This case study describes how the team at Whittington Health, as part of their work on the Health Foundation’s Co-creating Health programme, developed a systematic approach to working with GP practices to recruit patients to attend the Patient Skills Programme.

The structured approach led to positive results suggesting there is a positive difference in the number of patients recruited to the Patient Skills Programme when the GP (not just the Practice Nurse) is engaged in the process.

Key learning from the process includes:

• Identify one key champion who acts a representative from the GP practice.
• Clearly identify who needs to be targeted for the Patient Skills Programme based on health needs analysis (high HbA1c, diabetes for > 1 year, attended DESMOND or structured education before).
• Ensure that local clinicians are all active recruiters to the programme.
• Continue to carry out a multi-pronged recruitment strategy.