Given the pressures faced by practice managers in today’s primary care environment, any help in driving practice performance in the right direction is welcome. That could explain why plenty of practices are turning to (or are already utilising) practice champions.

Practice champions can be really valuable in supporting service improvement, running groups for patients and generally helping to connect the practice with local voluntary groups – as demonstrated by Oxford Terrace and Rawling Road Medical Group in Gateshead.

The practice works with champions in a collaborative way, with much of the work arising from the champion’s own ideas. They also provide a source of additional capacity to assist the practice in its health promotion and outreach work. Sheinaz Stansfield, the practice manager, comments: “This has completely changed our relationship with patients and the third sector. They are now equal partners in service redesign and planning. However, they are also a key asset to the social prescribing work we do.”

Self-help groups

Interestingly, according to a case study about the initiative on the NHS England website, the majority of champions have enduring mental health problems. They used to take up significant GP resource, but they are now running self-help groups, working contributing to other community services and living more independent lives. They make fewer appointments with the GP.

Sheinaz reports that working with the champions has made it easier for the practice to encourage patients with social issues to turn to the community rather than the GP.

Dr Caroline Snell, a GP at the practice admits to initial reservations about Practice Health Champions but is now supportive. “I wondered how many patients would be interested because it’s a huge commitment. But it’s been a success. My regular patients have had great support and they’re coming to see me less and less.

“I now have options for signposting people, especially those with mental health problems. We have groups for befrienders, knitters, readers…all run by champions. With lack of resources and, increasingly, lack of GPs, we have to encourage self-care.”

Support groups

Elsewhere, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is using the idea of practice champions to develop support groups and health education events to provide children, young people and their carers with a greater understanding of what care is available and how best to access services.

Support groups are patient-led, putting the needs of the child first. Patients are invited to meet with their practice champion and GP practice, and to talk through their needs and what really matters to them. This helps practices to identify health needs in the community and to better allocate resources.

Health education events are set up to improve engagement and communication in the community, and more specifically help educate children and their families. In the past practice champions have organised walking groups for new parents, mindfulness courses, obesity projects and asthma education events. Practice champions also link in with the trust’s child health GP hubs. This allows them to create feedback loops with the GP to drive change.

Implementation tips

 The above are just two successful examples of how practice champions are being used with success. So, if you’re interested in following suit, what tips and tricks can you use to ensure your practice benefits? Here are 16 tips to get you started.

1. Work out where there’s a need. Consider your practice demographics – do you have lots of potentially vulnerable older patients? Or is child poverty potentially a bigger problem? What about mental health? Consider which group/s you can help and focus on them accordingly.
2. Patients need to be identified for inclusion in this initiative when they register, or their circumstances change – such as following a diagnosis or bereavement. Ensure the mechanisms are in place from the get-go.
3. It’s OK to start small with this kind of work and allow things to grow organically.
4. It’s very important to allow volunteers themselves to contribute ideas, shape priorities and, ultimately, choose what they want to do – but prepare to be pleasantly surprised at the practicality of their interest.
5. Practice staff can help with recruiting champions, but often the champions themselves are the best recruiters, along with other voluntary groups in the local community.
6. Ensure all practice champions receive full training. Imperial College Healthcare runs a two-day training course, so that champions feel confident when talking to other patients, and also to ensure they have a greater understanding of what the health system has to offer. Practice champions also have formal safety (DBS) checks, which take approximately three weeks.
7. External training courses are available – the Dementia Friends day is a good example.
8. Invite champions to regular meetings. Champions should be able to give as much or as little time as they can.
9. Invite local community charities, children’s centres etc. to meetings so it’s a great opportunity for champions to network and learn from others.
10. Consider how you reach out to your target groups. Phone calls, face-to-face meetings, lunches, activity days…there’s no limit to how you can interact, but the most important thing is that your methods are relevant and sustainable.
11. When communicating with individuals, ensure your champions are asking the right questions. Get champions to work with your team in the practice so they’re fully briefed about what questions to ask. From checking how a patient is feeling to asking if they have enough medicine, answers will inform whether or not an individual needs additional support or care.
12. Consider rolling out a dedicated fast track telephone number if they need support at any other time, which can be picked up by any of the admin team and a patient champion is alerted to deal with their call. This allows subsequent queries patients and their families might have to be dealt with.
13. Set aside time. Patient champion schemes shouldn’t cost anything other than time, but the commitment needs to be made before embarking on an initiative.
14. Learn from others. Plenty of resources are available online to help with the development of Practice Champion schemes. A thread on the Practice Index Forum is a useful place to run – it can be found by clicking here.
15. Here’s a handy hint shared on the Practice Index Forum. Encourage all our champions to be resource investigators, find out what’s out there that they can bring to their role, share it with colleagues and network. They all enjoy this additional aspect of their role as receptionists. It was very well received by CQC when they inspected us last year.
16. Measure results. Practice Champions can be a great help, but make sure time spent on initiatives is worthwhile. It might be worth setting up some KPIS – for example, when it comes to social exclusion/loneliness, is it cutting the number of appointments booked by people who simply wanted someone to talk to?

Do you use practice champions? How do you ensure they work well? What additional tips can you share with your fellow practice managers? Let us know by commenting below or head to the Practice Index forum thread on the subject here.

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