Workforce Assurance Portal

1. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training Slides updated: 18 April 2012

2. Training Agenda

3. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.1 Introduction and Objectives

4. Training Welcome • The Workforce Assurance Portal • The Workforce Assurance Portal is a web-based, decision support portal designed to help organisations consider and review potential areas of workforce risk, making use of a wide variety of data, in a structured manner. • This training will provide users with a basic understanding of the purpose and benefits of the system, along with a basic understanding of how to use the system including how to: • log in; • navigate within the system; • understand / interpret the information being provided; • perform analysis; and • communicate using the portal’s built-in tools, and; • An awareness of where extra materials, and help pages are located.

5. Training Benefits • What are the advantages? • A systematic approach across trusts • Forward looking and historic analysis • A statistically robust underpinning • Analysis of correlations between metrics • Built-in communication system • This enables you to: • Provide a tool and legacy for trusts so that they can self-assure and pre-emptively respond to concerns of assurers • Call on robust evidence and analysis as support for key decision making • Take a more integrated approach to assurance activities (looking across activity, finance, quality and workforce) • Create and drive top table discussions • Change the nature of assurance engagement with Trust Boards and Management Teams • Justify decisions

6. Pre reading Summary of the tool • Purpose of the tool • As a decision supporting tool rather than a decision making tool • To be flexible for use in a range of current methods and processes for assurance in each region • To build on current data, and reduce manual input in interpreting this. • Architecture • What is visible and not visible to the end user in terms of the processes the tool runs. • Actively managed- meaning new data is uploaded, and updates can be made to the tool • 3 types of users • Trust Manager • Regional Manager • Administrator (centrally located) • 3 areas of the tool • My Analysis- data analysis, and ability to view metrics and their data sources in more detail • My Actions- 6 areas, this is where can review and create threads, notes, qualitative indicators and logs, upload plans, and review all flagged or red metrics. • My Resources- Forums, supporting materials, help sections • Components of the tool • Assurance framework, and the 4 assurance groups • Metric, thresholds and indicators • Scores, weighting and aggregation

7. Training: pre-read The Workforce Assurance Portal The key components that people use within the portal are illustrated in the table below: Workforce Assurance Portal My Qualitative Indicators My Plans My Assurance Logs My Flags My Threads My Notes My Actions My Analysis My Resources Help Regional Dashboard Supporting Materials Community Organisation Dashboard Data Sources FAQ Metric Dashboard Workforce Dictionary

8. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.2 My Analysis

9. Training Objectives • Objectives • After this section you should be able to: • Navigate around the Regional Dashboard map to view different trusts • Use the assurance cheeses to compare trusts’ performance at a high level • Move from the Regional Dashboard to the Organisation Dashboard • Navigate through the four assurance groups, expanding their respective trigger groups • Select specific metrics and cycle through to the metric dashboard • Compare and correlate metrics • Use the metric dashboard to analyse a metrics performance and utilise the supporting information tab that highlights it’s five key areas • Tasks • Individually follow through the worked example and complete exercises • Outcomes • You are now able to: • Competently navigate through the Organisation and Metric dashboard • Identify and select metrics and understand how they are performing

10. Training Navigation • Main Menu Bar • My analysis – map and quick links bar • My actions – assurance logs, threads, qualitative indicators, notes, flags and plans • My resources – navigate here for references • Administration – navigate here to manage data, dimensions, relationships, calculations, users, indicators, metrics, ETL and manage dashboards. Note this will only appear on the main menu bar if the user has an admin account • Quick Links Bar • Export to Excel • New log entry • New thread • New qual indicator • New note • Links to commonly used functions within the Portal Main Menu Bar Quick Links Bar

11. Training Regional Dashboard • The Regional Dashboard is visible only by Regional Managers • This screen contains a map with an assurance cheese for each trust within a region. • Clicking on an assurance cheese opens the Organisational Summary Panel which provides an overview of key metrics and information relating to a particular trust • There are links on the Organisational Summary Panel which take you to the Organisation Dashboard • You only see this screen when logged in as a Regional Manager The organisation summary panel shows a selection of key indicators for the trust Clicking on the assurance ‘cheese’ opens an Organisation summary panel The section at the bottom of the Organisational Summary Panel provides quick links to the organisation dashboard and actions

