NECS National DTOS Team played a pivotal role in supporting a national initiative to embed Business Intelligence Demand and Capacity solutions within Primary Care on behalf of NHS England. The focus was on creating a comprehensive toolkit designed to support successful implementation in General Practice.
Published on NHS Futures, this toolkit offers practical guidance, including core principles, optimisation strategies, common pitfalls, best practice recommendations, and real-world examples.
To ensure its relevance and effectiveness, the team worked closely with a pilot group, incorporating their feedback to refine the resources. Through this collaborative approach, the team established a structured, evidence-based framework for adopting Demand and Capacity solutions across Primary Care.
The challenge
Prior to the project, many practices were implementing Demand and Capacity solutions without the necessary business change support to maximise their effectiveness. This lack of structured guidance meant that practices often struggled to understand how to integrate the tools into their operational workflows.
As a result, functionality was underutilised, and the intended benefits such as improved planning, resource allocation, and patient flow were not being realised. The absence of clear principles, best practice frameworks, and practical support created inconsistencies in adoption and limited the overall impact of the national initiative.
The solution
To address the challenges, a comprehensive toolkit was designed to optimise the use of Demand and Capacity tools in Primary Care. The toolkit included three core components: Basic Principles, outlining key concepts, best practice guidance, and essential terminology to build a strong foundation; a Case Study Catalogue, featuring real-world use cases grouped by themes such as Appointment Demand, Avoidable Appointments, Continuity of Care, Reattendance within 7 days, Signposting, Workforce Planning, and Wound Care; and Resources and Templates, providing practical guidance, policy documents, and links to research and support materials.
Implementation involved close collaboration with the national team and a pilot group of practices actively undergoing business change, ensuring the toolkit was informed by real operational insights. Each Practice had varying levels of digital maturity with some resistance to change. These challenges were managed by creating an open dialogue with key stakeholders early, providing hands-on support and iteratively refining the toolkit based on their user experiences and valued feedback.
The results
As a result of the project, practices moved from fragmented and inconsistent use of Demand and Capacity tools to a structured, evidence-based approach. This change improved operational planning and resource allocation, enabling practices to better match capacity to patient demand. For patients, this translated into improved access to appointments, reduced waiting times, and more continuity of care.
Staff benefited from clearer processes, reduced administrative burden, and data-driven insights that supported workforce planning and workload management. Services became more efficient, with timely data informing decisions on staffing models and service design.
Ongoing benefits include the ability to use historic trends for future planning, maintain data consistency across practices, and meet national reporting requirements. Ultimately, the toolkit has created a sustainable framework that supports continuous improvement in patient access and service delivery across Primary Care.
“…appreciated from the first session this was not going to be a tick box exercise, and that the work they would be doing within the programme would be tailored to meet the needs of the practice…”