Our work
Twenty years of delivery, and the formulations behind it.
Three flagship cases first, each one showing what looked like the problem and what was actually holding it there. The wider archive follows. It is a selection: there is considerably more behind it.
NHS service-development projects led
wellbeing sessions delivered to NHS staff at no cost
teams supported, local to national scale
01Three flagships
What looked like the problem. What was actually holding it there.
One case at the scale of a system, one at the scale of a product, and one built from nothing in weeks.
Flagship · a system
The Devon Digital Accelerator
Devon NHS STP, then NHS England
Devon needed online consultation rolled out across primary care quickly. The block was neither the technology nor training. It was a system under severe resource pressure with leaders out of capacity for change.
The workforce was the perpetuating factor. What nobody could see was which part of the system would shift if you pushed it, and which would simply absorb more damage.
A resilience-and-leadership change model built to add capacity rather than demand it, with the evaluation running alongside as learning reports so each one could alter what happened next.
Delivered across the whole of Devon’s primary care and awarded a Digital Innovation Award. The blueprint went on to support the national primary-care change programme through COVID-19, and NHS England separately commissioned UXC to coach the national digital-transformation team across three years.
“Probably the most important project I have been involved with in my last 18 years in general practice.”GP, Devon Digital Accelerator
Flagship · a product
EpSMon
SUDEP Action, commissioned by the NHS
People with epilepsy were seen in clinic and then not again for months. Risk changed in between, and nobody could see into that gap.
A closed loop: risk changes, nobody notices, it is reviewed too late, and by then it has changed again. No amount of better dashboarding inside the clinic was going to open it.
Not a better clinical tool but a monthly self-check the person completes themselves, aimed at the return leg of the loop. Taken from concept to clinical deployment.
A BMJ Award and an HSJ Patient Safety Award, and first place in the SUDEP Institute Challenge in the United States. The IP was handed to SUDEP Action on completion.
Flagship · built in weeks
Project5
Set up by Craig and Cordet, with the NHS wellbeing taskforce
NHS staff were working through COVID-19 with no realistic route to psychological support, and nothing existing could be stood up at the speed the situation required.
The barrier was not willingness to help. It was the absence of a front door: no way for a practitioner to offer time and no way for a staff member to take it without a referral pathway that did not exist.
A full mental health service with a digital front door, built and staffed in weeks and delivered entirely by volunteers.
More than 15,000 wellbeing sessions delivered at no cost to the NHS, valued at over £1.5m, and recognised with a Points of Light award.
02The wider archive
A selection of the work, by what it was for.
Change and implementation, products we built, evaluation and evidence, and the teams work. There is considerably more than appears here.
Change and implementation
Devon Digital Accelerator
Devon NHS STP, then NHS England
Change management across 18 months of primary-care implementation, with the evaluation running alongside as learning reports.
Primary Care Digital Optimisation
Devon-wide, 120+ NHS teams
A regional programme of conferences and leadership coaching, built to add capacity to teams rather than demand it.
NHS COVID-19 coaching approach
NHS wellbeing response
Over 1,000 coaches and therapists trained for the conditions NHS staff were actually working in. Accredited by the Association for Coaching.
Coaching selection framework
Association for Coaching
A framework for choosing the right coaching approach, rather than the one the provider happens to sell.
Products we built
Project5
With the NHS wellbeing taskforce
A full mental health service for NHS staff with a digital front door, built in weeks and delivered at no cost to the NHS.
EpSMon
SUDEP Action, commissioned by the NHS
An epilepsy risk self-monitoring app, led from concept to clinical deployment.
ACEmobile
Multi-stakeholder, internationally adopted
A tablet-based dementia assessment tool, widely commissioned and the subject of numerous publications.
ReNurture
Government-funded UK pilot
A recovery product for people leaving coercive and abusive relationships, funded, partnered and evaluated with NIHR, Innovate UK and FemTech.
Evaluation and evidence
Dorset Whole Schools Approach
Dorset Public Health
A county-wide evaluation of a whole-schools mental health approach.
Risk communication in neurology
NIHR, with the University of Exeter
An 18-month study of how risk is actually communicated in epilepsy clinics.
SUDEP and Seizure Safety Checklist
SUDEP Action
The clinical checklist behind the self-monitoring work, and the evidence for it.
