National Support Teams

The public health National Support Teams or NSTs constituted a consultancy-style organisational development and change management service provided by the UK Government Department of Health.

Established in 2006, they provided consultancy-style support and assistance to local health economies across England (the UK's devolved administrations - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland generally having their own arrangements). Each team had access to national-level expertise on specific public health specialisms, including:

Consultancy and support services were provided free of charge to public-sector clients including local authorities and National Health Service Trusts. The feedback reports generated as a result of these activities were not published by the Department of Health, although some clients choose to post reports (usually in PowerPoint or PDF format) on their own websites.

Each National Support Team also shared observations with central Government policy advisors on the real-world public health challenges it identified through this work.

The primary activity of each Team was to carry out visiting inputs to local areas across England, more than 450 of which were undertaken during the existence of the NSTs. These visits lasted between two days and one week, using a mix of in-house NST experts and externally sourced advisors where appropriate. Subsequent change management support was offered as appropriate to the changes recommended, often around strengthening strategic coherence, enhancing commissioning capabilities to respond to public health challenges, or improving operational effectiveness of treatment and/or behaviour change services.

The overall style of the National Support Teams was planned to be in line with Peter Block's 'Flawless Consulting' approach. The diagnostic model employed was broadly influenced by Appreciative Inquiry, due to its tested relevance to healthcare environments and the emphasis upon positive potential to enhance organisational function (rather than a performance management approach, which initial client feedback suggested would be perceive as judgemental). Recommendations for change were presented at closing plenary sessions to both senior leadership and operational managers with sufficient detail to trigger follow-up action and a delivery style reported by audiences as more memorable than was initially expected of an organisational development input.

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