A formative evaluation of My Team Around Me (MTAM)
Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) case study
Challenge
The business is seeking to implement the “My Team Around Me” (MTAM) approach as an innovative intervention to multi-agency working for complex care needs in adults in the area the business serves.
The number of adults with multiple complex care needs is rising in the service area. While multiple agencies must collaborate to address the unique case of each person, the business identified several barriers within multi-agency working that limit positive outcomes: lack of information sharing between agencies, lack of shared accountability, lack of coordination between agencies, siloed working, long email chains, and competing thresholds.
The business hopes to mitigate these challenges by focusing on system-wide, integrated, person-centred solutions in multi-agency working through the MTAM approach.
Project overview
A collaboration between university researchers and business stakeholders, who were involved in the planning and delivery of the MTAM approach, was used to deliver the project objectives. This collaboration was established and supported by the Health Determinants Research Collaboration Cornwall. The evaluation collected information from:
- The business’s planning, training, and implementation documents for MTAM roll-out.
- Casual conversations with employees working in multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) in complex care and within the MTAM pilot.
- Observations from MDT meetings, MTAM training sessions, and MTAM steering groups.
The Human Learning Systems (HLS) framework was used as a lens to assess findings against the business’s goals for implementing the MTAM approach on a person-, practitioner-, and system-level. The results were presented using the Two-Loops model to illustrate the process of the business addressing the challenges in multi-agency working in complex care as the system moves from traditional MDT working to MTAM implementation.
Objectives
Funded by Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT), the project used a partnership between a university and a business. The project focused on experiences within an MTAM pilot with a cohort of rough sleepers in the service area.
The project aimed to evaluate how MTAM is being implemented across the business’s public health and social care systems to help identify whether MTAM improves engagement, outcomes, and service coordination in multi-agency working for complex care.
Outcome
This evaluation delivered significant benefits. An early overview of MTAM planning strategies, training, and pilot progress, alongside insight into the contextual, cultural, and systemic factors shaping its implementation in complex care for adults in the business’s service area.
The evaluation also visually maps the business’s transition from the previous system to an emerging MTAM model and introduces a learning system to support ongoing improvement in multi-agency complex care services.
Impact
Operational sustainability and scalability
This evaluation contributes to the business’s goals to build sustainable and scalable person-centred, multi-agency, complex care practices through the MTAM approach by providing the informative groundwork for continuous structural improvement.
Intervention innovation
This evaluation furthers the nation-wide development of innovative person-centred public health and social care interventions by framing the MTAM approach within the business area’s unique geographical, cultural, and economic atmosphere.
Cultural impact
This evaluation acutely deepens the cultural understanding of a person with complex needs, the practitioner working in MDTs for complex needs, and the intricate system of the business, to further address each’s specific needs in systemic improvement.
Collaborative impact
The partnership between the university and the business is significantly strengthened to continue to explore the strong recommendations for further research on the impact of the MTAM approach in the service area. It also contributes to the growing research capacity of the fledgling research collaboration within the business.
Research impact
The evaluation contributes to the growing body of academic literature on person-centred public health intervention innovations in the UK through the exploration of MTAM in the service area. It also builds on academic contributions to and practical applications of the Two-Loops model.
What they say
The AKT project enabled Cornwall Council to rapidly test and learn from the My Team Around Me approach, combining frontline experience with research expertise. It has strengthened our ability to evaluate complex services, and supports a coordinated response for some of Cornwall’s most vulnerable residents.
Kim Hager - Joint Commissioning Manager, Public Health and Community Safety
With support from the UK Innovate Accelerated Knowledge Transfer scheme, academics at Plymouth University have supported an early formative evaluation of this pilot, focusing on the risks, benefits, enablers and challenges of MTAM at service user, practitioner and system levels. This has allowed us to identify a series of key recommendations to support the future rollout of this important initiative.
A fast-track to innovation
Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) is a fast‑track programme for UK businesses and charities, enabling 2-4 month collaborations with expert academics at the University of Plymouth to rapidly develop or evaluate innovative ideas.
Inspired by the
KTP model , it focuses on removing innovation blockers, introducing fresh thinking, and delivering swift, practical impact. Participants benefit from specialist expertise, close collaboration, and access to funding of up to £35,000 to help turn high‑potential concepts into tangible progress.
