This month we talked to Alex Pegg, a project officer working with the Greater Manchester ICB, to discuss how the ICB collectively approached PRSAS accreditation. The ICB funded 13 services to join the accreditation pathway and have provided a fantastic level of support for their participating services, encouraging shared learning and collaborative meetings between colleagues.

You were one of the first to fund services as a group - can you tell us about how Greater Manchester as an ICB decided to fund services for accreditation?

Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Networks identified accreditation as being a key factor to help PR services make improvements and reduce variation across Greater Manchester. We funded accreditation to ensure all services started the journey together at the same time.

Having services enter the pathway at the same time must have been helpful, as each team would be in similar stages of self-improvement and preparation. Was there any difficulty in getting services on board with the process of accreditation at the beginning?

No, we had buy-in from all 13 PR services across GM & EC from the beginning of the process. Some areas had concerns over the time needed and workload involved in the lead up to the onsite assessment, but we outlined the support available from the collaborative and the PRSAS office, so services were happy to participate.

In your collaborative approach at the Greater Manchester ICB, how do you share learning across teams?

We created a PR workspace on the Future NHS site which includes a section on accreditation which holds examples of documents our teams have used such as SOPs, surveys, mission statements etc. It also includes a forum where teams ask questions and share best practice.

In addition to the site, we also share learning at the collaborative meetings with accreditation standards being a regular topic.

How do you think the ICB collaborative approach to PRSAS accreditation benefits services?

The collaborative approach helps a lot. We started the collaboration in May 2021 with the aim of achieving the objectives of the NHS Long Term Plan: improving services, and achieving PRSAS accreditation. We have monthly meetings which are attended by all 13 PR teams and associated commissioners. It has enabled us to make lots of progress in developing and enhancing services, such as creating a PR website which has improved the number and quality of referrals. Another example is our new patient education booklet used by patients during and after their classes. The booklet covers many areas including exercise, medication, diet and planning for the future.

The collaborative meetings are the ideal platform to discuss accreditation and share best practice - Cynthia Yim (PRSAS programme manager) has attended previously to provide advice and guidance on the PRSAS standards.

We have 2 services that have successfully completed accreditation firstly Trafford and then Enhanced Respiratory Service (ERS) – Rochdale Infirmary. The leads from these services have made presentations to the group on how they achieved accreditation and have been on hand to help other teams.

We’ve also recently heard from the Trafford PR service when they presented at our recent beginner’s training session. Chris Dalton (specialist respiratory physiotherapist) - the lead at ERS Rochdale - will be talking about his PRSAS experience in the upcoming advanced session on 5 March. You can read more about our training sessions here. 

How do you communicate/keep track of the accreditation journey for different services?

At the start of the process, we had meetings with the PR team leaders to go through the requirements of each accreditation standard and they completed a GAP analysis for their service. PR services have also attended tailored individual support meetings with our clinical lead Sue Mason and Cynthia Yim from PRSAS to go through their accreditation plans and assess how they were progressing to meeting the standards. We continue to keep track of progress at our collaborative meetings.

*To complete a RAG rating/GAP analysis of your service, you can use our template. This is located on your assessment dashboard > templates and support > guidance and other resources.

What have been the highlights?

One major highlight has been the way that our services have worked together. There has been a lot of support and help provided between the 13 PR teams in sharing information, experiences, and best practice. Other highlights being when two of our services successfully gained accreditation in 2023.

Congratulations from the PRSAS team to Trafford Pulmonary Rehabilitation Service and Enhanced Respiratory Service (ERS) – Rochdale Infirmary for achieving accreditation last year!

Thank you to Alex for sharing his accreditation experience while working with the Greater Manchester ICB, and showcasing how a collaborative approach can benefit services going through the accreditation process.