Trust Board Febuary 2010 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

SWBGB NEW REF
SWBTB (2/10) 030 (a)
effort by those remaining in the R & D office, the Trust was not able to respond to the
new national strategy without external assistance. As a result, Research Management
and Governance (RM&G) duties, introduced in 2008, were contracted to Heart of
England Foundation Trust (HEFT).
4.2.5 The Trust adopted an R & D Policy in June 2007 which is due for review in October 2009
by the Governance Board.
4.2.6 Research and development are monitored by quarterly meetings of the R & D
Committee. The Constitution of the Committee was last reviewed in August 2006.
4.3 Key drivers influencing change in the Trust R & D strategy
4.3.1 The central driver for change in the Trust’s R & D strategy is the government’s new
national health research strategy. 1 The Trust needs to embrace the central ethos of this
strategy of improving the health and wealth of the nation by improving the Trust’s
research base.
4.3.2 The recent staff shortages in the R & D Department have demonstrated very clearly that
the Department cannot function without the required workforce being in post and
remaining stable to develop expertise and institute change.
4.3.3 Historically, research finances at the Trust have been distributed as part of the baseline
income and have not been directly related to research activity. With the new funding
streams from the NIHR via the CLRNs, such financial arrangements are no longer
tenable. The Trust must develop transparent systems with income going directly to
departments to cover the costs of medical and nursing time and other research costs.
Without these fundamental changes, the Trust risks losing funding in the region of £1
million per annum.
4.3.4 The key break on research nationwide is the availability of staff time. This includes
medical staff, through the lack of availability of local Principal Investigator (PI) time, and
a shortage of research nurses and other research support staff. Funding for both PI and
other research staff time is now being made available by the CLRNs, but the Trust’s
existing financial arrangements are not allowing this funding to stimulate new research
as it should. The new national funding streams should be encouraging the Trust’s PIs to
apply for more support to do more research, but the lack of any guarantee that the funds
will reach them is deterring many from applying.
4.3.5 With the reality of the new hospital build in 2015 incorporating a purpose built clinical
research and education facility, SWBH Trust is at a key turning point for the promotion of
research. The new research facility will provide the opportunity to bring many of its
existing research teams together in one structure which will generate more research
collaborations. The Trust should also be planning to expand its research base by the
appointment of new clinical academics in collaboration with the University of Birmingham
ahead of the new build.
4.3.6 Novel NIHR funding streams are generating new external collaborations for the Trust
which must be supported:
• Relationships with the Birmingham & Black Country (BBC) CLRN and the TSRN’s have
already been discussed.
• The Trust is part of a successful bid to develop a NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in
Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC). 5 Only nine CLAHRCs have been
established. These will undertake high-quality applied health research focused on the
needs of patients and will support the translation of research evidence into practice in
the NHS. CLAHRCs are collaborative partnerships between a university and the
surrounding NHS organisations, focused on improving patient outcomes through the
conduct and application of applied health research. They will create and embed
approaches to research and its dissemination that are specifically designed to take
Research and Development Strategy Page 6 of 10
SWBH Research and Development Strategy 2009-2011. Version 1.2. January 2010