Introduction - Strategic Leadership and Innovation Assignment

The Northwest London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB), together with its local extension, Brent ICB, is established as part of the NHS's structural reforms to improve integration and efficiency in healthcare delivery, we are tasked with a monumental responsibility to guarantee that health and social care services are properly managed and the delivery of these services is smooth, and can meet the various needs of our local population.

We have approximately 350 GP Practices across 8 London Boroughs, Brent, Central London, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Harrow, and West London. that work in and across 45Primary Care Networks (PCNs) with 2,883,481 Registered patients. Our patient population is diverse both culturally and socially.

The Board's strategic direction is dictated by its priorities such as access to healthcare, improving health outcomes of patients, preventing ill health, enhancing productivity and value for money and ensures the survival of services in the face of the changing healthcare needs and economic constraints.

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Part A: Critical analysis

Strategic Direction, Creation of Vision and Purpose

In NW London ICB consists of stakeholders such as Primary Care, Community services, Acute sector, Community Mental Health Team and Voluntary Sector that are working together for better health and care for our residents, delivering our vision and objectives through our boroughs and programmes, underpinned by our values.

NWL ICB Objectives

• Improve outcomes in population health and healthcare
• Prevent ill-health and tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience, access to care
• Enhance productivity and value for money
• Support broader economic and social development

NWL ICB Values

• Empowered communities
• Always inclusive
• Growing together
• Driving innovation
• Mutually accountable

In order for the ICB to meet its objectives and statutory functions, whilst achieving the financial requirements from NHS England to support the release of the funds for frontline care, we will need to consider whether some of the work that we have held to date in the ICB is best placed somewhere else within the ICS going forward. This raised the need for local verses central team strategies working as a coordinated ICS of 8 place-based partnerships that Brent is one of them.

Documentation and Communication of the strategic instructions

Our vision is to improve people’s life expectancy and quality of life, reduce inequalities and achieve health outcomes on a par with the best global cities, to achieve this we need to work as a coordinated ICS of 8 borough/ place-based partnerships

• Place-based partnerships are central to the delivery of change and improvement within the ICS.
• A place-based partnership is more than the ICB team, bringing together partners from across NHS, the council and voluntary sector to provide support and capacity.
• Where change has to be delivered at borough level, the ICB programme teams and corporate functions will align around place partnership leadership to develop the common-core offer across North West London. Where change has to be delivered at system or provider level, the ICB programme teams and corporate functions will align around provider collaborative leadership to develop the common-core offer across North West London.
• This way of working will ensure greater alignment between place, system and providers, reduce duplication and ensure a greater focus on delivery.

Senior leaders use the strategic direction, vision and purpose

If we more clearly define our priorities from our strategy and planning process, some functions and activities carried out by the ICB may be more effectively led and co-ordinated by partner organisations and not by the ICB

For example, could Same Day Emergency Care be better managed by acute provider collaborative and London Ambulance Service?

Global and horizon scanning perspectives

NWL ICB measures the company’s strategic plans against international standards because competition is nationally with other ICBs in the country Horizon scanning guarantees that the board remains informed about challenges in health and technology in other ICBs in England , which enables it to always consider the future in implementation of its strategies to meet national targets and be ahead of the game.

Decision-Making

Leaders enact the strategic framework to support decision-making that reflects the Northwest London ICB's priorities and values. The most effective senior leaders are those who can communicate the organisation's values such as strategic direction, goal/purpose and vision in a compelling manner that motivates everyone (Gandrita, 2023). Using this I as a leader of Brent ICB run a network of regular in-house communication, which stops the staff from being drawn into strategic developments, and their parts in it. I also as co-chair of the Brent councils health and wellbeing Board representing ICB as its public face in public forums and media appearances. In addition, to help decision making I collaborate with other stakeholders who also provide the ICB with additional resources and as leader I do play the role of advocates of the organisation's vision and strategic mission.

Communication and Engagement

The most effective senior leaders are those who can communicate the organisation's values such as strategic direction, goal/purpose and vision in a compelling manner that motivates everyone (Gandrita, 2023). With having this in mind we run in-house communication, and public facing forums and media appearances (Odesola et al., 2024). In addition, we had away days to impact our system partners and help us to engage with them on ICB proposals.