12. Training Organisation Dashboard • The Organisation Dashboard contains metric scores for each metric applicable to a trust. • There are a number of options for controlling the data used to populate the Organisation Dashboard: • Option 1: Org: • Allows filtering by trust • Option 4: View • Now • 3 Month Forecast • 12 Month Forecast • Option 3: Scoring • Raw scores: no weighting or quality adjustment • Adjusted: for data quality but not weighted • Weighted: adjusted for weighting and quality Option 2: As of: Allows you to view the dashboard as at the end of previous months, going back to March 2010

13. Training Worked Example 1 - Navigating Regional and Organisation Dashboards As Regional Manager you want to ensure the number of nurses are at a satisfactory level in your trusts. To do so we shall now through to the metric level of the Organisation Dashboard, looking specifically at : Select an Acute Trust from the organisation filter and then click go Expand the ‘Organisational Workforce Profile’ group by pressing the ‘+’ button adjacent to it. Expand the ‘Workforce’ Trigger Group Expand the Trigger ‘’. You can now see the Metrics within this trigger and their scores. You can minimise any expanded item by pressing the ‘-’ button beside it Select the metric ‘’. This takes you to the metric dashboard

14. Worked Example 1 - Navigating Regional and Organisation Dashboards

15. Training Exercise - Using the Organisation Dashboard • You’ll now have five minutes to complete the following exercises: • A trust has initiated a strategic plan incorporating a number of initiatives to reduce the number of Type 1 A&E Attendances for the year 2011-2012. In your role as regional manager review the effects of these initiatives on the number of Type 1 A&E attendances. • Find the metric ‘A&E attendances – type 1’ under the ‘Organisational Workforce Profile’ assurance group and ‘Activity’ trigger and note the score • Now find the corresponding metrics in the Assurance of Plan and Assurance Against Plan assurance groups and observe how the trust is performing against its plan and against its previous performance. • In the Organisation Dashboard change from default view to weighted and then adjusted and observe how this alters the scores for the metrics. • From the Organisation Dashboard, click ‘View My Flags’ to see all the worst performing metrics within the trust. • NB: Refer back to previous slides for assistance in navigation

16. Exercise - Using the Organisation Dashboard

17. Training Metric Dashboard - Explanation • By clicking through to the Metric Dashboard from the Regional Dashboard, you are presented with the following information. • For a given metric you can refine your search by organisation, date and scoring method (raw, adjusted or weighted) this will control what you see in the following three areas of the Metric Dashboard: • The Metric Performance Bar shows the name of the metric, its raw, weighted and adjusted scores and its value • The Trend Over Time bar allows the user to view the metric value for the past, present and future (forecasted values) • The Supporting Information Tab provides five tabs of further information on the metric, we’ll see more about this on the following slide • Note for users: • The metrics visible are dependent upon the peer group (i.e. an acute trust will be compared to fellow acute trusts) • Navigating to different parts of the portal e.g. tabs on the metric dashboard, can take more time dependent upon the request, as some queries involve more processing than others

18. Training Metric Dashboard - Supporting Information • There are five tabs of Supporting Information contained in the Metric Dashboard. • Overview – Contains a description of the metric, the calculation used to generate the metric and the indicators and value which go into the calculation • Perfvs Thresholds - This tells you the level of risk associated with each metric and how it has performed over the last 12 months. This provides an early warning so preventative steps can be taken • Perfvs Peers - This shows how the metric is currently performing against other organisations in the same peer group. You can change the peer group comparison by selecting the drop down menu. This tab also contains historic and forecast performance against other organisations. There is a spreadsheet in the My Resources section that shows the Metric to Peer Group mapping • Indicator Analysis - This shows the user which indicators have been used in the metric. Individual indicators can be viewed on their own, in turn, as either graphs or tables. Indicator analysis helps users locate the source of problems by providing more basic data making up metrics. • Source Data Analysis - This shows where, specifically, the data for each indicator has come from (e.g. ESR database). Data sources can be accessed from ‘My Resources’ on the Main Menu bar. Some metrics have ‘linked metrics’ and in this tab you can find descriptions of the data correlations used in the forecasting process for these indicators. ‘Sickness absence – trust’ provides a case in point. • Forecast - This area gives the user more detail on the forecasted adjusted, raw and weighted scores. It allows the user to view the Current, 3M forecast and 12M forecast simultaneously all on one page • .

