British Dental Association. Strategy

Transcription

1 British Dental Association Strategy

2 Foreword by Mick Armstrong, Chair of the Principal Executive Committee Put simply, a membership organisation is its members. And like all organisations financial resource and stability is essential to providing service and support. At first pass then, it may have been attractive to frame this strategy document in terms of how many members we aspire to have and how much money we seek to generate. However, following extensive consideration of the road before us, such aspirations and targets would be trite in the absence of a serious consideration of what we are and what we do. Needless to say, everything set out in this strategy is based on a desire to serve our members they remain at the heart of everything we do. However, across the whole social demographic there has been a significant change in attitudes to belonging. In times gone by membership of a professional group or affinity association would represent a normal course of behaviour this given no longer applies. Only if there are perceived and immediate benefits will people join and remain members of associations. We have also seen significant year on year real terms erosion of dentists disposable incomes. This reduction in spending power makes them be more discriminating on what they spend their money on. How dentists transact has changed, including new approaches to learning, reading, buying and access. These social developments are unrecognisable when compared with behaviours as little as ten years ago. With the use of online purchasing, e-books and social media platforms, it is safe to say that the way we all do business has been revolutionised. What is possible has also changed. The technological revolution is much vaunted limitations have disappeared and opportunities have progressively multiplied. As such it is essential to consider which elements of the old order should be retained and which innovative solutions should be adopted to augment or replace them. It is important to consider when and where people avail themselves of services. National devolution has generated wide divergence of the experience of dentists throughout the UK. As a committed UK organisation we are determined to offer support to all. At a domestic level individuals are making choices about what they do at home and what they do at gatherings. The Association needs to be live to these changes and choices if it is to serve its membership effectively. But the pressures and challenges facing the UK dental profession have never been so great. A failing professional regulator, straitened public funds, and ongoing delays and uncertainty in relation to contract reform put the profession at risk and under stress. We will continue in our efforts to tackle these issues and make progress in these areas. This is the very time when a strong Association is needed most. We enter our 136th year having modernised our representative and governance structures to deliver greater clarity and efficiency. We have rationalised our membership structure to allow greater choice in the support required, and will keep this under review to ensure it is fit for purpose. It is now time for us to prioritise our operations to serve a changing profession. Though our resources are constrained our ambitions to support and meet the needs of the profession are great. All aspects of our mission statement remain important and we will continue to act as a professional organisation campaigning on oral and public health issues. However, we need to make tough choices. The strategy represents an articulation of those choices, concentrating on relevance, service and modern methods of working. In doing so we can be confident of a growing membership and a financially robust Association. Page 1 Mick Armstrong Chair, Principal Executive Committee June 2015

3 Strategy This document sets out the strategic and operational themes for the British Dental Association for the next three years. The themes have been chosen in recognition of the significant challenges facing the profession. They represent the Principal Executive Committee s (PEC) view of how the Association should equip itself to best support its members. The themes have been developed following detailed preparatory work by the Senior Management Team, discussion and consideration by the PEC, and feedback from Country Councils and staff. Implementing the new strategic and operational themes will involve the delivery of a comprehensive programme of work. In the months ahead details of what this will entail will be set out by the Senior Management Team through specific papers brought to the PEC for discussion and agreement. Before setting out the Association s strategic and operational themes it is important to provide some context and background by outlining the Association s core activities and reiterating our mission, values and beliefs. Mission The Association s mission statement was last formally articulated in It sets out that we will: Promote the interests of our members; Advance the art, science and ethics of dentistry; Improve the nation s oral health. It is our view that this mission remains as relevant today as it was nearly 20 years ago. Values, beliefs and actions In developing the new governance and organisational structure that led to the creation of the PEC, the Association set out its core values (what it believes) and its actions (what the Association will do). These values, beliefs and actions directly relate to our mission, continue to be pertinent and have helped the development of our new strategic themes. Our values: As a membership organisation, the Association s duty is to serve the needs of its members; As a trade union, our fundamental belief is that together, we can achieve more than we could individually. Our beliefs: Members are at the heart of everything we do; Together, we are stronger. Using these core values to guide the organisation, we are committed to: Support our members throughout their professional lives; Use our influence for the benefit of members, the dental profession and patients; Share our collective knowledge and expertise. Page 2