We want to ensure that our ICB of the future is best organised to meet the needs of North West London Integrated Care System and the constituent borough partnerships

In particular there were 3 key areas on which we welcomed focussed discussions:

We have identified some activities that the ICB currently carries out, that we believe would be better undertaken by partners to potentially reduce duplication and more effectively meet the needs of our residents and support the system.

Leadership by Example

As a leader my main strategy is to stand by our organisational values and speak the truth (Jutai et al., 2024). I believe in bottom-up approach of leadership with great transparency and trust rather than top-down approach at all times.

Transformational leadership Theory:

The traits of transformational leadership include encouraging and motivating subordinates creating a collaborative and innovative atmosphere and spearheading constructive organizational transformation.

Important analysis point:

Motivation and inspiration

Following the reorganization, a smaller work culture has to be inspired and encouraged by my leadership to accomplish a similar strategic objective. A captivating vision is communicated by transformational leaders who always make sure that employees relate to the objective of the company on a personal label (Deng et al., 2022). Through these, I can evaluate how well I have communicated the ICB’s goal to keep employees inspired even in the face of workforce reductions.

Encouragement of creativity becomes essential in this limited setting. My bottom-up initiative compliments the creative spirit of a transformative leader by involving employees in innovation and problem-solving.

Tailored approach:

Followers of transformational leaders receive guidance and assistance from them. It is crucial to make sure that every member reaches their maximum potential when there are fewer employees (Asbari, 2020). Assessing the quality of training opportunities for professional growth and support offered during the post-restructure stage will permit me to determine whether or not the group's overall performance has grown.

It is possible to present a thorough examination of how decision development procedure and leadership have changed according to the restructuring of ICB by using the transformation leadership model. A deeper understanding of how leadership philosophies foster creativity teamwork and efficient decision development in a context with limited resources is made possible by this approach. This framework aids in illustrating how my strategic leadership position in conjunction with my bottom-up initiative creates an adaptable and robust corporation culture hence enabling NW London ICB to achieve its long-term objectives.

Encouragement of Innovation and Continuing Development

Innovation and continuous improvement are promoted across the Northwest London ICB by those leading it that facilitate training and development opportunities that in a way remain in line with the goals of the top strategy (Höglund et al., 2018).

We aim to

Train: Grow the workforce - Sustainable workforce-

Retain: Embed the right culture and improve retention

Reform: Working and training differently

• Increasing Multi professional Education across our networks
• Increasing the number of Educators across all professions
• Uniformity and greater understanding of the ARRS roles and what they bring to practices
• Peer working – attending the multi professional development sessions.
• Leadership
• Our priorities are aligned with the NWL ICB Primary Care Strategy plan and the wider NHSE plan.

Crisis Management

Capacity

31% of our GPs are over 55, potentially a significant loss over the next 5 years. There are around 106 single handed practices that struggle to provide the range of services required in modern general practices.

Estates

Lack of estates with adequate room/ floor space to provide the number of roles in Primary Care helps to deliver new models of care. Fewer fit for purpose premises. This also has an impact on the number of learners / placements.

Lack of space on estates has also meant access for appointments and new roles ARRS and others are unable to do the role to full efficiency they may be able to.

IT

IT equipment and correct patient assessment equipment in rooms, such as diagnostic machines or patient beds.

Funding

The training hubs receive a limited amount of funding for various projects. Most additional funding is through bid writing. This makes it difficult to fund ongoing elements to projects that continue beyond the original plan.

Macro-Economic Context

Table 1: PESTLE analysis

(Source: Self-developed)

Analysis:

In the political aspect, the cutback in funding for the Northwest London ICB reviews weaknesses in government baking that could endanger the stability of the operation. This has been made worse by the effect of Brexit on staffing which has complicated procurement procedures and decreased labour diversity. Along with that from an economic perspective, the significant drop in GDP as well as the rise in inflammation could put high stress on the investment and lead to improvement in strategic performance that aided in the reorganization. However, due to the ageing professionals' work environment and growing Healthcare requirements, there is a severe labour shortage in the social sector that could hinder service supply. Digital health equipment adaptation at the time of the pandemic needs to be appropriately evaluated for sustainability maintenance in common practices.