19. Training: pre-read The Assurance Map • The Workforce Assurance map breaks down each of the assurance categories to a series of trigger groups, triggers and metrics. • Assurance categories: The four assurance categories described previously. • Trigger groups: a collection of similar assurance triggers e.g. workforce or finance that fit within these assurance categories • Triggers: a collection of similar metrics / indicators that can be seen as a natural group e.g. Staff Turnover or Cost Improvement • Metrics: individual, national, local and bespoke metrics on workforce, quality, safety, finance, activity, etc. Strategic Assurance Categories Trigger Groups Triggers Detailed Metrics

20. Training My Actions Module wrap up My Flags My Notes My Threads • In this module, you have learnt : • Some of the basics about the portal and its uses • How to log in to the portal • How to navigate the Regional and Organisation Dashboards • How to view the Metric Dashboard and the information that it contains about metrics and indicators My Analysis My Resources My Plans My Qualitative Indicators Help Regional Dashboard My Assurance Logs Supporting Materials Community Organisation Dashboard Data Sources FAQ Metric Dashboard Workforce Dictionary Community • Your thoughts: • How well do you feel you understand the process of navigating the dashboards? • How confident are you with what each area of the Metric Dashboard shows?

21. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.3 My Actions

22. Training Objectives • Objectives • For you to be able to: • Navigate the ‘My Actions’ section of the portal and understand what each of the following functions does • My threads • My assurance logs • My notes • My plans • My flags • Qualitative Indicators • Task • Follow the steps of the worked example to enable you to raise a communication thread about a metric • Outcomes • You are now able to: • Understand and make use of the My Actions area of the portal

23. Training Navigating My Actions The My Actions page allows users to engage with and add to the Portal in a number of different ways

24. Training My Actions Viewing My Flags My Flags My Notes My Flags shows a report of the metrics within an organisation that are red or flagged. This enables you to focus on areas of highest potential risk and can be exported as a report in excel or pdf and printed. To view this report go to My Actions Click on View my flags Select an organisation and date, and click Go This should show a report of the areas of highest risk within the organisation you have selected. To export this, click on one of the buttons on the toolbar as before. You can also view your flags by clicking the link on the organisation My Threads My Plans My Qualitative Indicators My Assurance Logs

25. Exercise - Viewing My Flags

26. Training My Actions Adding a ‘new note’ My Flags Creating a new note acts as a formal record of thoughts or an action taken, so serves as an internal audit tool. We will proceed to create a new note in regards to the uploading of a new plan to the portal, with a view to review its effects: To create a new note click on ‘New note’ on the Quick Links Menu In the ‘title field’ add You can add a fuller description in the ‘description’ field Once you have saved a ‘New note’ you can view it by clicking on ‘My Actions’ and clicking on ‘View My Notes’ This same process can be followed for creating a new Log or Thread. My Notes My Threads My Plans My Qualitative Indicators My Assurance Logs

27. Exercise - Adding a ‘new note’

28. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.4 Starting and viewing Threads

29. Training My Actions Worked Example 2 – Communication of issue metric My Flags • As Regional Manager you want to assure a trust is not running at full capacity thereby potentially affecting patient care. • Locate the metric Bed Occupancy (day) under the Organisational Workforce Profile Assurance Group. • View the details of the metric in the Metric Dashboard, observe that the metric is flagged (red) • If you wished to communicate with the trust and enquire about the value of this metric, then at this juncture you can follow one of two paths: • You can export the data about the metric from the tool and use your pre-existing communication methods to highlight the issue to an appropriate colleague at the trust in question for them to follow up. (e.g. Via phone, in person or by email) • Or you can use the built in communication ability in the portal to highlight the issue. We shall now see how to do this if you choose this option. • Clicking ‘New thread’ allows a Regional Manager to communicate with the responsible person(s) at the trust • Return to the metric we have highlighted an issue with and click on ‘New thread’ My Notes My Threads My Plans My Qualitative Indicators My Assurance Logs 29

30. Training Worked Example 2 – Communication of issue metric 6a. A new thread pop up box will appear on screen. Fill in the form as described below. • Add ‘Bed Occupancy (day) – Issue’ as the Action Name • Set the Priority of the communication as ‘Important’ • Set the status as ‘In Progress’ • Use scroll down list to select T01 – Acute Trust 01 • Select ‘Request’ for the Action Type • Select date for completion using the pop up calendar • For ‘Recipient Organisation’ scroll down the list till you find Trust X and then ensure it is highlighted in blue. Once this is done click ‘Add’.

