Sheffield Primary Care Network become first Primary Care Network to accredit all sites at an ‘approved’ level

Sheffield Primary Care Network become the first Primary Care Network to accredit all sites at an ‘approved’ level within Modeshift STARS

Sheffield Foundry Primary Care Network (PCN) have recently developed their first Travel Policy. This will support over 200 employees to travel by a range of means across all eight GP surgery sites.

Here, NHS GP Partner; Dr Jo Maher, tells us more about the recent work undertaken to develop Foundry Primary Care Networks first Travel Plan Policy.

Primary care has a vital role to play in achieving the ambitious Greener NHS target for a Net Zero NHS.  We know teams across the country, large and small are motivated and keen to contribute where they can and travel and transport plays a large part within this.

How has the National Travel Plan framework within Modeshift STARS Business supported the development of the Travel Policy.

Through Modeshift STARS Healthcare, we have gained an increased understanding of the needs of our primary care workforce. As an employer this has been very valuable: staff are our greatest asset and we want to support them to make greener but also healthier choices for themselves and ultimately also their families too. Modeshift accreditation also helps us to think about the needs of our patient population, both for travel and access to services. This is especially true for people living with a disability.

Have you been able to embed physical sustainable travel practices following the development of a Travel Plan and Travel Plan Policy.

With the work we’ve done at Foundry PCN in partnership with the excellent Modeshift STARS accreditation program, we have started to embed sustainable practices into staff travel habits and have had valuable conversations about what matters and what can help, which we can feed back into our ICB Green Plan.

How do you plan to keep developing moving forward to further enhance opportunities at each of the eight sites to travel by active and sustainable means alongside when required by vehicle.    

The team’s learning journey doesn’t stop here, this is just the start. It’s very useful to have access to the excellent Modeshift toolkit and also the expertise support of Team Modeshift.  With their expertise and business experience, we’ve got a lot farther than if we tried to do this independently. I would thoroughly recommend practice and PCN teams using Modeshift as we continue to react towards wider NHS ambitions.