Micro-Economic Context

Table 2: SWOT analysis

(Source: Self-developed)

Analysis:

The collaborative healthcare system encourages team performance and permits a collaborative approach to provide adequate services despite staffing and budgetary constraints. By employing this teamwork, team flexibility along with durability can be increased. However, the lack of resources emphasizes the requirement of giving priority to important initiatives over minimum important ones. This reactive method feeds comprehensive treatment in jeopardy and increases the risk of vulnerable populations particularly those people who have limited online literacy. Adopting cutting-edge technology like Telemedicine and AI can recast patient introduction while simultaneously increasing efficiency. However, putting this into practice would require careful planning. Uncertain funding makes proactive risk control necessary and rising Healthcare costs highlight the pressing need for creative ways to improve service sustainability and capacity.

Industry and Market Trends

The health care industry experiences the effect of a complex influence coming from those three most important technological, demographic, and economic factors. Technology is a driving force in the healthcare sector, manifested by the upgrading of digital health records, access to telemedicine, and employing artificial intelligence in diagnostics. In this way, healthcare will become more embraced and convenient (Campbell and editor, 2023).

Demographics are changing due to the aging population in the UK, and thus, the calls for health services, especially to prepare for chronic diseases and old care, are shifting (Marr, 2023). Among the most conspicuous phenomena in the healthcare industry, the swift and unprecedented progress of technology is clearly observable. Telehealth, artificial intelligence, and digital health records have changed how doctors and patients interact with each other, and consequently, the way the care is given. NWL ICB has to think about the ways of using these technologies to improve the patient care, increase the accessibility and to make operational efficiency better. For instance, using AI for such purposes as predictive analytics can be beneficial in the case of chronic diseases as it can predict the outbreaks and thus, help to take the action in advance.

Economically, the Northwest London ICB suffers from shortages of public finance and the management of maintaining overall quality of care, alongside budget restrictions that prevent the Northwest London ICB from implementing its vision (Gov.uk, 2022). The issue of population ageing is part of the Northwest London ICB's strategic plan, which entails constant rocking forth and back of cost efficiency and high care standards.

Customer and Stakeholder Demands

Patients and other stakeholders need high-quality and output service delivery, faster healthcare services, and, otherwise, more transparency in treatment processes (Laurisz et al., 2023). Personalised healthcare has raised expectations for healthcare based on a specific individual’s health data (Laurisz et al., 2023). The role of patients in caring for themselves is increasingly emphasized, due to which patients are more involved and informed in their care decisions. Besides, the use of wearable health devices and apps, which are the tools that the patients use themselves to manage their health, has increased. NWL ICB should think of ways on how to get in touch with these more reactive patients and incorporate patient-generated health data on the care plans.

Resources and Capabilities

Human Resources: The Northwest London ICB amongst the largest employing institutions in the world constitutes a manifold workforce incorporating, inter alia, doctors, nurses, medical specialists, and administrative staff. Skilled healthcare professionals make the provision of services within the Northwest London ICB a praise-worthy trait such that the Northwest London ICB can now offer a lot of services (Brice and Almond, 2020). Regardless, staffing shortages, which are often in nursing and general practice, are the crucial issue for this area. There are usually, overworked staffs or when the patient is affected by the compromised care.

Physical Resources: The Northwest London ICB is a networked system across the nation of UK that incorporates hospitals, clinics and specific care centres. The underlying physical platform allows it a nationwide deliverability (Brice and Almond, 2020). On the one hand, multiple elderly care homes are out of date or in a bad shape. If that gives problems in providing services and good management, the care process can be screwed up.

Technological Capabilities: The Northwest London ICB, though, has taken the technology integration to a different level of importance with the development of the Northwest London ICB App and electronic patient records (Allison et al., 2020). On the one hand, the palatability of the organization's digital experience, which has been provided with the last generation's technical instruments in some areas, may be uneven across the organization, which simply means that not all areas in the organization are equipped with technological tools that can enhance diagnostic and treatment capabilities.

Financial Resources: As a publicly funded entity, the Northwest London ICB's budget is something big but its still can be changed on the basis of the decision or policy made by the government (Frasquilho et al., 2023). Having financial deficits would overshadow the organization and they would not be able to modernize the equipment, acquire new technologies or employ any additional staff to deal with the high pressure of demand.

