MPFT provides high quality care across 80 different services in Physical, Mental Health, Social Care, Children’s, Forensic, Specialist and Learning Disability services. We have over 10,000 staff, over 35 primary clinical and care systems and 150 premises.

In addition to corporate services, our services are grouped into 4 care groups:

  • Children & Families
  • Specialist
  • Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin
  • Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent

We securely and reliably connect our service users and carers to care services provided by MPFT across the country, and to the care we provide in partnership across our Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and Primary Care Networks (PCNs).

Digital is essential in making our ICS and place-based partnerships operate effectively with shared systems, shared data and true joint working.

Our systems, supporting processes and suppliers are fundamental in supporting staff to work together, being part of a single community no matter where they are, and to support them to deliver the best possible care. As detailed in the transformation plan, journey so far section, we have made good progress in recent years, but the digital strategy ambitions show how much more we aim to achieve.

The responsibility of MPFT Digital is to make sure the Trust’s technology and processes not only meet the needs of our service users, carers and our staff, but exceeds them.

Our ambitious digital transformation plans will underpin the strategic aims of the NHS, the ICSs and our Trust, and our proven track record for successful delivery of new solutions will continue over the next five years.

We want to make sure our systems and equipment are reliable to support our services deliver quality care regardless of location, including:

  • inpatient areas
  • community teams
  • social care teams
  • dental practices
  • specialist drug and alcohol services
  • prisons

Systems need be reliable and need to work effectively. We aim to make substantial progress in how our digital solutions are managed to ensure that performance and usability is improved, and periods of disruption are reduced.

“Digital supports our integrated care ambition, releasing time to care for our clinicians”
Steve Martin, Chief Nursing Information Officer

Our service users, carers and staff need continual support and training opportunities to ensure that the systems are accessible and easy to adopt. Our existing training offers receive positive feedback, but the pace of change means we need to increase our support offers and course content for everyone.

The Trust is operating within a challenged health economy, and the financial pressures of COVID-19 have only added to the need to be as efficient in our use of resources as possible.

Through innovation, investment and adoption of digital, major efficiencies can be gained across the entire organisation and ICSs in all areas, with digital rightfully recognised as a key enabler for this.

The organisation needs to support decision making at all levels with the improved availability and presentation of information. Through improving how we collect data from our many systems and how we make this information meaningful to service users and staff, we can empower our decision making, our service design, our prioritisation and become truly data driven.

The Trust strategy has also recognised the importance of digital by appointing a Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) at Board level, creating a Trust-wide Digital Champions network that is beginning to support a wider culture change around who is responsible for using, supporting and creating digital innovation and hosting an ambitious and award winning 14-hour virtual celebration event, The Big Shout Out in 2021, all powered through digital collaboration.

MPFT’s digital strategy and transformation plan outlines in full how we move on from where we are now, how we improve the digital foundations and get the basics right, so we can focus our efforts on where they need to be; providing care.

Digital innovation has allowed us to reimagine the way we support, engage and involve service users, carers and families through service changes and redesign – more people than ever who have lived experience have been joining our co-production teams across all of our services
Fiona Moore, Head of Involvement & Experience