31. Training Worked Example 2 – Communication of issue metric • 6b. Continue filling in the fields for the my thread • Set the Recipient Role as ‘Trust Manager’ • Scroll down the Metric(s) Flagged list locating ‘Beds Occupied (day)’. When the correct metric is highlighted in blue click add to move it to the right-hand box • You can add a fuller description of the issue in the description field • Clicking save once all fields are completed will send the communication thread to the specified recipient

32. Worked Example 2 – Communication of issue metric

33. Training Viewing My Threads Changing user account We now need to log out of the Regional Manager account and back in as a Trust Manager so that we can view the communication we raised in Worked Example 2 and what actions we can take as a result. Sign out from the Regional manager using the menu in the top right of the portal Close the Internet Explorer window Open a new instance of Internet Explorer and Navigate to the same URL as before: https://wfatrain.westmidlands.nhs.uk Log in using the Trust Manager account provided

34. Training Worked Example 3 - Viewing a thread We will now pick up the communication we raised as Regional Manager: Click on ‘My Actions’ in the Main Menu bar Click on ‘View my threads’ under the My Threads menu On screen will be your incoming threads i.e. inbox Select the thread with the title you entered earlier as Regional Manager You will now see the thread displayed on screen including details of recipients, linked metrics and a thread history From this account you can edit the details of the thread and update the status to show the issue has been dealt with

35. Worked Example 3 - Viewing a thread

36. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.5 Uploading a plan

37. Training My Actions Plan Data My Flags My Notes • Use of plans in the portal • As you have seen earlier, plan data can be added to the portal and used for assurance of the plans developed • At the beginning of the plan year, users can upload plans, view the assurance of plan metrics and as a result highlight areas where their plans need refined • Users can go through an iterative process to build balanced, sensible and achievable plans by re-uploading plans and observing the effects • The most recent upload of plan data will be the information that is used on the WFA portal. So this means plans can be overwritten when a new plan is uploaded • If a plan is uploaded with unpopulated cells, then the WFA portal will retain the data that was in previously uploaded plans for this information • During the year, they will then be measured against the final plans they upload in the Assurance Against Plan metrics My Threads My Plans My Qualitative Indicators My Assurance Logs

38. Training Worked Example 4 - Uploading a plan We will now go through the steps involved in uploading a plan: Ensure you are logged in as a Trust Manager Click on ‘My Actions’ in the Main Menu Bar Under ‘My Plans’ click on ‘Download plan template’ You will see the option to choose between multi-trust and single trust templates, choose single-trust templates Three templates will be displayed: activity, finance and workforce From the list choose ‘Activity Template’ and an Excel Spreadsheet will automatically load in a new window View the template spreadsheet To upload a plan, you would fill this sheet and then navigate back to the portal and in My Actions, click ‘Upload Plan’ under My Plans Make sure to add the 3 digit trust code down the left hand side of the template, and follow the instructions on the first tab regarding where to put numbers for one year or 4 quarters, rather than monthly data. The filename must be correct in order for the tool to pick it up in the correct places on the tool. Ensure the filename matches the convention on the right. Click ‘Add Document’ and browse to the plan file then click ‘OK’ Naming Plan Templates Plan_Activity_XXX Plan_Workforce_XXX Plan_Finance_XXX QXX_Plan_Workforce_Multi

39. Worked Example 4 - Uploading a plan

40. Training Uploading a plan Things to remember when uploading a plan: The grey rows represent totals, so you can add higher level data in these rows if you don’t have the detailed information for the rows below these All information must be added as a number, so if you copy or use vlookup, you must copy and paste special for these values You have a number of options for the frequency of data, either monthly, where you need to fill in every month, or quarterly, where you must only fill columns for April, July, October and January, or annually, filling only March Empty cells are not the same as 0, only enter a value of 0 into a cell if this is the value, if you do not have a figure to include, leave it blank Plan_Activity_XXX Plan_Workforce_XXX Plan_Finance_XXX QXX_Plan_Workforce_Multi Finally, it is important to save the template with the correct name, as the system uses this to know where to put your data. For single trust templates, the XXX is your trust code, for multi trust templates, the QXX is your SHA code. If you need to upload a second plan, you can add a number at the end