Dynamics and Missing Capabilities

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Northwest London ICB proved to be very dynamic in its ability to respond to public health emergencies and coordinate its resources to the areas of need which shows its range of capabilities (Underwood, 2024). The org was fast by adapting itself to unpredictable and high demands (Underwood, 2024). It proved to be flexible and a leader in overcoming every difficulty that it was faced with.

Further, there are shortcomings in proficiency generally and in information management and data analysing which are the building blocks for a reliable healthcare delivery and personalized medicine (Gifford et al., 2021). The existence of this problem inevitably leads to inefficient services, which in turn leads to inconsistent care. Moreover, the Northwest London ICB should intensify the development of its facilities in the areas of primary care and prevention of diseases in order to cut down on future healthcare spending and achieve better community health goals (Gifford et al., 2021).

Alignment of business units to the large scale strategy

Northwest London ICB organization is designed to make a single system out of various departments, among which the primary care services are just an example, and to make the central concept of the coverage‘s mission of providing healthy care for everybody accessible (Maniatopoulos et al., 2020). Being a component in the general hospital, the community health centre or simply the mental health trust, each unit's actions are bound by the wide ideals of the Northwest London ICB which include improving patients' health status, making doctors work as efficiently and as effectively as possible and the moderate controlling of budget (Gee and Cooke, 2018).

Strategic objectives are disseminated by means of regional bodies and the trusts’ structures at the local level, which, in turn, have the capacity to implement those strategies in an acceptable manner that addresses different localities (Oulton et al., 2021). This framework has the virtue that the national strategy gets adjusted to the local conditions so there could be a successful application of the strategy wherever it is used which a critical issue is given the diversity in different parts of the UK.

Systems Approach to Implementation of Valuability

The Northwest London ICB uses the systems approach in healthcare and, this refers to a coordination of services in different levels of care (Lanford et al., 2021). Therefore, primary care workers will be able to communicate directly with hospitals and specialized clinics to help patients to get permanent medical care. This follows an integrated approach that helps in caring for patients more in a manner that is holistic rather than fragmented care (Lanford et al., 2021). This is healthy for the patient and cost saving for the system as a whole.

It is therefore sometimes the case that the performance of mixed systems between regions differ greatly (Lanford et al., 2021). A systems approach in healthcare means that all the parts of the healthcare system are connected, such as primary care, secondary care, community services, and specialist treatments. Through the identification of these interdependencies, NWL ICB can restructure the patient pathways, increase the allocation of resources, and in the final analysis, it will be the overall health of the patients that will be better. This way the ICB gets to the strategic direction, vision, and purpose of which all the activities of ICB will be mutually reinforcing and aligned.

Organizational Structure and Strategy Implementation

The organizational structure of the Northwest London ICB, characterised by a tiered system of governance from Northwest London ICB England down to local trusts, is both a strength and a potential hindrance (Bukoye and Abdulrahman, 2022). A certain characteristic of the systems approach is the fact that it is a process based on improvement. This means that the company regularly reviews its processes, outcomes, and practices to find inefficiencies or to identify the areas that can be changed in order to achieve better health outcomes. Initiatives like quality improvement projects and innovation hubs will be the driving force of the cumulative improvement of the ICB.

Strengths

This layout provides for targeted healthcare delivery that could take the form of various interventions engineered to satisfy the different needs of the residents in the designated community.

This approach permits focus on specific types of care and patient groups by empowering specialized teams, which brings about experts in fields such as mental health and chronic disease management.

Weaknesses

The organization size and structure complicate the processes and cause the organization to incur much bureaucratic inefficiency and be too slow to make decision (Bukoye and Abdulrahman, 2022).

Differences in the way strategies are conducted across multiple trusts engender remnants of standards of service when compared to others.

Hindrances

A strong hierarchical structure can lead to an absence of innovation and flexibility. Local municipalities might be smaller and more limited in their power to make favourable decisions, which could decrease their competitiveness.

The main problem with a central funding system similar to that is that it can be very time-consuming to make the necessary changes in these types of systems when perceptions are with their speed.