4 Core activity In developing our strategic themes for the next three years it is necessary to confirm the core areas of activity that relate to the Association s mission, values, beliefs and actions. The following diagrammatic representation describes how the Association supports its members; works to influence; and shares its collective knowledge and expertise. It demonstrates a natural split between trade union and lobbying activity on the one hand, and advice and education on the other. Underpinning all of the Association s activities is its reliance on knowledge. Media & Public Affairs / Research National & International Representation Oral Health message - patient involvement Lobbying Advice Online One-to-one Publications Knowledge Ts&Cs Negotiation Representation Trade Union Education Online Journals Conference Events Local Branches and Sections Preparing the strategy The mission, values, beliefs and actions continue to underpin the day to day work of the Association, and have been instrumental in preparing our new strategic themes. This preparatory work involved reviewing the organisation both structurally and financially and looking at how key areas of responsibility are currently divided. It also became apparent through this preparatory work that our research, analysis and ability to interpret events provide us with a clearer understanding of the dental landscape than any other organisation. This understanding has allowed us to identify significant competing challenges now facing the profession, and recognise that there are opportunities to improve our internal operation and external regard by enhancing our systems and exploiting the technological resources we have available. Strategic themes The following strategic themes have been selected as a culmination of these efforts. They fit naturally into the four core areas identified as being key to our day to day activities, and relate directly to our mission, values, beliefs and actions. Over the next three years we will: 1. Develop and enhance our communications with members, stakeholders and across our structures; 2. Explore the differentiated nature of our UK wide membership and address the needs of our communities of members at a local and national level; 3. Improve how we represent and serve associates, both individually and collectively; 4. Examine the impact of the various types of dental practice ownership on the working lives of dentists; 5. Identify the causes of stress in the profession and provide assistance to those affected; Page 3

5 6. Set out the key components of an acceptable system of professional regulation and advocate its adoption; 7. Enhance our educational offering to members, non-member dentists and dental care professionals in order to establish the Association as the principal source of high quality professional learning and development. Operational themes The successful implementation of this strategy involves the delivery of specific operational themes within the organisation. This will involve investment, re-organisation and redeployment of resources. Our strategic themes will be supported by: 1. Developing a comprehensive communications strategy, reviewing our engagement with members, non-member dentists, dental care professionals and other stakeholders, and strengthening our communications function to enhance the speed, consistency and accessibility of our messaging; 2. Examining our local, regional and national structures and developing new ways to meet the changing needs of these member communities; 3. Reviewing our current offering for associates and identifying new ways to meet their needs both individually, collectively and democratically through the Association s committee structure; 4. Improving our member intelligence to allow a thorough analysis of membership trends including member needs, behaviours and preferences, and identifying opportunities to attract non-members; 5. Upgrading the Association s technological infrastructure to enhance service delivery; 6. Developing an extensive range of high quality educational offerings to enhance our connection within the wider dental community and provide opportunities for increased income generation; 7. Researching and delivering support as appropriate to help members facing professional stress; 8. Exploring members views (through web-user and membership surveys, focus groups and regional debates) on the key components of an acceptable system of professional regulation, and campaigning for the inclusion of these in a system of regulation that is truly proportionate, consistent, transparent, targeted and accountable; 9. Gathering intelligence about the shape of the current dental practice ownership market to better understand the impact of the various ownership methods on the working lives of dentists; 10. Redesigning our internal operations to focus our member-facing activity around representation, advice and support, and learning. These operational themes are described in more detail below. Reviewing our methods of communications and engagement A comprehensive communications strategy will be developed to align our communications approach with our new strategic themes and long-standing core activities. The Association has improved its focus in recent years and demonstrated a significantly greater presence within the dental sector. Our efforts in Parliamentary lobbying and networking within the general media have also increased. We will build upon these earlier initiatives to raise still further the profile of the Association s key dento-political and oral health issues. This will turn on strengthening our public affairs activities and investing in systems that allow us better strategic management of our messaging, greater coherence between communications channels, and improved internal working across the organisation. In developing our communications strategy we will focus on the communication challenges facing the Association; the audiences we are working hard to influence; the choices we have in terms of channels; the resources required; the stages we need to go through; and how we will evaluate success. Once this has been agreed and put in place it will give greater clarity and focus to our wider messaging, enable us to use our voice to better effect, and encourage members to engage more with the Association. This will Page 4