41. Uploading a plan

42. Training My Actions My Plans My Flags My Notes • Also in My Plans • Users can view the indicator values of their plan data as a list from the ‘View My plan Data’ link. This gives the indicator value for the organisation for a specific month • Users can also view the real values for metrics in their organisation by selecting ‘View My Plan Scores • Select the appropriate choices from the filters and then click ‘Go’ to generate the report featuring real values • Notice this report shows values for Yr1 to yr5 My Threads My Plans My Qualitative Indicators My Assurance Logs

43. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.6 Qualitative Indicators

44. Training My Actions Objectives My Flags My Notes • Objectives • For you to: • Understand what a qualitative indicator is • Navigate to the qualitative indicator page on the Portal • Add a qualitative indicator • Appreciate potential issues surrounding qualitative indicators • Task • Consider what are appropriate qualitative indicators to add and proceed to upload one to the portal • Outcomes • You are now able to: • Understand and make use of the qualitative indicators functionality in the portal My Threads My Plans My Qualitative Indicators My Assurance Logs

45. Training Qualitative Indicators: What is a qualitative indicator? • An indicator is a basic piece of data which gets used in the creation of metrics e.g. the number of beds in a hospital. There are two main types of indicator, quantitative and qualitative: • Quantitative Indicators • Based on numbers, often takes on numerical form • Can be measured/counted • Example: number of beds in a hospital • Qualitative Indicators • Useful information that is not in numerical form • Difficult to quantify/assign a value to • Example: the level of positive or negative press a hospital has received • Adding a new Qualitative Indicator • Clicking on the ‘New Qualitative Indicator’ link will send you to the qualitative indicator page • A ‘New Qualitative Indicator’ can also be added directly from the quick links menu • View my Qualitative Indicators (in My Actions) displays a list of all the indicators that have been entered and the data relating to each (title, critical flag, weighting, score, applies from/to, organisation, QI type, QI subtype)

46. Training Worked Example 5 - Adding a Qualitative Indicator • Fill in each of the following sections to create your own Qualitative Indicator • Title – Provide a title which will be displayed in the QI Assurance Group • Flag Critical - Option to flag as a critical metric • Weighting – Indicates level of importance (5=most important) • Score – Apply the score you feel represents the trust’s current performance in this area • Applies From/To • Organisation – Which trust does this apply to? • QI Type – Choose from: • Publicity • Governance • Major Changes • Sustainability • QI Subtype – Choose the relevant subtype

47. Worked Example 5 - Adding a Qualitative Indicator

48. Training Qualitative Indicators: Potential issues • The qualitative indicator function on the Portal works in theory. In practice, however, there are a number of potential • issues surrounding the use of qualitative indicators which should be understood if the function is to have the desired • outcome: • There will be no score for the ‘qualitative indicator’ assurance group unless qualitative indicators are first added by a user • You must be signed in as a Regional Manager to add qualitative indicators • Qualitative indicators by their very nature are fairly subjective. Not every regional manager would input the same options for a given scenario. There are also decisions to be made on the weighting of an indicator, for example, or when it applies from and to? • There may also be a tendency to focus on inputting negative indicators and ignoring positive indicators • Trust users can view the metric and the score, but are not able to view all of the data related to a qualitative indicator • In light of these issues it is important to consider proper use of the qualitative indicator function. This includes • inputting the right types of indicator and aiming for consistency across entries.

49. Training My Actions Module wrap up My Flags My Notes My Threads • In the last 3 modules, you have: • Been given an overview of the My Actions section of the portal • Had the functions which can be performed within the portal explained • Successfully made use of the My Threads function • Added a new note, and viewed your notes • Viewed my flags report, and are aware it can be exported in 2 forms. • Added a qualitative indicator, and are aware of the uses for this, and what to be careful of in creating these. • Downloaded a plan template, and understand the importance of naming the plan correctly, and which fields need to be filled in before upload. My Analysis My Resources My Plans My Qualitative Indicators Help Regional Dashboard My Assurance Logs Supporting Materials Community Organisation Dashboard Data Sources FAQ Metric Dashboard Workforce Dictionary Community

50. Workforce Assurance Portal WAP Training 1.7 My Resources