Business model canvas

Table 3: Business model canvas

(Source: Self-developed)

Organizational Culture and Values

The Northwest London ICB's setting of the goals that is based on its culture and values is in the core of its strategic planning, vision and mission. In line with its mission, the Organization aims to show care, respect and understanding, consistency with its view of support all (Scobie and Castle‐Clarke, 2019). Health institutes competence that displays in its vision of equitable health care through its value proposition of accessible and comprehensive health care.

While the appliance of strategy involves each and every aspect at a large scale and across various diversities, the task of keeping the cultural climate of the organizational body along the strategic routes may turn out to be difficult (Scobie and Castle‐Clarke, 2019). A strong culture that is in tune with the personal values of an employee can greatly boost his or her level of participation and happiness at work. The staff are more likely to feel attached to their jobs and be ready to achieve the organization’s goals, thus, the turnover and production are reduced and enhanced. Values are the guide that leads the staff from any level to make decisions that are in line with the strategic goals of the ICB. This coordination guarantees that even the decisions that are made at a lower level also contribute to the main objectives. Healthcare is a constantly growing field, thus, it is very important to have a resilient and adaptable culture. Instance of values such as innovation and flexibility that can give back to the staff during their transition period, thus, making them accept new technologies, processes, or strategies. The culture affects the standard of care that is given. For instance, a culture that appreciates the patient-centred care devises and carries out the services to be able to satisfy the particular demands and choices of the community. Outside, the culture and values of NWL ICB are the main reasons for its negative reputation among patients, partners, and the wider society. A culture that is clearly shown to be positive can increase trust and at the same time will draw partners and funding (Scobie and Castle‐Clarke, 2019).

Clear mission significance:

A Well-defined mission is essential for establishing aim and unity among stakeholders and workers by directing them toward a shared goal.

Shaping the mission:

In order to effectively create the mission engages fundamental stakeholders in collaborative discussions to improve it such as workers, leadership and clients. By participating it helps to make sure that this mission is to be understood by the people it affects. The long-term objectives and vision of the corporation should also be reflected in the mission statement. In order to ensure that the purpose remains relevant and significant in leading the business it must also be flexible enough to transform in reaction to outside events such as swift in the market after reorganization.

Value and culture significance:

Interaction and productivity among workers are all greatly increased by an adequate corporate culture. Leaders need to create an excellent role model for other workers to lead them by modelling the ideal values via their decisions and efforts to effectively shape this culture. Employees are adequately able to comprehend what is important in the corporation when expected behaviour is constantly communicated. This also supports cultural norms. Establishing an appropriate feedback setting also promotes teamwork by giving the worker a platform to express their opinion on the project and transform linked to culture (Akpa, 2021). This success of the corporation is ultimately driven by this inclusive strategy that also motivates staff and enhances corporation culture.

Part B: Recommendations

Enhance Digital Transformation

To ensure that the Northwest London ICB goes through the development journey driven by technologies, an integrated strategy should be devised (Price, Green and Suhomlinova, 2018). This includes having a plan which details the hierarchy of the digitalization targets and setting a defined start and endpoint for each effort. As such, digital infrastructure investments, such as internet connection facilities, as well as data storage and security are necessary for the creation of an environment enabling uninterrupted communication and data exchange. Furthermore, training of healthcare providers and workers, patients, and caregivers healthily on top of digital platform and tools is imperative to ensure the systematic use of digital tools (Sheikh et al., 2021). Providing wider telemedicine services, there is a need to integrate AI and data analytics systems, and building digital tools that are patient-centered are the most significant elements of the change (Price, Green and Suhomlinova, 2018). Coordination of efforts with the market segments boosts the creation of unique digital tools matching the needs of Northwest London ICB. Regular monitoring and the pursuit of innovation are a cornerstone of a successful strategy in order to avoid problems and to implement improvements. Through such a development, Northwest London ICB enables the digitizing system to optimize the health care service and to realize greater patient outcomes.

Strengthen Workforce Capabilities

A number of options of boosting workforce skills within the Northwest London ICB system are aimed at ensuring the availability of the necessary staff (Jones et al., 2018). First and foremost, funding continuous professional development courses for healthcare professionals is mandatory. Such programs should hence center on expanding clinical skills, keeping abreast of the latest innovations in biomedical research and medicine as well as the development of more effective soft skills such as communication and teamwork.

