In the post-pandemic health and social care landscape, commissioners on the Integrated Care Board in Greater Manchester had a vision for a consistent, all-age digital clinical support offer across the region. Kooth was seen as a key part of this vision, due in part to our clinical efficacy and therapeutic approach, which lined up with the contracting authority’s strategy.
With our children and young people support offer already commissioned across the 10 regional clinical commissioning groups in the Integrated Care Sys
tem footprint, and our adult service ready to mobilise rapidly, we were well positioned to scale in the region to provide whole population su
pport from 10 years of age upwards. We
worked closely with the commissioners to unify the currently commissioned services and launch the new adult service.
Scale and scalability
Kooth’s combined offer is available to a total eligible population of 1.9 million people aged 10 and above in Greater Manchester. We were initially commissioned across the 10 Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) areas in the region but the new Integrated Care System structure coalesced these contracts to create a vertically integrated offer that provides seamless support across the region.
Engagement strategy
Using a combined top down and bottom up approach to engaging local stakeholders, influencers, healthcare bodies and potential service users, Kooth and Kooth Adult (Qwell) have become deeply embedded in the local system and clinical pathways. Combining a strategic level approach from our customer success team and account managers with on-the-ground delivery by our Kooth Engagement Leads enabled us to streamline our engagement and marketing approach and scale registrations quickly.
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An initial combined communications approach with NHS and ICS stakeholders was used to then cascade awareness, deliver promotional materials, and build stakeholder support throughout the healthcare system in Greater Manchester to all NHS providers, private and public, as well as local community providers and voluntary and community sector organisations.
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A simultaneous social media launch was also implemented to engage service users throughout the mobilisation period, scaling the service quickly.
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Seminars for the public and for NHS teams, tailored to the required audience, were promoted and delivered across the region to maximise awareness.
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Promotional materials were designed and localised to maximise reach and engagement, and then disseminated through the online Kooth Promotional Hub where local stakeholders and service providers can download digital Kooth content or order physical collateral.
Our service user marketing strategy also included a significant element of social media promotion. Internally, a communications planning matrix was built to track, manage and implement this engagement plan, which in turn was disseminated to local stakeholders and the commissioning authority.
Impact
The execution of our engagement plan in the region has seen a significant uptake across all 10 areas. Qwell, for example, saw:
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4,600 new registrations between October and December 2023
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12,000 logins
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Over 1,000 chat/counselling sessions in the same period
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94% of users stated they would recommend Qwell to a friend
In addition, the granularity and depth of reporting allows stakeholders to understand the mental health of their constituent populations, comparing regional trends, understanding the difference between rural and urban presenting issues, viewing year on year comparisons, and breaking down data by age, ethnicity, and gender.