Background
The East Midlands Radiotherapy Network brings together five radiotherapy providers, alongside the Cancer Alliance and Specialised Commissioning.
The network is supported by a central team including a network manager, quality improvement officer, administrative support and clinical leads.
Its role is to support cohesive collaboration across organisations, ensuring that stakeholder requirements are met across the whole system.
The network’s shared purpose is to improve cancer care across the East Midlands by facilitating equitable access to high quality, evidence based and innovative
radiotherapy. Central to this is collaborative working, shared expertise, and creating safe, sustainable services that continue to evolve and improve outcomes and experience for patients and staff.
Xytal worked in partnership with the network to design and facilitate a structured engagement event, supporting the network to step back, take stock, and create a shared foundation for future work.
The network is operating within a changing NHS landscape. National direction continues to evolve, with upcoming priorities including the three shifts, the national cancer plan, and the ten year workforce plan. Alongside this, there is a growing set of operational commitments that will shape the year ahead
The challenge
The network was managing a complex and evolving set of expectations.
While there was strong commitment across organisations, there was less clarity around:
- A shared purpose that connected the network
- A common set of values to guide behaviours and ways of working
- Clear, agreed priorities for the next twelve months
- Ownership and structure to turn priorities into action
Without this, there was a risk that activity would remain fragmented, with effort spread across multiple areas without a clear sense of direction.
Approach
Xytal designed and facilitated a one day engagement event to bring stakeholders together and create alignment.
The session focused on co creation, using structured facilitation to ensure that outputs reflected the experience and insight of the network itself.
The approach was built around FOUR key stages:
1. Why
The day opened by creating a shared understanding of why the network had come together.
This included recognising the wider NHS context and the need to define a clear identity that could guide future work.
Participants explored what connects them across the network.
Using story-based discussion, colleagues shared real experiences from their work. These stories were used to identify common themes and what matters most across the network.
Key words, phrases and ideas were captured to begin shaping a shared sense of purpose.
2. Defining purpose and values
Building on these discussions, participants worked in groups to define the values and behaviours that underpin the network.
This included:
- Identifying three to five core values
- Clustering similar ideas to find common ground
- Developing a draft purpose statement
This created the first working version of the network’s purpose and values.
3. From purpose to priorities
The focus then shifted to translating purpose into practical direction.
Participants reviewed:
- National priorities, including the three shifts, national cancer plan and workforce planning
- Local priorities across providers
Using this, groups identified and shortlisted priority themes that aligned with the network’s purpose and values.
4. Action planning and commitments
The final stage focused on turning priorities into action.
Small groups worked through structured templates to define:
- A twelve month ambition for each priority
- Two to three practical actions
- Named leads
- Resource considerations
These were then shared across the network to build a collective view of next steps and ownership.
What was delivered
The engagement event provided a clear and structured way for the network to align.
It created space for reflection, discussion and decision making, moving from shared experience through to practical action.
The process ensured that:
- All voices could contribute
- Ideas were captured and developed collaboratively
- Outputs were owned by the network rather than imposed externally
Output
The event produced a set of tangible outputs that can now guide the network’s work.
Shared purpose
A working purpose statement that reflects what matters most across the network and what it is there to achieve.
Values and behaviours
A shared set of values that describe how the network works together and what it expects from its members.
Agreed priorities
A shortlist of priority themes for the next twelve months, aligned to both national direction and local need.
Initial actions and ownership
Clear first steps for each priority, including:
- Defined actions
- Named leads
- Consideration of resources
Replicable model
A structured approach that can be used again to review and reset priorities in the future.
What this means in practice
The network now has a clearer foundation to guide its work.
There is a shared understanding of:
- Why the network exists
- What it is trying to achieve
- Where it should focus its efforts
- Who is responsible for taking work forward
This creates a more consistent and coordinated approach across organisations.
Reflections
Creating space to step back from day to day pressures allowed the network to focus on what matters most.
The use of real stories helped ground the discussion in lived experience, rather than abstract planning.
Moving from purpose through to priorities and actions in a single day helped maintain momentum and avoid disconnect between strategy and delivery.
“This has been an excellent project and is already having an impact, thank you for your friendly and professional support in helping us ensure our network not only continues but thrives.” Suzi Jordan – Head of Radiotherapy, LRI, Leicester
Next steps
The outputs from the event provide a starting point rather than an end point. The focus now is on:
- Refining and embedding the purpose and values
- Progressing agreed priorities over the next twelve months
- Maintaining momentum through clear ownership and follow up
- Using the same structured approach to review progress over time
Summary
This engagement supported the East Midlands Radiotherapy Network to define its collective purpose, agree priorities, and take the first steps towards coordinated action.
Through structured facilitation and close partnership working, Xytal supported the network to move from broad ambition to a clearer, shared direction for the year ahead.
