Volute nominated as finalist for Excellence in Collaboration award for Virtual Venue

Volute has been nominated as finalist in the Nottinghamshire Business Awards for an innovative partnership project which has significantly increased the number of healthcare professions receiving training to develop their understanding of personality disorders.

Volute in partnership with Touch Design and West London NHS Trust have been nominated for an award in Excellence in Collaboration from the East Midlands Chamber. The category aims to recognise and celebrate successful business partnerships where organisations have collaborated on a project with successful outcomes for those involved.

The project being submitted for the Excellence in Collaboration category is our ground-breaking Virtual Venue platform, jointly developed in-house by Volute and Touch Design, and now aiding public sector organisations nationwide in their public engagement and staff training needs.

What problems is Virtual Venue solving?

Public sector organisations have a frequent need to bring together individuals and teams from their own organisation and multi-agency to collaborate, share experience, understand and improve practice. Such meetings offer a great opportunity to learn new skills, raise morale and transform services. But time and resources are always stretched in the public/not-for-profit sector. Travel to training sessions, events and conferences, and car parking difficulties at the venue, all increase pressure on the valuable commodity of staff time. 

Web-based training and conferencing can be a great solution or alternative to a physical meeting. Originally devised during the Covid-19 pandemic, Virtual Venue has been created as a bespoke online destination that caters for web event, training and conferencing needs. From quick catch-ups to day-long training sessions and multi-day international conferences, this browser-based platform brings together functionality such as webinars, video conferencing, chat forums and online whiteboards all in one place. The response from public sector employers in addressing their events and staff training needs has been sensational.

Who's benefiting from Virtual Venue?

A number of clients, many in the health sector are now using Virtual Venue but we will concentrate here on a case study of our work on the Knowledge and Understanding Framework Programme (KUF), which provides specialist mental health training to staff nationwide in the following types of organisation:

• NHS 
• Prison
• Forensic Mental Health
• Probation
• Police 
• Courts
• GPs
• Social Care
• Local Authority
• Independent sector 

The KUF programme, is a truly collaborative venture. It is commissioned by:

• Health Education England on behalf of NHS England
• His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service

The Programme is led and delivered in a partnership between:

• West London NHS Trust
• Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
• University College London 

The KUF Virtual Venue technical platform was built and developed by:

• Volute Limited
• Touch Design  

How is Virtual Venue better than other platforms?

Virtual Venue not only brings together a community of colleagues into an online forum but does so avoiding the IT download difficulties of other alternative platforms. It has a number of options that enhance the user experience, enabling everything from small group chat to national or international events. A clear and attractive ‘entrance room’ opens doors to all the useful features. There are FAQs and self-help videos and a dedicated member of the support team is always available at every event. 

Virtual Venue has everything a client needs for the perfect online event. As it is browser-based, clients do not need specialist software or have to download anything. As many clients using Virtual Venue are within the NHS, they are assured by its industry accreditation, video encryption, data privacy and fully-managed security updates via UK-based data centres. 

What has been the benefit to West London NHS Trust's KUF programme?

The KUF’s training programmes are provided to 54 NHS Trusts, as well as partner organisations. The training platforms for KUF delivers multiple training sessions per day, most days of the week. 

The aim of using Virtual Venue was to increase participation and the opportunities for interaction and learning. As Virtual Venue is an online platform, this training option has provided significant environmental benefits. 

It is providing a sustainable training option, evaluated highly by the many delegates. 

The KUF programme aims to challenge the stigma and culture surrounding people with complex emotional needs. Through online training, delivered via Virtual Venue, it does this by raising awareness of the stigma associated with the diagnosis of personality disorder, improves education and ensures that staff working with people with a diagnosis of personality disorder are able to provide improved support and care. The sessions are co-facilitated and co-produced by trainers with lived experience and clinicians. 

From April 2021 to May 2023, Virtual Venue has been the platform of choice for the KUF, seeing 4,065 students undertake the training sessions (all online). 

Feedback collected in the half-year up to November 2022 has seen: 

• 96% (712 out of 743) trainees saying they would recommend this training to others
• 86% of respondents showing improvements across the training competencies, pre and post training
• 72% saying the content was highly relevant to their practice/work. 

Qualitative feedback from delegates has included: 

“I enjoyed the virtual event, and not having to travel to an office base which is time consuming/cost of fuel, means I could also do some work before/after.”

“I really liked not having to leave windows/rooms to access case material.”

“Very enjoyable and informative - I had attended before over 10 years ago and feel it has been developed and improved.” 

The Virtual Venue KUF has enabled easier access to the training for staff across all partner organisations and received praise from delegates for the method and effectiveness of the platform delivery. 

In addition, Virtual Venue is a major contributor to the partner organisations’ moves towards more sustainable working. We estimate that nearly 500,000 delegate travel miles and 60,000 tonnes of carbon emissions have been saved.

What did West London NHS Trust have to say about Virtual Venue?

Joe Mulcahy of West London NHS Trust, who co-ordinates training for the National KUF Hub says: 

“We have seen a significant increase in productivity since using Virtual Venue to undertake training activities; it has made organising training simpler and expanded the reach of the KUF Programme.” 

“Previously with in-person training, NHS Trusts, Prison and Probation Services had to wait until they had a full quota of staff in order to run an in-house training programme. Now with Virtual Venue, we can allocate training as needed, so that new staff at smaller organisations, often in rural locations, can get timely access, rather than having to wait for other local delegates to be available.” 

“Virtual Venue’s built-in training management tools have enabled us at the National KUF Team to better manage delegates by having a central registration and allocation database, enabling us to quickly respond to requests for switching training days, for example in the event of illness. We can now also respond to delegate queries in real-time.”