What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?​

Wales is a relatively small county but there are many different organisations that are delivering support for people affected by persistent pain. The introduction of a National Network for Persistent Pain has aided communication amongst Health Boards and identified areas where resources and ideas can be shared. We want to extend this approach to co-operation to other potential partners to improve equity, efficiency and accessibility.

This work has been inspired by feedback from the People’s Panel for Persistent Pain and a review of some case studies developed by less heard from groups as well as the results of the recent PACFind and Rheumaps studies published by the University of Aberdeen and partners

What does your project aim to achieve?

The aim of the project is to explore how different partners across public, private and third sectors can be brought together with the people who will be using the services to deliver once for Wales approaches. There will be a focus on using digital technologies to overcome geographical challenges as well as time spent looking at how to improve digital literacy, availability and confidence to enable everyone to be able to access the technologies.

During the development of this project we have already started to identify potential collaborators across different sectors including Digital Communities Wales, Social Care Wales, Life Sciences hub and have started the conversations which we would hope to develop with this project

How will the project be delivered?

We will be bringing partners together to spotlight good practice on the use of digital technologies  and identify where resources currently only available in one area can be made available across the country.

Phase 1 – Online spotlight event to show what has already been done and inspire others to think creatively.

Phase 2 – In person workshop to identify potential resources that could be shared more widely. We will focus on digital resources initially but are open to other suggestions such as training for peer mentors.

Phase 3 – Needs analysis – What would be needed to share the resources? Infrastructure? Cost? People?

Phase 4 – Prioritisation of which projects would be deliverable within the timescales.

Phase 5 – Delivery. Setting the infrastructure to allow sharing

Phase 6 – Review – What has worked, what hasn’t. What can be learnt to take forward to future projects.

How is your project going to share learning?

During the project we will publish a blog to share progress and learning as we go through the process.

Regular update events will be delivered online to share progress and engage with collaborators