On the other hand, combating staff lack through special recruitment drives and retention programmes takes a toll (Jones et al., 2018). As an institution, we plan for the development of our human resources by making sure that staff have competitive salaries and benefits, opportunities for career advancement and specialization and providing a vibrant work environment that supports work-life balance and staff wellbeing.

Another dimension is creating and cultivating and an innovational learning culture within the organization that affirms creativity and problem-solving among healthcare professionals. Enabling staff to undergo training on introducing new technologies and processes, as well as promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration are the methods that can help us in development of our staff capabilities (Jones et al., 2018). Acknowledging and rewarding the employees with the original ideas is also a way to support innovative work.

Standardise Quality of Care

Standardizing the clinical practices accross the Northwest London ICB requires a well thought out plan including creating evidence based clinical guidelines and protocols defining optimal approach to diagnosis, treatment and patient management (McLachlan et al., 2020). Such directives should rather be updated from time to time so to consider the emerging trends in the health-care industry. Moreover, the quality standards and the performance indicators must be formulated and used to measure and audit the delivered care of different settings of healthcare. This encompasses approaches related to the outcomes related to patients, safety, efficiency and experience by patients (McLachlan et al., 2020). Frequent inspections and quality control procedures need to be implemented periodically in order to verify with the standards and the isolated parts for the improvement if there is any. Moreover, generating a quality improvement culture and providing continuing education and assistance to the healthcare workers can help build a continuous engagement towards rendering superior care routinely (McLachlan et al., 2020). Implementing Standardizing the clinical practices at the Northwest London ICB (National Health Service) leads to a universal standardisation of care quality, which guarantees fairness and equal access to secure, efficient, and patient-oriented health services for everyone.

Foster a Culture of Innovation and Continuous Improvement

The sustainability of innovation and improvement plans within the Northwest London ICB that rests on creating a culture of innovation and permanent improvements can be achieved by designing an environment where people are supported in creativity, experimenting, and learning (Arora et al., 2021). This can be executed by setting up special innovation bureaus or departments that will be directed to investigate and apply the new approaches to technology. Promoting interdepartmental collaborative work and integration among different professional groups, such as departments and specialists, can expose the system to various viewpoints, which could spark innovation. On the other side, ensure that the staff has everything they need to achieve innovative projects with readily available resources like funding programs, training classes, and the ability to build relations with mentorship and coaching (Arora et al., 2021). Apart from that, acknowledging and making a festive event out of successful projects and technologies that were promoted can definitely help staff members stay motivated to be more inventive and look for better approaches to solving issues. Furthermore, collecting comments from patients, frontline workers, and other stakeholders through certain channels gives an opportunity to detect problematic areas of work and streamline the activities (Arora et al., 2021). Through creating an environment that respects innovation and consistent improvements, the Northwest London ICB can develop it according to emerging healthcare requirements, produce better outcomes for patients, and get success in organizing the services.

Kotter's 8-step change model:

Kotter suggests that transformation has both a situational and emotional component and approach for controlling individuals expressed in the following 8-step model.

Developing urgency: This step helps to explain how budget cuts and staff reductions have forced a digital transition (Kotter, 2013).

Building a guiding team: In order to spearhead the transformation need to put together a varied take holder group that includes management, IT and healthcare personnel.

Creating a vision:

Clear definition will help to understand, how digital equipment can improve operational performance and patient care in the vision for change.

Communicating for buy-in:

There is need to disseminate the vision along with its advantages to every employee using a variety of platforms including workshops, newsletters and meetings.

Enabling action: need to give employees the tools and training they need to successfully utilize digital tools.

Creating short-term wins: Put into action pilot programs that so results write away such a rise in a telemedicine consultation (The University of Edinburgh, 2020).

Don't let up: There is a need to expand digital approaches and promote wider uses through the use of a successful pilot program

Making it stick: Additionally, acknowledgement and reward digital creativity will help to make sure that entire digitalization get ingrained in the culture of the company (Simon Bell, 2022).

Part C: Reflection

As I think about the ideas for improving digital work within the Northwest London ICB, as well as upskilling the workforce, standardizing quality of care, and nurturing a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, they all seem to be standing together adversely and fundamentally important to bring the change within the healthcare system.

