Business case toolkit in pipeline

In May, the Neurology Network Manager's Meeting held their second conference. The core aims of the meeting were to share novel approaches to treatment and management in neurology that should be influencing service planning and to share practice from around the country.

May's meeting shone a light on the 'lost hours' of neurology staff time wrought by the pandemic resulting in a reduced 'workforce norm' and the importance of team-wide resilience and useful practices to support this. Also explored was the current lived experience of people with a neurological condition with insights from NeuroLifeNow - and the pressing need for more support in business case writing.

It became clear from May's meeting that there is a very practical need for training and support in business planning - and specifically, in developing business cases. A sli.do poll during the meeting found that 97% of respondents would welcome tools or resources to support business case writing.

Feeling competent and confident in writing business cases can mean the difference between struggling in an existing service and feeling frustrated about it, or acting on changes that are needed to deliver an improved service in the future.

As a direct result of this meeting, a working group is being formed to create a toolkit of online resources with tips and information on how to write a good business case and templates to work from.

Beginning with a workshop to examine current resources to draw on such as business plans, workforce capacity calculators and service examples, the group is seeking interest from healthcare professionals with experience in business case development to be part of the work. They are also interested in examples of business plans and service change examples which could be shared or adapted into templates for others to utilise.

The intention is to offer a live webinar outlining the purpose and use of the toolkit, discussing some of the barriers or challenges to writing a successful business case, and to answer questions from healthcare professionals. The webinar will be available on demand as an added resource afterwards.