On 15 December, we attended the Health Business Awards ceremony online and are thrilled to announce that we won the 'Innovation in Mental Health' award for 2022. This award recognises NHS organisations which have made progress in improving the experience and overall care of mental health patients.
Our project, the Children & Young People's Referral Management System Tool (CReST), is a demand and capacity tool. We developed the current version in partnership with NHSE, which supports Children and Young People's Mental Health (CYPMH) pathways.
Project summary
CReST represents a bold new step in how CYPMH pathways approach service planning as well as commissioning. Although demand and capacity modelling is not a new concept, it has not been presented in such an accessible format before, particularly in the context of CYPMH.
Using CReST, services can input some basic data to model their pathways. The tool is very interactive, allowing users to interact with metrics such as waiting time targets, growth percentages, available appointments and more. These allow for scenario testing and enable conversations in live settings.
This modelling coupled with local intelligence means that services can adequately plan their resources and effectively meet what is often increasingly fluctuating demand.
CReST can help answer key questions when planning demand and capacity. Modelling can also inform commissioning decisions, workforce strategies, strategic planning, operational planning, and decision-making at system level. For example, colleagues have used outputs in successful business cases, opening conversations with senior leaders and launching new services.
To find out more,