With each step I take to enhance the horizon of digital transformations, I gain an awareness of its ability to augment efficiency, accessibility, and dilemmas of patients. I think by providing digital medical infrastructure and encouraging people to have digital health literacy, the Northwest London ICB might use technology to improve the way they deliver healthcare and outline the healthcare needs of the people and stakeholders involved.

Given the fact of stable work to sustain work force capability, I find the importance of health care professional in this noble work, of course, can not be undermined. The provision of ongoing training and development programs to staff is critical, along with solutions to the staff shortage paradox and collective impetus to innovate established practices is essential to the successful functioning of the modern healthcare system.

A must for quality of care becomes normality in healthcare policy delivery. Affirming the approach through emerging evidence-based guidelines, and quality assurance systems will ensure uniformity, safety and effectiveness. Through tracking the performance indicators and ingraining the concept of constant adaptation in the Northwest London ICB work culture, it is possible to develop favorable results and improve patients’ experiences.

Our Vision is to increase awareness and develop a sustainable workforce in our GP practices and PCNs within Primary Care, increase the number of Multi professionals and GPs coming into practices whilst working alongside our NWL ICS teams, HEIs, NHSE.

NWL practices will maximise the opportunities of digital technology to drive operational efficiency, engage and communicate with patients, manage patient care and support delivery at scale. In order to support our teams with their Educational training needs to expand and explore through various formats - listening to feedback, forums, and clinical settings. There is need to increase awareness of the borough multi professional development peer review group and to hold annual conference. There is also need to increase the number of apprenticeships across all clinical domains/ roles where possible.

Knowledge:

Organisational Mission, Culture, and Values (K1):

The top management makes sure that the strategic objective gets implemented every day at the operational level throughout all the departments and services or provides (Martins, 2020). It comprises tying operational planning to the main goals and strategies of the Northwest London ICB to allocate resources that are critical for achieving those goals and objectives, such as providing better care for patients, increasing accessibility, and making the required investments in medical research (Unger et al., 2020).

Global and horizon scanning perspectives

NWL ICB measures the company’s strategic plans against international standards because competition is global; adopting the Swedish and Japanese health care systems helps the company deliver better care services and improve patient satisfaction (Tampubolon and Purba, 2021). Horizon scanning guarantees that the board remains informed about new challenges in health and technology, which enables it to always consider the future in implementation of its strategies.

Organisation Structures, Business Modelling, and Governance (K2.1-K2.6):

The organizational structure of the Northwest London ICB, characterised by a tiered system of governance from Northwest London ICB England down to local trusts, is both a strength and a potential hindrance (Bukoye and Abdulrahman, 2022). A certain characteristic of the systems approach is the fact that it is a process based on improvement. This means that the company regularly reviews its processes, outcomes, and practices to find inefficiencies or to identify the areas that can be changed in order to achieve better health outcomes. Initiatives like quality improvement projects and innovation hubs will be the driving force of the cumulative improvement of the ICB.

Diversity, Global Perspectives, and Horizon Scanning (K2.3, K2.4):

Strategic objectives are disseminated by means of regional bodies and the trusts’ structures at the local level, which, in turn, have the capacity to implement those strategies in an acceptable manner that addresses different localities (Oulton et al., 2021). This framework has the virtue that the national strategy gets adjusted to the local conditions so there could be a successful application of the strategy wherever it is used which is a critical issue given the diversity in different parts of the UK.

Skills:

Crisis Response and Risk Management (S5):

The following are the strategic points that Brent Integrated Care Board (ICB) should incorporate as mechanisms of handling crises and risks. This involves identifying channels of formal and informal communication to seek early and effective intervention from the local healthcare providers and other health care organizations. For real time progress and administration of health care services, enhanced health care information technology ought to be implemented in a fashion that allows enhanced efficiency in health data exchange. Furthermore, a risk should be taken periodically with associated risk checklists to determine possible weaknesses and prepare contingency plans (Smith, 2020). Continuing training and educational efforts to emphasize awareness of crisis management skills for the team will guarantee preparedness so as to maintain strength and stability in their delivery of care during emergencies.

