About CES Consultancy
The consultancy is run by Claire Allen, an experienced Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist who specialises in Community Equipment provision.
About Claire
With 8 years experience of managing special ordering and developing services, Claire brings a wealth of experience from her paediatric and community OT background in a variety of settings.
2014
In 2014 Claire pioneered her first role as an Equipment Advisor for Sandwell Joint Equipment Service. At the time, OTs were not commonplace within these services, so she set out to embed new practice to bring organisation and strategy to the management of special ordering.
Within 12 months Claire had demonstrated savings of over £400,000, and the role was soon established within the service.
2017
In 2017, Claire was approached by neighbouring Birmingham and invited to set up a similar role there. As a much larger area with a population of 1.2 million, this was a fantastic opportunity to bring the knowledge and skills she had developed in Sandwell to a new area.
Within one year Claire was able to take a massively overspent specials budget (averaging £150k per month) and reduce it by ⅔ (to under £50k per month).
This reduction has been maintained for 5 years, saving approximately £1.2 million per year. This was not done by cutting provision for those with assessed need, but in careful clinical gatekeeping, organisation of process, massively increased use of recycled specials and strategic purchasing.
2019
In 2019 Claire was approached by the OT service lead in Solihull to support the process of employment and mentoring of their own CES OT, based on success in Birmingham.
Via monthly supervision and support, the new CES OT quickly developed her competency and skills in her new service area. By six months she was well established in role and confident to move forward in developing their service without this specialist support.
Since then, Claire has supported several other services with development of their special ordering and clinical gatekeeping, and is also a key member of the NAEP midlands regional group, being regularly consulted by members in cases of complex specialist equipment provision.
You can read more of the impact of Claire’s interventions via our testimonials tab
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