Background
Following two successful programmes that delivered £2.8 million in operational savings, a leading NHS Trust in England invited Meridian Productivity to help improve efficiency across its corporate services. The goal: reduce transactional workload, enhance workforce productivity, and ensure corporate teams could provide high-value, customer-focused support to operational healthcare services.
At the time, corporate teams were stretched between routine administrative duties and the growing demand for strategic, value-adding activity. Without standardised workflows or clear accountability, time was often lost to duplication, manual reporting, and inefficient communication practices.
Analysis:
Meridian conducted a detailed evaluation across corporate service lines including Finance, Workforce, Education & Training, and Transformation. The study identified critical issues limiting effectiveness:
Fragmented processes and duplicated responsibilities across functions.
Inefficient use of digital tools, with excessive reliance on manual data entry and legacy workflows.
Delayed reporting cycles, including month-end budget reports taking up to 12 days.
A lack of visibility into non-value-adding tasks that consumed valuable staff time.
Inconsistent approaches to service delivery and project management.
These findings laid the foundation for a strategic improvement programme focused on operational streamlining and digital enablement.
Implementation:
Over the course of the programme, Meridian led workshops and 1:1 sessions with every corporate service team. The focus was twofold:
Stop doing: Identify and eliminate non-essential or duplicated tasks.
Start doing smarter: Redesign roles and workflows to prioritise high-value output.
Key interventions included:
Implementing a standardised project methodology for the Transformation team.
Developing automation plans that would remove 60–70 hours of routine reporting work.
Enabling point-of-service updates to Electronic Staff Records (ESR) for Education & Training, significantly reducing delays.
Streamlining vehicle documentation processes within Workforce, eliminating the need to manually manage 7,500 paper records.
Restructuring communication pathways to prevent duplication and ensure accountability.
Results:
The improvements delivered measurable benefits across multiple areas of corporate services:
£225,000 in annual savings reinvested into frontline care through the removal of non-value-adding tasks.
Month-end budget reporting time reduced from 12 days to 4 days, freeing capacity for service support.
35% of information reporting processes automated, unlocking 60–70 staff hours per month.
Clear accountability frameworks and service offers introduced, enhancing governance and clarity.
Improved user experience for operational services, with fewer delays and greater self-service functionality.
Conclusion
This transformation enabled the Trust’s corporate services to shift from reactive administration to proactive support—reducing overheads, freeing up capacity, and adding strategic value. With stronger governance, smarter workflows, and a focus on outcomes, the corporate function now operates as a fit-for-purpose partner to frontline healthcare teams.