Procurement and Supply Chain Management (S12):

As the centre of healthcare delivery, Brent ICB should align sustainable procurement and supply chain management practices to boost its performance with green practices. This entails making sustainable procurement decisions like patronizing local suppliers to cut down on carbon-emitting transportation and utilizing money on sustainable business ventures. The purchasing policies should focus on building long-term relationships with suppliers regarding sustainable solutions, thereby achieving credible and noncorrupt supply networks (Arora et al., 2020). A wide variety of advanced technologies has been developed to be used to increase the transparency and efficiency of the supply chain management in order to help in the simplification and reduction of wastage in the procurement processes and the overall optimization of the use of resources. Therefore, it is possible to argue that, by incorporating sustainability in procurement and supply chain concepts, Brent ICB can support more extensive environmental objectives without negatively impacting the level of compassion it offers.

Leadership and Influence (S17.1, S17.2):

Another important factor is the leadership of Brent ICB that influences the implementation of strategic proposals. The proposed actions stress the ways the management can monitor and control various teams and enhance leadership and constructive cooperation across Matrix organizational structures (Jerab and Mabrouk, 2023). This entails sustaining communication with local medical facilities, social institutions, and colleagues focused on similar objectives at a higher organization level. It is critical for leaders to possess a vision that they must articulate and empower people towards realizing specific objectives. Through influence they are able to promote integration, as well as coordination in the delivery of healthcare in organizations, apart from promoting alignment to mission of an organization. Thus, this approach benefits the team, fosters better contracts and collaboration and has a positive impact on the outcomes for the patients.

Workforce Optimization and Development (S18.1, S18.2):

Specifically, the recommendation focus on the enhancement and avails of staff’s competency while constantly encouraging workforce proficiency for improvement as a way of enhancing human capital that will create a culture of efficiency, innovation and delegation at Brent ICB (Ali Ababneh, 2022). These include ideas such as training that is always offered and constant encouragement and reinforcement of professional development. Through staff engagement and encouraging innovation, they can work towards increasing the service offering and addressing needs of patients in order to enhance the results of their care.

Behaviours:

Collaboration and Empowerment (B1):

This is a clear indication that there is a need to adopt strategies that encourage and enable staff fosters delegation and other forms of teamwork. This working approach also means that promoting teamwork and including various individuals in the decision-making processes can open the use of a variety of ideas and solutions with expertise. Self-organizing and participative methodologies foster increased satisfaction and engagement or employees, as well as increase organizational productivity.

Curiosity and Innovation (B3):

The proposed actions encourage a culture of curiosity and innovation at Brent ICB, promoting the exploration of ambiguity and complexity to discover creative solutions to strategic challenges. By fostering an environment where questioning, learning, and experimenting are valued, Brent ICB can address issues more effectively and drive continuous improvement in healthcare delivery.

Personal reflection utilizing Gibbs's reflective cycle:

Description: Throughout the module, I worked using a variety of tactics to improve Northwest London ICB’s work culture capacities, care quality and digital transformation. I took part in talks, seminars and group projects that tried to comprehend the intricacies of innovation and Healthcare delivery.

Feeling: At first the variety of subjects made me feel overwhelmed, however over time I started to get enthusiastic about the possibility of change. I liked how everyone worked together to create a feeling of belonging and purpose. On the other hand, I became frustrated when I ran into opposition to a novel concept.

Evaluation: the confidence boosting support I received from classmates and facilitator was one of the positive features. Clarity was offered by the structured framework that helped me concentrate on my main areas for development. On the other hand, several conversations result in lost chances for critical thought (The University of Edinburgh, 2020).

Analysis: I discovered that successful transformation initiative required excellent communication and teamwork. Our recommendation word improved by incorporating comments and stressing data direct decision development, however I came to the realization that I still need to work on developing my capacity to constructively challenge ideas.

Conclusion: This type of experience has made me realize how critical flexibility and ongoing education are to my career development. I am ever that continuing education and training and necessary to stay up to date with the ever changing Health Care industry.

Action plan:

Table 4: Action Plan

(Source: Self-developed)

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Author Bio

Casey Bennett   7 years | PhD

My name is Casey Bennett and I have obtained my graduation, post-graduation and PhD from London Business School. I have been giving education to students for the last 7 years in the United Kingdom. I can help you deal with complex dissertation topics, assignments, and essays and finish them fast.