UK Vision Strategy: Engagement, Partnership,
Information, Communication (EPIC) Project
Invitation to become a round three EPIC Area
Application Guidance Notes
Please read the guidance notes carefully before completing the
application form
The UK Vision Strategy's EPIC Project aims to support the planning and
development of local vision strategies as part of the implementation of the
UK Vision Strategy. To do this the project has developed support tools and
guidance that will be further tested in the pilot areas.
In addition, the EPIC Project will gather evidence of best practice, and things
to consider in relation to the planning and development of local vision
strategies that will be disseminated to organisations across the eye health
and sight loss sectors.
Round three of EPIC builds upon the learning from stages one and two, and
includes guidance to support local areas in planning and identifying their
vision strategy priorities. We are asking stage three areas to use the
guidance as a structure to enable them to do this, and provide examples of
approaches to strategy planning and development that can be shared with
other areas across the UK.
1.
Who Should Apply?
We are looking for applications from a mix of urban, rural and mixed areas in
the England regions, with both large and small populations to ensure we
have a range of examples of different approaches reflecting different needs,
geographical considerations and issues. We encourage applications that
reflect the many different areas and sub-areas across England, so that we
can develop good practice examples and support mechanisms that can be
used in whole or in part across the UK.
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2. We already have a vision strategy document - can
we apply?
No. The aim of the programme is to support the process of identifying
priorities for inclusion within a Local Vision Strategy, so if you have already
developed a vision strategy in draft or finalised, this pilot is not for you.
If you have already developed a draft or final vision or sensory strategy and
have not yet made contact with us, get in touch with a member of the UK
Vision Strategy Project Team who will be happy to explore with how you
developed your strategy.
3.
What is expected of a successful pilot area?
If you are one of the areas chosen as an EPIC pilot, you should be prepared
to take an evidence based approach to developing your local vision strategy.
This means going through a process of working with your strategic partners
to gather and analyse evidence, which will help you identify some key local
priorities. Areas can then go on to clarify that those priorities are appropriate
and are able to be implemented, before going on to develop and finalise
their vision strategy drafts for sign off and implementation. Information and
advice will be available throughout the process.
Successful areas are also expected to report back on the usefulness of the
guidance being tested to support the development of local vision strategies,
provide examples of approaches taken to using the guidance and the
advantages or considerations (we envisage approaches taken may work
well in some areas, but not so well in others) so that we can develop tested
guidance for use across the UK along with some case studies examples of
the benefits and considerations for different approaches to tackling the steps
within the guidance.
Once your strategy has been developed and approved, areas are expected
to keep us updated on how the implementation process is being progressed,
and any evaluation that is undertaken.
3.1 Essential stages that you will undertake during the first
nine months should include as a minimum:
3.1.1 Identify strategic partners their roles and responsibilities for taking
strategy development and implementation forward.
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3.1.2 Consultation with service users and their carers to assist with
identification of local priorities, needs and issues.
3.1.3 Map existing services provided by health, Local Authorities, the
voluntary sectors and other sources and identify service overlap and gaps
and plot local patient/service pathways to identify the reality of service
delivery and the impact on service users
3.1.4 Identify the links between local approaches and the UK Vision Strategy
3.2 Desirable Stages:
3.2.1 Provide and analyse evidence of the current and future local needs by
population, gender, ethnicity and sight condition.
3.2.2 Evidence links to all strategic partner's strategies, policies and
business plans, plus links to national regional or local strategy, policy,
guidance and performance indicators, to ensure that your strategy supports
each strategic partner's delivery aims, objectives and guidance.
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Application Criteria Guidance
In order to benefit from this process and to support the development of a
vision strategy that is firmly embedded into strategic delivery of all strategic
partners locally, we expect applicants to consider the following:
4.1 Why do you think your area will benefit from taking part in the
round two of the EPIC project?
How do you think your area will benefit from developing a local vision
strategy? Will there be any positive impact on those involved in the
process? What do you think will be the benefits for people with sight loss
and their carers? Is there the potential for benefits outside of the area taking
part in EPIC? Are there other short, medium or long term benefits that you
want us to know about?
4.2 Provide evidence of the commitment of key strategic partners to
the development, implementation and evaluation of a local vision
strategy
Please provide us with the name and signature of either a senior manager or
higher designation with responsibility for sensory services from the Health
Sector (must include a lead from the local GP consortia if available), Local
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Authority and Local Society (voluntary and community sector). You should
also advise us of any additional commitment you have from other leads in
these sectors, as well as other local advisory groups, interest groups or
organisations with a remit for eye health and sight loss services that support
developing and implementing your local strategy.
To find out whether there is a GP Commissioning Consortia in your area,
click on the web link below:
http://healthandcare.dh.gov.uk/context/consortia/
4.3 What experience do your named strategic partners have of
leading on multi agency partnership initiatives?
