Clinical governance document checks and staff ‘passporting’ so you can deploy staff between organisations effortlessly

• The UK’s largest network for locums, ready to fill your shifts when your staff bank can’t, more cost-effectively than agencies

• Reporting dashboards to give you a full picture of staffing across the INT and region 

Whatever solution you choose, this will be the foundation for running your INT successfully, without adding unnecessary stress and administrative work. 

Once you’ve hit the ground running with your first INT service, you can repeat the steps to build further teams within your INT – steadily expanding the functions, and the positive impact on your population's health. 

Learn more about Integrated Neighbourhood Teams with Dr Steve Laitner’s guide to the focus, functions and forms of INTs, or find out more about Lantum’s workforce management platform here.