6 also impact the more tactical/operational elements of the organisation, allowing us to define our digital communications under this remit. Meeting the needs of our member communities The majority of our UK-wide membership will not come into contact with the Association at a central level or at our London base. Members are currently supported by a Branches and Sections network that is funded centrally but managed locally. This central support can only provide limited assistance and as such the success of Branches and Sections rely heavily on volunteers the results of these efforts is mixed in terms of member experience, value, cost and overall quality. As a result, we will review the current funding and support model and explore alternative options. We will seek to improve the consistency and quality of our offering and explore a more robust model of delivery in light of reduced volunteer support. This will specifically include a review of our ability to deliver a range of quality educational and professional networking events that are managed and supported centrally but delivered at a local level. Serving the differing needs of our member communities also means recognising increasing national divergence. The PEC remains wholly committed to offering a comprehensive membership service to dentists across all four countries of the UK. This includes ensuring the needs of those working in community and salaried settings in each country are met, and that these members are properly supported throughout their working lives. We will continue to review the differing needs of members and the appropriateness of the Association s representative structures in the light of the ever-changing landscape. Supporting associates Although we have significant resources to advise associates, and provide a number of services and products specifically for them, we will undertake a detailed review of the services and products we have in place that are relevant to associates, and will explore what we can do to improve, expand and better signpost members to the services and products we provide. We will also examine how our services and products are packaged, and identify changes that can be made to improve how associates access and receive them. We will engage with associates, directly and through relevant committees, to help us identify current priorities for associates in practise, and provide a focus for new resources or the expansion of our existing offering, as necessary. We will also consider how to best represent associates through our committee structures. We will review the way we deliver advice services and explore the merits of a separation of our advice resources for associates and practice owners. This will encompass a review of our IT systems, our compliance requirements and our day to day working arrangements. It will tie in with the review of our methods of communications and engagement, exploring specifically how we engage with associates and how we communicate with them. We will also ensure that, where possible, the other strategic and operational themes set out in this document have regard to, and make provision for, the needs and interests of associates. Improving our member intelligence We are currently less than two years into a new membership system and are therefore only part way through understanding the full impact of these changes. Although the breakdown of members in each membership tier seems relatively stable, we know that members needs and behaviours are changing as they adapt to the new system. The structure of our current tiered membership system allows us to use the tools at our disposal to adapt our offering accordingly. We will focus our efforts to better understand these behaviours, explore the expectations of our members, and build our offerings around this. To do this we will regularly engage with members to understand their needs, and gather sufficient insight to understand the market and the demands of non-members. This development work is ongoing and will inform our actions by helping us understand what our members value, identify gaps in our offering, realign our services and pricing, and understand how our members engage with the Association. Page 5

