Our entrepreneurs: Liz Leggott

In our latest #OurEntrepreneurs profile we meet cohort 7 Clinical Entrepreneur Liz Leggott, Project Manager.

Tell us a bit about yourself 

I am working as a Project Manager for the South Yorkshire Workforce & Training Hub, on a training and simulation centre for Primary Care. Our focus is on technology enhanced learning created by the home-grown talent we have within our region. 

I started working for Doncaster Primary Care Trust about 15 years ago managing facilities and was recognised for having the ability to form good working relationships to complete a project. My track record for the delivery of projects and services is based on my ability to cultivate and maintain strong, healthy working relationships. 

Within Primary care, I set up new services whilst working for the local GP federation in Doncaster including the extended access service in its many forms plus hot sites, information centres and vaccination centres throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. I found myself drawn to the work of the federation after I was part of the working group who created it; I was voted onto the Board to give the organisation its initial steer and focus and ended up working as part of the corporate team.

I coordinate, plan, manage and deliver all with a positive outlook.

Why did you apply to the programme and what are you looking forward to?

A forward thinking, digital loving GP in my local area, told me about the various NHS programmes and initiatives, and highlighted that one might be useful to support my project, which led me to the NHS CEP.  

I hope the programme can support to fill the gaps in my knowledge, access potential investors, and get Primary Care into the spotlight. 

I’m not a business owner but I am also not afraid to take a chance, to make changes and prove a concept. I would like to take advantage of everything that is offered to me by the programme, to make connections and unions that will strengthen the success of the project. 

Tell us about your innovation  

I was drawn to the Project Manager role at the Workforce & Training Hub as I saw an opportunity to make a difference across a larger area of Primary Care and the HEE funded task at hand I found interesting and exciting. After a short time researching, I was able to identify a pathway to optimise the funding. I then pitched my idea to the senior management and was successful. I was able to use the funding as seed money to test and create a robust option that would make a difference to the workforce and ultimately the patients.

I began to describe the possible solution as a technology led, training and simulation centre made by Primary Care, for Primary Care.  It would operate on 6 key principles:

• To stay relevant
• To remain at the forefront of technology
• To be a key partner in the recovery & growth of the primary care system
• To be inclusive
• To have a blended approach to accessing training
• To promote well being and good mental health

An important principle within the centre is to be at the forefront of technology, and with this focus, I started to look at Primary Care’s current options, which were thin on the ground and what I did find was very secondary care focused. I believe that with the experts we have in our own workforce, the help of horizon scanners and partnerships with smaller developers, we can start to create our own technology enhanced learning tools- Made for Primary Care by Primary Care. Seeing the fantastic projects that the Workforce & Training Hub was implementing, I felt compelled to make something bespoke and that complemented them and was something for us to champion.

With this centre we can offer much more as a Training Hub and I hope that this will change how Primary Care training is delivered but also how its perceived. There is already a discussion about South Yorkshire Innovation Centre hosting a National Centre for Innovation, where learning could be shared from the work we do. We’d hope to expand to cover primary care in a wider sense, with the inclusion of Community Eyecare, Community Pharmacy and Community Dentistry.

I hope to be in a position where we have a team working on new digital training tools, creating clinical and digital experts who are one in the same.  Where we host technical apprenticeships to understand both clinical information and digital tools, staff who can create scenarios, set them up and run them independently. 

I aim for the centre to have a seat on the Integrated Care Board (ICB) so we fully understand new services or demands on the system before they hit Primary Care, so we can create specific training to better prepare staff for when they arrive.              

What motivates you? 

I am motivated by improving the wellbeing of our workforce, being a positive influence and creating something new and impactful. I’m proud to be working on behalf of Primary Care and within the Workforce & Training Hub, to make it a better place to work.

What are your ambitions for the next year?

By next year, I aim to have an operating model, business model and a final business plan. I aim for the plan to be seen by as many potential business partners as possible, and an agreement to be in place for financial backing, and continued business support. I would like to have the first iteration of the centre open, so we can show people the work that we are doing. I also hope to have plans for further iterations ready to go and to have a team in place, making this a reality.   

Why do you think innovation is important in healthcare?

If we don’t innovate, we stand still and sometimes in General Practice particularly, we end up going backwards. When it comes to digital solutions, we seem as a workforce to be afraid or have no time to implement or learn from it, then we often fail at supporting that solution. This needs to change.

Similarly, if we don’t innovate with training provision, we cannot keep up with the challenges our patient demographic faces. The use of technology means we can scale up access, offer different methods of access, broaden the audience, stretch training budgets further, improve quality of training and improve the quality of the patient experience. Ultimately, we will attract more staff to the workforce if we have an innovative, more attractive offer on CPD and continued support.

How can we find out more?

Please visit https://pcwth.co.uk/for more information.