We want to be sure that leads are able to work across the health, local
authority, voluntary sector and advisory agencies. Tell us about their
experience of doing this, and how you envisage getting and keeping key
partners on board throughout the planning and implementation of the
strategy. If there were issues with partnership working, tell us how you
overcame them.
4.4 Evidence that arrangements are in place to manage the process
of developing your local vision strategy.
We need to be sure that you have systems in place to gather and analyse
the evidence gathered, that you will be able to ensure all partners contribute
to strategy development, and that we are kept informed of progress,
approaches used, good practice and learning considerations identified
throughout the planning process. Each area will need to commit to reporting
progress to the EPIC project on a monthly basis during the 9 months of the
project, and regularly thereafter.
You will also need to give an indication of how you will bring all the evidence
together to identify your strategy priorities.
4.5 People with sight loss, local representatives and carers need to
be at the heart of the planning dialogue and strategy planning
Tell us how people with sight loss and their carers will contribute to strategy
planning, take part in any steering, planning or advisory groups formed to
lead on strategy development. Also, tell us how local people will inform the
strategy priorities through consultation or other approaches.
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4.6 Commitment to sharing local approaches, good practice and
learning with other areas local considering developing their own Local
Vision Strategy
How will you contribute to the raising awareness of things to consider by
other areas thinking of developing a vision strategy? How will you let others
know how strategy implementation is progressing? Consider the
opportunities for learning for both local areas and nationally. If you are able
to provide advice, support or mentoring to other areas, let us know here.
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Timescales for activity
The EPIC project will advise and guide successful pilot areas for a 9 month
time frame (May 2011 - February 2012), where it is envisaged that
participating areas would have gathered the evidence to inform the
identification of evidence based strategy priorities. Please check with your
all your strategic partners that they are happy to work with EPIC during this
timeframe (and beyond in terms of finalising and implementing the strategy)
before submitting your application to be a stage three pilot area.
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Commitment from key partners
It is also important to ensure that you get commitment to develop the
strategy from all your key strategic partners. This will ensure that the final
strategy is fully owned by health, local authority, the voluntary sector and
other key partners, and that the resources to implement the strategy can be
negotiated through the existing resources, or the reconfiguration of service
delivery across all local area delivery agents.
7 What if we cannot confirm commitment
immediately, or work within the timeframe?
If you cannot get a commitment from all your strategic partners, or all
partners cannot commit to identifying strategy priorities within the 6 month
timeframe, you may wish to consider developing your strategy outside of the
EPIC project's framework. The UK Vision Strategy Team can provide advice
and information, so that you can begin to develop your strategy when your
area is ready.
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What should we consider before applying to be a
round three pilot?
8.1 EPIC is an initiative that will guide local areas through the process of
evidencing the priorities that will be contained in your local vision
strategy/plan. There is no funding or grant award attached to the
successful application to EPIC.
8.2 Successful applicants will receive advice and support on possible
approaches to undertaking the key stages set out within the planning
guidance being tested and facilitation and negotiation of any barriers that
may impede the process of evidence gathering and strategy development.
Support will also be available through other areas developing their vision
strategies.
8.3 Is the commitment you have from strategic partners to the idea of
developing a vision strategy, or to actually developing it? If commitment is
only in principle, you are likely to spend a lot of time confirming actual
commitment - which will leave you with little time left to gather the evidence
to inform your strategy. You also have the potential of developing a partially
informed strategy with the input of key strategic partners missing if they are
not fully engaged from the outset.
8.4 Are you able to fully engage with all the strategic senior leads from
health, local authority, voluntary sector and advisory agencies across your
chosen geographical area? This is particularly important if you are working
across more than one local authority or specified area. If you are not sure,
consider scaling down to a smaller area.
8.5 If you agree to be the main contact for EPIC, are you happy to
negotiate with your strategic partners the gathering of evidence? It’s the role
of the lead to encourage all partners to jointly evidence the strategy - not to
try and do it all themselves.
8.6 If you are one of the main contacts for EPIC, you will also need to
consider how you will manage both the process of engaging with EPIC,
(which includes regular reporting), and facilitating the development and
implementation of a local vision strategy in addition to all your existing
commitments. You may wish to agree with partners who will be the main
contact before submitting the application - or you may decide to share the
process amongst two or three key partners.
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8.7 How will you bring the evidence together to identify your priorities?
You will need to get your partners to agree how you will analyse the
evidence that you gather. Although the EPIC project will be able to provide
advice and guidance, we need to make sure that ownership of the strategy
remains local - so we cannot bring your strategy together for you.
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I'm still interested - How do I apply?
If you are interested in being considered as one of the stage three pilot
areas, please complete and return the EPIC application form to Celia
Watson, EPIC Project Manager by 5pm on Friday 1 April 2011.
Additional information about the EPIC Project and the UK Vision Strategy is
available on the UK Vision Strategy website, or from Celia Watson, EPIC
Project manager
Direct Line:
Email:
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020 7874 1368
[email protected]