NICHE

Introduction

Learning and working in collaboration can achieve a thriving community that is an attractive place to work, live and age well. Wellbeing is crucial for long-term benefits to population health, and without a highly skilled and effective workforce we cannot meet the needs of our communities through providing effective health and care. 

Aim

To enable people who live and work in Norfolk and Waveney, to grow and develop together, in order to further ensure quality of services and community initiatives that promote kind and caring environments, which remain person centred, safe, highly effective, and informed by the best evidence, that are influenced by the needs of the communities and populations they serve.  

Please see below examples of programmes that have been commissioned, delivered and evaluated in the past from NICHE. Please contact us to discuss any learning needs you may have as a service or an organisation: NICHEAnchor@uea.ac.uk

QEHKL / NICHE Leading and Facilitating the Development of Person-Centred Care and Cultures

This five day residential programme was match funded by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust (QEHKL) and NICHE team UEA, as a collaborative venture through the NICHE Integrated Learning Hub. Delivered in January 2025, with 20 participants from diverse influential leadership roles, including traditional clinical and non-clinical services. This programme used a variety of participatory, practice development, and creative approaches to learning, that drew upon participants’ own experiences of their workplace. The programme was not a conventional didactic taught course, it was instead specifically designed to appeal to a wide variety of adult learning styles which enabled personalisation to the individual participants, their teams, and workplaces. Active engagement throughout the week was facilitated through themed interactive workshops, based on the organisations transformation and strategic priorities, and offered an introduction to creative, collaborative problem solving to every day challenges. This programme was developed further but was based upon a highly successful evaluated inaugural NICHE residential programme, that was facilitated in June 2023 (read the report on that programme here).

You can read the Final Evaluation Report of the programme here.

You can also read the Planting the Seeds for Change: A Participatory Service Evaluation of the "Leading and Facilitating the development of Person Centred Care and Cultures" Programme here.

Teaching and Learning Care Homes (TLCH)

Commissioned by the former Norfolk and Waveney CCG this programme was delivered and evaluated jointly with the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS) and was delivered over 18 months. The core purpose of the TLCH programme was a ‘Good Care Experience’ enabled by three foci: (i) Creating education and learning for staff and students (ii) Enabling practice development and research from practice; and (iii) Facilitating community engagement. Enhancing these interrelated themes are: Working collaboratively across Sectors/ Systems and acting as a resource across the Social Care Sector. The participating Care Homes also identified that the TLCH provided an opportunity to learn and work together. The programme helped to build new relationships in which learning from each other was an underpinning enabler to support development along with the opportunities for informal support and the potential for sustainable cultural transformation over time.

Read the full TLCH evaluation report

VITAL Programme

Commissioned originally by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn (QEHKL) in early 2022 and subsequently by NSFT this programme aims to enhance effective clinical practices & leading workplace effectiveness, through exploring and co-designing course content around workforce priorities such as Vision & Values, Innovation & Inclusion, Team working, Approaches & Accountability, and Leadership. NSFT are planning further cohorts commencing in Feb 2024.

N&W Guiding Lights for Effective Workplace Cultures

Commissioned by the former Norfolk and Waveney CCG this programme commenced in September 2023. Delivered jointly with the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS) it built on work from the previously delivered and evaluated national programme for community nurses and interdisciplinary teams commissioned by NHS England. The programme focuses on applying the four ‘Guiding Lights for Effective Workplace Cultures’ (Cardiff et al, 2022*) to the setting where care is delivered and/or experienced. The programme is for team leaders working within N&W ICS and is due to be completed in March 2024.

Read the full evaluation report

Leading Outstanding Services

One of six workshops for embedding a culture of continuous improvement has been codeveloped with care home partners and NoRCA. The workshop comes with an associated resource pack and will be delivered in early 2024.