(2) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of use of customer journey mapping to improve services in the NHS.
The Department is supportive of local organisations and frontline staff using customer journey mapping and has worked with Cabinet Office to develop a tool kit for frontline staff. The Department recognises that focusing on user experience is a key way in driving efficiencies in the system and releasing further savings. Better understanding of our customers is a key tool for accelerating quality improvements across the national health service. The toolkits for customer journey mapping (and customer segmentation and customer satisfaction) are freely available and published on the Cabinet Office website at:
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/public_service_reform/innovation/resources.aspx
The Department does not collect centrally any data regarding the number of NHS initiatives which employ the technique nor do we have a system for evaluating individual projects. The toolkits do stress the importance of evaluation and provide methods for doing so.