7 Improving our technological infrastructure In recent years we have invested in a Learning Management System (LMS), which hosts our CPD Hub and will be used to run all the Association s online courses. Our market leading radiography training course is now run via the LMS and our oral health education training course will follow shortly. We will migrate onto the LMS a new course that facilitates the training of decontamination assistants, and migrate others that are in development. The technological building blocks now in place allow the Association to become a significant online trainer and examination body. The Association has migrated its web technologies into a Microsoft SharePoint environment. This development generated substantial financial savings and offers the potential for greater flexibility in the context of web design, usability and improved offer for the extranet. Using this platform we will develop an effective intranet; facilitating improved collaboration, document handling and storage and internal communication. We will move our data storage onto the cloud to significantly increasing storage capacity as well as improve business continuity, data backups and other web-based services. In addition to these ongoing developments, a sustained period of investment in both technology and staff-mix will be needed to ensure we reap the full rewards of the systems already in place and can support the delivery of our wider strategic and operational themes. Developing our educational offerings The Association offers a range of educational activities for members and non-members and dedicated courses for the dental team. Over the next three years, we will use our improved technologies to ensure our educational offerings are fully integrated and streamlined to improve the user experience and establish the Association as the first choice for high quality continuing professional development for all members of the dental team. We will further develop our online courses for dental care professionals and expand this offering to include member and non-member dentists. We see our educational activities as an important connection with all members of the dental team and part of the wider enhancement of dental practice. Helping those experiencing professional stress Stress within the profession has been identified as a key theme by the PEC, and other BDA committees, for some time now. We are committed to deliver a comprehensive piece of research over the next 12 to 18 months which will seek to establish the prevalence of mental health problems and burnout in UK dentistry; understand the relationship between mental ill health, burnout, high job stress and working conditions among dentists, and how these relationships may vary; and understand dentists experiences of mental ill health and burnout and how these impact on dentists work and careers. Our research will also identify strategies for promoting emotional and mental well-being at work among dentists and for better supporting dentists, and raise awareness of mental-health issues and the risk of burnout. This research will enable us to better promote the wellbeing of dentists at work, and also allow us to consider and develop further support for those who experience burnout or mental health problems. Developing an approach to professional regulation Professional regulation in all sectors has changed radically over the last fifteen years. When viewed in the context of these wide-ranging changes it is important to be aware of the level of influence that any one profession can have in this area. Our approach up until recently has been reactive to adverse circumstances we will now proactively begin to describe the key components of a system that we think would work in the interests of patients and in a way that does not cause harm and distress within the profession. For professional regulation to be meaningful it must gather information and apply sanctions where necessary. As a result, it will always involve a degree of intrusion into the lives of dentists. We will seek to correct what has been seen as excessive interference coupled with reduced patient protection into something that delivers better on both fronts. We will therefore begin a debate amongst members about what professional regulation should look like, and develop a set of proposals with which to approach parliament. Page 6

8 Examining the impact of different practice ownership methods After many years of acquisitions, consolidations and development, coupled with radical changes in the way NHS dentistry is commissioned, a small number of large commercially-led companies now constitute a significant part of the dental practice market. Some dentists have also taken advantage of changes in the law to organise themselves more in line with corporate enterprise. This has resulted in a general practice dental market that can be broadly described as comprising of large commercial corporates, smaller practitioner led corporates and independent practitioner-owned practices. The way that practices are owned will have a significant impact on the working arrangements of the practitioners within them. Conscious that there are many myths and rumours surrounding the different arrangements, we will gather better intelligence about the shape of the practice ownership market and its impact on the working lives of our members. Redesigning our internal operations In order for us to better deliver our core activities and implement the strategic and operational themes set out above, we will refocus our member-facing activity around three areas. These are Representation, Advice & Support and Learning. Whilst, as descriptors these headings accurately describe a number of things that we do now, we believe that by designing the organisation around them and restructuring our internal management functions to reflect them, we will be able to drive greater efficiency, coherence and clarity. We will consult with staff over the restructuring of these functions. Funding change These areas of activity represent a substantial agenda of change. The investments and organisational refinements outlined above will also mean that we will need to be innovative in the way we deploy our resources. Our detailed planning to deliver this programme of change over the next three years will include consideration of how any changes will be funded and how the staging of any changes will be organised. Included in these considerations will be how 64 Wimpole Street, the Association s largest single financial asset, could be best used in the interests of our members. This work will take place with staff input and be presented to the PEC for consideration. A stronger voice This strategy and the accompanying organisational work streams represents a much needed redefinition of the Association s approach to meet the changing needs of the dental profession. It is our hope that by responding to these changes through the implementation of this strategy we will be able to recruit and retain more members across the UK and thereby strengthen the Association in its role as the voice of dentistry. BDA Principal Executive Committee June 2015 Page 7