August 23, 2018
One thousand staff trained as frontline programme comes to a close
In August 2016, we launched the Frontline Customer Service training programme in partnership with The Development People. In the first 13 months, we trained 700 members of non-clinical patient-facing staff. By the end of this year, we expect to have trained a further 300, taking the total to over 1000 members of staff from more than 70 practices. This programme has had incredible reach, and consistently excellent feedback from practices. One practice manager said: “Our team still talk about this course two years later and utilise the learnings on a daily basis“.
Thie idea for this programme came from our One Care Consortium project on improving practice telephony. To maximise the benefit of any new telephone system, the staff using that system need to have had consistent call handling training, so we worked in partnership with practices to develop a programme that would deliver just that. The course then evolved to include much more, and now also aims to introduce:
- Consistency of messages to patients
- Evaluation processes for managers
- Assertiveness when dealing with challenging situations
- Sharing of best practice
It also acts as an important foundation on which practices can start to implement healthcare navigation (also known as active signposting), which has been incentivised by NHS England as part of the GP Forward View.
The programme also benefits patients, as they receive a more consistent service from a more confident member of the team, who can start to offer support in directing them towards the right service. If you want to know more about this brilliant training programme, get in touch!
One thousand staff trained as frontline programme comes to a close
