MS nursing: business plan toolkit
In the current financial climate, all MS specialist nurses will need to be able to justify how they provide cost-effective services which give significant clinical benefit.
Most NHS Trusts, PCTs and all Foundation Trusts are run by accountants. Therefore, being able to make a case for why the MS specialist nursing service can save the employer money is vital to ensure that care for people with MS continues to be as good as it can be.
However, nurses want to care for people - not become bean counters! So the MS Trust has devised this toolkit to help make the whole business planning experience as painless as possible.
There are versions of the tooklit designed for nurses working in England and in Scotland. Specific plans for the rest of the UK are being developed.
What's inside
This toolkit contains:
Business plan
The Business Plan, the main element of the toolkit, is essential for every service, although some elements are more relevant to some services than others. We've made this as straightforward as possible by completing all the core elements of the Business Plan for you. This includes supporting evidence in terms of government policy and research where needed. Completing it and tailoring it for your service will require some number crunching and getting some of the information together may be painful. But done once, it does get easier. Some of the information can also be used for other purposes, eg clinical audit.
Appendices
The Appendices are there to help you evaluate what you are doing, what works, what doesn't, and how the service can develop. These will be essential if the service is under threat or if you would like to develop certain elements or expand practice, or are resisting some service change that will simply be too much.
Example of a business plan
Debbie Quinn, the MS specialist nurse in Wellingborough, has kindly agreed to let us make her business plan available as a guide for colleagues.
- Example of a business plan (pdf 75kb)
How to download the toolkit
The toolkit is a Word document. Right click on the link below and choose 'Save target as...' to save the file to your computer. You can then adapt it to your own service and insert local information. If the pages seem too small, in the toolbar, click on 'View' and choose 'Zoom' to make them bigger.
- MS Trust Business Plan Toolkit - England (doc 315kb)
- MS Trust Business Plan Toolkit - Scotland (doc 231kb)
- MS Trust Business Plan Toolkit - Northern Ireland (doc 207kb)