Background
First Community (FC), an employee-owned social enterprise founded in 2011, delivers community healthcare services across East Surrey and West Sussex. With increasing pressure from competitors and financial constraints, FC partnered with Meridian to reduce unit costs per contact and align capacity with service demand across eleven frontline services.
Analysis
A three-week operational analysis identified core issues: misaligned staff allocation, underutilised clinical capacity, fluctuating ward rosters, and lack of structured slot utilisation in clinic-based services. Staff deployment didn t reflect skills or safe staffing levels, leading to inefficiencies and missed productivity opportunities.
Implementation
Meridian collaborated with 150 staff across 11 services, delivering workshops, one-to-one coaching, and bespoke planning tools. A robust management control system was co-designed, including activity norms, competency matrices, dynamic capacity plans, and the Fair Day s Work allocation tool. Improved rostering and appointment slot templates helped double daily patient contact rates in some teams. A ward staffing calculator and variance reports were embedded to ensure safer staffing levels and ongoing improvement.
Results
Realised annual savings reached £1.36M, with an additional £1.28M in opportunity identified through increased productivity. Contact rates rose significantly €”from 3.5 to 7 per WTE per day in one service, and up to 6 in others. Locum spend was reduced by £75K. The installed systems fostered behavioural change and empowered managers with accurate, real-time data for continuous service optimisation.
