News

It was just as the pandemic was starting, that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (CPFT) started talking seriously to the VerseOne Website team with a grand plan to rethink, redesign and relaunch their main trust website. Pretty ambitious during the rolling lockdowns and with a distributed workforce but the thinking and planning behind it was solid and partnering with VerseOne fitted withCPFTs strategic plans.

CPFT deliver many NHS services outside of the hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services across the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region.  They employ over 4,000 staff based in more than 50 locations. Patients and staff needed a secure central hub where everyone could access key up to date information.

So, the objectives were to deliver an attractive and easy to navigate website for CPFT, allowing them to easily manage and update content on one central platform, allow patients to access appointments and offer digital support.  The key to the success of the project was to ensure that the system was futureproofed to support emerging technologies.

The VerseOne partnership with Microsoft was also an important driver because it aligns with CPFTs and the wider NHS strategic plans. Shifting the hosting, support and maintenance to a trusted and secure partner also removes the burden and dependency on the IT team and frees them up to other important work.

The project kicked off in September 2020 and four months later the brand-new website was launched in January 2021. Throughout the journey the teams at CPFT and VerseOne worked together to deliver a digital experience for service users that exceeded the expectations of the stakeholders and ultimately, the Trust are very proud of. The senior VerseOne team offered support and guidance each step of the way, answered crucial questions around accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) and ensured that the Trust content managers and editors had the support they needed to do their job.

Having worked with CPFT for four months we know that they are extremely happy with the website and love the look and feel. We also know that the website is a solid foundation for their future digital transformation plans.

You can check the new site out here: https://www.cpft.nhs.uk 

Intranet Project

Now that the website is completed, we have started the planning phase for the new VerseOne Intranet, which officially begins in April 2021. A key element of this project is that a& VerseOne Intranet and Active Directory or Azure Active Directory can be synchronised in real time. The creation and de-provisioning of users is easy and efficient, reducing IT burden and ensuring all profile data is current and correct.

CPFT use Active Directory Federated Services (ADFS) which is the cloud version of Active Directory (AD). This allows the VerseOne Intranet solution to connect cloud to cloud to with CPFT Active Directory and give staff single sign on to the Intranet from the office and when working off site, on any device. Many trusts are rolling out an agile working policy and this supports that initiative.

Other challenges that the intranet will be addressing are:

• Audience definition and access to relevant documents and information 

• Design and functionality – A beautiful interface sitting over a powerful set of features 

• Benefits to the Trust and the users

• Employee Engagement - Find out more - Download our Employee Engagement Infographic

A go-live has been set for July 2021 and we look forward to sharing the launch then.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust developed a novel and exciting idea in conjunction with Worcester City Council’s Historic Environment Record to develop a Worcester Life Stories’ project.

The project idea was of two independent but interacting platforms. Know Your Place Worcester, and Worcester Life Stories. The Worcester Life Stories platform would be fully co-produced with people using the website such as older people, people living with dementia, carers, and health and social care staff as well as the general public.   

The resulting website will provide a virtual platform where residents of Worcester could login and develop their own Worcester Life Story. This will be through a number of mediums such as photos, text, audio and possibly video.

Dr Natasha Lord, Lead Clinical Psychologist for old people’s mental health needs has been the driving force behind this innovative idea and has ambitions to develop the solution in other regions of the UK.

It is really exciting that we are now working with VerseOne to develop the Worcester Life Stories platform. Life story work is already well evidenced for its benefits such as enhancing well-being, and improvements in communication and inclusion. Worcester Life Stories will take this work further by the people of Worcester co-producing what is important to them about their local history and making this easily accessible. Furthermore, digital evolvements mean that digital formats such as video stories will now be possible where they have not been before.

Users of the ground-breaking solution will be able to tap into and trawl through over 35,000 pre- loaded historic photographs and memories of Worcester (by accessing the ‘Know Your Place Worcester’ application) and upload these into their custom life story.  Know Your Place Worcester will be a public website, hosted by the Historic Environment Record Officer Sheena Payne-Lunn. This will be a growing resource which will continue to provide local memories of Worcester.  The user can then also upload personal images and memories to their ‘life story’ which they may not wish to share on a public platform.

This personalised life story can be downloaded as a multimedia video presentation or printable PDF.

The intention of the Life Stories website is to deliver measurable health benefits to old adults, their carers and their families. Evidence also suggests that life story work is valuable across the lifespan. In recognition of this, the workshops and the platform are open to all.  VerseOne with its deep expertise in Accessibility and user experience design is proud to extend their existing partnership and digital footprint with Hereford and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, bringing real additional value to the project. VerseOne also recognises the importance and health benefits of this project and as such has contributed £10,000 from its Innovation Fund (established specifically to support novel projects of this nature), that will help to make this project a real success, both in Worcester and nationally. As the UK’s Leading provider of digital transformation solutions, VerseOne has a proud heritage of serving the NHS spanning over 15 years, with their solutions already empowering 350,000 NHS staff who in turn service over 20m patients across the UK.

This project will see the two organisations continue to work together closely to deliver a flexible and highly personalised digital experience with the award winning VerseOne solutions at its core.

For more information about the project please visit https://worcesterlifestories.wordpress.com

To Explore the interactive Know Your Place map, please visit - http://www.kypwest.org.uk/explore-the-map/go-to-the-map/ 

For more information on how VerseOne are helping in the NHS please visit us at www.verseone.com.

As the existing provider of their integrated digital platform encompassing both website and intranet, VerseOne is delighted to announce that the Epsom & St. Helier University Hospitals Trust (ESTH) has extended its online capability to develop the new Surrey Downs Heath & Care microsite.

The past year has seen ESTH establish a multidisciplinary community care service in partnership with SCH Surrey (formerly Central Surrey Health), Dorking Healthcare and local GP federations - with the aim of maximising the efficiency of community resources in order to prevent or defer hospital admissions wherever possible.

The success of the project therefore depended on the provision of a robust, Accessible website where members of the public can find the information and services they need regardless of their level of internet use or the device used for access. For this ESTH already has the ideal digital partner in VerseOne - a longtime champion of web Accessibility protocols as well as the provider of market-leading digital solutions to over 40 NHS Trusts nationwide.

ESTH has been able to maximise its existing digital investment in the unified VerseOne CMS platform and ensure their new Surrey Downs Health & Care is fully integrated with their key corporate systems in a COPE (Capture Once Publish Everywhere) environment. As well as driving efficiencies, the ESTH can easily keep control of vital information governance by maintaining all its mission-critical documents in a central repository - meaning both the staff and the local community are accessing accurate and up to date information they know they can trust.

You can browse the new site here:

https://surreydownshealthandcare.nhs.uk/

VerseOne Group is delighted to have worked on this important and valuable project. In further strengthening our relationship with our valued customers such as Epsom & St. Helier University Hospitals Trust we continue to fulfil our mission statement of using technology to make a tangible and positive difference to the lives of Clinicians, Staff and the Patients within the NHS.