The Improving Healthcare Podcast

A new joint episode of The Improving Healthcare Podcast, produced in partnership between Develop Consulting and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).

Host Darren Jones is joined by Dr Huw Miles, GP and Deputy Lead for the Primary Care Development Team at RCGP, and Sue Blackman, Commercial Account Director at Develop Consulting, for a question led conversation on Practice Level Support (PLS), the NHS England improvement programme now supporting more than 1,000 general practices across England.

Together they cover what PLS actually looks like day to day, the national impact data, including call wait times down by up to 50% and as much as nine hours of clinical time freed up per week in some practices, and the two new strands, PLS Advanced and PLS Collaborate, running through to 2029.

They also set out exactly what practices, PCNs, ICBs and regions can do next if they want to access the programme.

Develop Consulting delivers PLS across East of England and North East and Yorkshire, RCGP across the Midlands, North West and South West.

Develop Consulting is a trusted healthcare improvement consultancy working across primary and secondary care, and a national delivery partner of NHS England's Practice Level Support programme.

To find out more, visit develop-consulting.co.uk or get in touch at [email protected].

In this episode of the Improving Healthcare Podcast, host Darren Jones talks to Sue Blackman, Develop Consulting's new Commercial Account Director, in the first instalment of our Healthcare Voices series.

Sue brings almost 30 years of NHS experience to the role, spanning national procurement, acute trust digital transformation, commissioning and primary care improvement. Most recently she worked at a commissioning support unit supporting the general practice improvement programme, where she first worked alongside Develop Consulting as a delivery partner.

In this conversation, Sue talks about why she made the move from the NHS to Develop Consulting, what her role as Commercial Account Director really involves day to day, and what she has learned from sitting on both sides of the NHS-consultancy relationship. She also reflects on a recent visit to a Toyota manufacturing facility and what it taught her about embedding continuous improvement into everyday culture, and shares her ambitions for the year ahead.

Develop Consulting is a trusted healthcare improvement consultancy working across primary and secondary care, and a founding delivery partner of NHS England's Practice Level Support programme.

To find out more, visit develop-consulting.co.uk or get in touch at [email protected].

Outpatient follow-ups account for 80% of elective activity in acute hospitals, yet despite years of NHS guidance and policy initiatives, progress remains slow. Why?

In this episode, host Darren Jones speaks with Dr Felix Davies, Healthcare Director at Develop Consulting, and Sajid Khan, Managing Healthcare Consultant, about why good guidance isn't enough.

The conversation explores the gap between policy and execution, why continuous improvement so often fails to deliver, and what real implementation looks like. Sajid shares a powerful example of clearing a 3,500-referral backlog and reducing wait times from 75 weeks to 24 hours.

The message is clear: the NHS doesn't need more guidance. It needs better execution.

What can Toyota teach the NHS?

More than you'd think. Steve Boam, CEO of Develop Consulting and former Toyota employee, and Jeremy Butler, Executive Director for Transformation at Imperial College NHS Trust, join host Darren Jones to discuss why Lean principles work in healthcare - and why continuous improvement so often fails.

They challenge how the NHS uses metrics, explore what world-class operational performance actually looks like, and explain why strategy is about choices - and what you don't do.

As ICBs and Trusts finalise 2026 budgets, Dr Felix Davies and Sajid Khan explain why continuous improvement capability is a strategic necessity, not an optional extra. Discover the difference between having a QI team and building genuine CI capability that delivers year after year.

Continuous improvement programmes across the NHS are failing.

Dr Felix Davies from Develop Consulting reveals why organisations get it wrong, from leaders operating behind desks to boards stuck on the hamster wheel avoiding hard problems, and explains what actually works in health and social care.

New research challenges the belief that adding more GP appointments increases capacity. Instead, it reveals practices are seeing the same patients more often, with 19% of consultations driven by “failure demand” from unresolved prior interactions.

In this episode of The Improving Healthcare Podcast, our expert panel explores why effectiveness, not volume, is the key to sustainable primary care:

• Nick Downham – Independent Health & Social Care Improvement Specialist

• Steve Boam – CEO, Develop Consulting

• Simon Bricknell – Senior Consultant

Drawing on over 15,000 practice improvement sessions and work with 3,000 GP practices, they uncover seven critical areas where practices lose capacity, from continuity of care to process variation.

🔍 Want to go deeper? Read the full whitepaper “General Practice – Prioritising Effectiveness Over Volume” here:
🔗 develop-consulting.co.uk/general-practice-prioritising-effectiveness-over-volume/

The NHS 10-Year Plan promises the most radical transformation in the service’s history – but how can healthcare leaders deliver such sweeping change while protecting patient outcomes?

In this essential episode, expert panelists move beyond policy rhetoric to share the practical realities of NHS transformation, drawing on real-world experience from across the country.

Our Panel:

• Dr Natasha Behl – GP Partner, Solihull Healthcare Partnership; Clinical Lead for Primary Care Workforce

• Nick Downham – Independent Health & Social Care Improvement Specialist

• Steve Boam – CEO, Develop Consulting

• Chair: Darren Jones – NHS Strategic Advisor

Key Topics:

• Neighbourhood Teams: What they really mean and how to implement them

• Workforce Sustainability: Building resilient, skilled teams

• Access vs Effectiveness: Why more appointments don’t equal better outcomes

• Digital Transformation: Lessons from frontline implementation

• Protecting Patient Outcomes during major change

• Implementation Methodology: Why some projects succeed and others fail

Real-World Insights:

• How one practice co-designed digital transformation with staff

• Why 19% of GP consultations are “failure demand”

• Data showing practices are seeing the same patients more frequently

• Psychological safety during change

• The “back to basics” approach before launching new initiatives

Who Should Listen:
Practice managers, PCN leads, ICB executives, healthcare improvement specialists, and anyone implementing neighbourhood working under the Ten Year Plan.

Recorded July 2025 | Duration: 60 minutes | Format: Expert panel with live Q&A