Enhanced Working Practices

Following the success of cross-directorate collaborative working during the COVID-19 pandemic, three CRN CC Directorates (Business Development and Marketing, Medical and Research Delivery) agreed to trial a new cross-directorate way of working to see if the lessons learnt during the pandemic could translate to non-pandemic situations. 

The Cross Directorate Working Project was undertaken in Cluster B, incorporating five Specialty areas and the Urgent Public Health (UPH)/COVID-19 Understanding and Elimination - Trials Implementation Panel (CUE-TIP) portfolio, and ran from September 2020 to June 2021. The project’s Evidence Summary and Recommendations Report outlined the successes and challenges of introducing Cross Directorate Working to support strategic portfolio oversight and portfolio development.

During 2022/23, the Enhanced Working Practices (EWP) project was undertaken to ensure that the learnings and benefits of adopting a holistic, whole systems approach to portfolio oversight and development could be rolled out across all Specialties.

The Enhanced Working Practices approach is comprised of three elements which are:

• System-Wide Review (formerly known as Strategic Portfolio Oversight (SPO))

• Specialty Development

• Stakeholder Engagement

To support implementation of these changes, we have:

• Developed documents to support this way of working such as role descriptions and terms of reference

  • • Document repository

• Developed training materials to support this way of working

  • • Study Support Service materials

    • ODP training videos

• Clarified the definition of System-Wide Review (and outlined how this is different from other performance monitoring and portfolio oversight activities)

• Defined a new way of working between the Medical and Business Development and Marketing Directorates

The order in which we roll-out to clusters and associated specialties has been determined pragmatically as follows:

• Cluster D

• Cluster A

• Cluster C

• Cluster E

• Cluster F

We will conduct regular evaluations of the wider roll-out to ensure its success and a smooth transition across the remaining clusters and specialties. 

For each study that is eligible for NIHR CRN support we identify a lead Local Clinical Research Network (LCRN).

The lead LCRN is a key point of contact for any study related queries during the lifecycle of a study, and is usually chosen based on the location of the Chief Investigator (CI), lead site and/or Sponsor, and works in partnership with other stakeholders including National and Local Specialty Research Leads and sites to ensure the study delivers to target. 

The Lead LCRN is a key point of contact for any study related queries during the life cycle of the study, from pre-grant to study closure including reviewing study performance, and it is the Study Support Service (SSS) within the Lead LCRN that supports this work. 

The dedicated SSS team offers a range of support to help researchers ‘Plan, Place and Perform’ high quality research. They work to national standard operating procedures which ensures a consistent service is offered regardless of where the research is being completed, or what sort of study it is. 

The three key areas where the SSS can support the success of a study are summarised under the headings Plan, Place and Perform:

Plan

• The best time to engage with the Lead LCRN SSS team is as early as possible in the study planning stage, to ensure the study can maximise the NIHR service offerings and ensure the study reaches its full potential. 

Place

• Strategic site identification and selection is key to delivering high quality research and will optimise study performance. 

Perform 

• Utilising our national network will streamline the initial set-up of your study and we will work with you to monitor the progress of your research against its recruitment target and timelines.

An Escalation Process for study issues has been created for LCRNs and a separate one for Specialties, along with a useful video and leaflet explaining in more detail what the lead LCRN is, why we have a SSS and how the service can support you. 

For any further information please contact your Local LCRN by using the single point of contact (SPOC) contact details.

System-Wide Review (previously known as ‘Strategic Portfolio Oversight’) evolved to facilitate cross-Specialty, cross-setting and cross-stakeholder support for the COVID-19 portfolio, and it has continued to be used as an approach to enable strategic review of defined areas of the current portfolio - for example across study design, phase, disease(s) or clinical area(s). 

The System-Wide Review decision tool

A decision tool has been developed to help identify the best way to explore specific questions or topics relating to the performance oversight of an area of the NIHR CRN portfolio.  

This interactive tool guides the user through a short series of decision steps related to the question or topic that they would like to be considered as a focus for potential System-Wide Review work, and upon completion a route will be recommended based on the answers that have been given.  Guidance will also be shared at this point regarding the next steps to be taken in order to progress activities.

There are four outcome routes that can be recommended through the tool, as noted below:

• Business as usual - Performance Review Lead activities;

• Business as usual - National Specialty / sub-Specialty Group: ‘For Further Focus’;

• Business as usual - National Specialty / sub-Specialty Group: for wider NIHR CRN Consultation / engagement;

• System-Wide Review.

Further information regarding each of these routes can be found here.

The tool should be completed if you have a question or topic that you would like to be considered as a focus for System-Wide Review, to identify if this is the appropriate approach to explore this, or if one of the other routes may be more appropriate to help with your request.  However, if it has already been agreed through another forum that your question or topic can be best addressed through a business as usual route (as noted above) then you do not need to complete the tool in order to reflect this - these pieces of work will be captured in other ways.

Undertaking System-Wide Review work, and capturing learnings and outputs

If System-Wide Review is identified as the route to be followed in order to explore a question or topic, then planning and preparation of the work will require input and support from a wide range of stakeholders (including individuals from across the NIHR CRN Coordinating Centre Directorates, LCRNs and the wider research landscape / system).  A planning document has therefore been collated to help System-Wide Review activities be shaped in advance of work being commenced to enable all key stakeholders and data sources to be identified, and clear objectives and outputs to be established and agreed by all relevant parties.

In addition, capturing experiences and learnings from undertaking System-Wide Review work will be key to aid ongoing evaluation and development of this approach.  A case study form has therefore also been shaped, to enable those undertaking System-Wide Review work to capture feedback to inform the review of the implementation of this approach to portfolio oversight, the dissemination of outputs, and monitoring of the impact of this work.

If you experience any problems using the decision tool, or you have any questions regarding the wider document suite and / or the use of System-Wide Review as an approach to support portfolio oversight, then please contact the NIHR CRN Coordinating Centre Research Delivery Leads by emailing divisional-portfolio-leads@nihr.ac.uk  

The NIHR Open Data Platform (ODP) is the platform through which you can access the data on all studies the NIHR supports including the number of participants recruited to each study. 

The data is captured via the NIHR Central Portfolio Management System and fed into ODP to enable easy viewing and analysis.

It allows users to interact with high level or granular information depending on need so whether you are interested in study level information or country-wide recruitment trends it can offer useful insights. 

A series of short  ‘how to’ training videos have been developed.   The videos explain: 

• What ODP is 

• How to access it 

• The structure and data available on the most popular dashboard 

• The different fields and options for searching for information

• How to extract data from ODP 

The video will be kept  up to date and new videos added in line with relevant development within ODP. 

To register and access ODP please visit https://odp.nihr.ac.uk  

Please contact the NIHR Business Intelligence team at odp@nihr.ac.uk  for any queries or further support.