Applying lean improvement methodology within a public health context: administration and organisation of a training programme

The Health Improvement team, housed within the Public Health Department of National Health Service (NHS) Highland, deliver key objectives around health improvement, tackling health inequalities and building capacity. The processes surrounding the delivery of the building capacity objective had been built up over a period of time and historically were administered by different staff members. This led to different ways of organising training and no overall agreed approach.

The impact of a non-standard approach meant that it was often difficult to get an overview of what was being delivered and who was attending the various training offered. Furthermore, there were duplicate processes in place that were person dependent that could be done in a more effective way. Our overall aim for the project was to introduce a standard approach to how training was organised and a way of ensuring that data could be collected and reviewed instantly so that we could report out on a monthly basis.