GP TeamNet
Regional NHS implementation programme
Eighteen months of implementation evaluated, then written up as guidelines for national spread.
Ardens
Primary care systems
Evaluation of a widely used primary-care templating system in real practice conditions.
Connect
Health and care partnership
Evaluation of a connected-care programme and what it changed in practice.
Inducting online learners
The Open University
How online learners are inducted, and what actually determines whether they stay.
Problem solving in court
Crown Court
Research into problem-solving practice in the court setting.
Teams and psychological safety
Psychological safety in NHS teams
MDTsInAction
How psychological safety is managed in talk rather than in policy.
How manager meetings work
MDTsInAction
Conversation-level analysis of what actually happens in management meetings.
Discussing risk in teams
MDTsInAction
How risk gets raised, softened or avoided in multi-disciplinary discussion.
Patient advocacy when the patient is absent
MDTsInAction
Who speaks for the patient in the room, and what happens when nobody does.
03External verification
Judged by people with no stake in saying so.
Three BMJ Awards, HSJ Awards and HSJ Value in Healthcare, the Patient Safety Awards, Building Better Healthcare, the Health Business Awards, Tech South West, and the Prime Minister’s Points of Light.
Read it from the source. Not our write-up of the awards: the universities’ and the charities’ own, each of which names Craig.
University of Plymouth: two BMJ Awards winners, including EpSMon (opens in a new tab) University of Plymouth: HSJ Patient Safety Award for EpSMon (opens in a new tab) University of Plymouth: ACEmobile wins the 2018 HSJ Award (opens in a new tab) SUDEP Action: the EpSMon app (opens in a new tab) ACEmobile: how it was built, and by whom (opens in a new tab)04Written up
Peer-reviewed, and citable.
Twenty-two co-published papers between 2015 and 2026, and three books drawn directly from the delivery work.
Book
Interprofessional Care and Mental Health
A discursive account of how multi-disciplinary teams actually work, out of the MDTsInAction programme.
The publisher’s record (opens in a new tab)Book
Leading Primary Care
Five years of learning with NHS primary care teams, published by UXC.
On Amazon (opens in a new tab)Book
Get Out, Get Love
Written for people leaving coercive and abusive relationships, alongside the ReNurture work.
At Sheldon Press (opens in a new tab)
Papers and book chapters from the work on this page, each with its DOI so you can read it rather than take our word for it. The author lists are the publishers’ own, not ours.
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2025See the project this came out of
Delivering healthcare in multiprofessional teams: the negotiation of tasks
M. Tremblett, C. Smart, T. Auburn · Journal of Integrated Caredoi:10.1108/jica-07-2024-0039 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2025See the project this came out of
How epilepsy risks might be introduced and discussed in clinical consultations
C. Smart, H. Cock, P. Tittensor, L. Devereux and others · Patient Education and Counselingdoi:10.1016/j.pec.2025.109288 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2023See the project this came out of
A pilot examination of the validity of stylus and finger drawing on visuomotor-mediated tests on ACEmobile
R. Noad, C. Newman, J. Chynoweth, J. Mayers and others · Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychologydoi:10.1080/13803395.2023.2249167 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2023See the project this came out of
Analysing patient-generated data to understand behaviours and characteristics of women with epilepsy of childbearing years: A prospective cohort study
S. Zhou, B. McLean, E. Roberts, R. Baines and others · Seizure: European Journal of Epilepsydoi:10.1016/j.seizure.2023.04.008 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2022See the project this came out of
Workload effects of online consultation implementation from a Job-Characteristics Model perspective: a qualitative study
C. Smart, C. Newman, L. Hartill, S. Bunce and others · BJGP Opendoi:10.3399/bjgpo.2022.0024 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2020See the project this came out of
Bridging the gap of risk communication and management using the SUDEP and Seizure Safety Checklist
R. Shankar, S. Ashby, B. McLean, C. Newman · Epilepsy & Behaviordoi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.07.020 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2020See the project this came out of
Improving epilepsy management with EpSMon: A Templar to highlight the multifaceted challenges of incorporating digital technologies into routine clinical practice
C. Newman, S. Ashby, B. McLean, R. Shankar · Epilepsy & Behaviordoi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.106514 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2020See the project this came out of
Keep safe: The when, why and how of epilepsy risk communication
C. Smart, G. Page, R. Shankar, C. Newman · Seizuredoi:10.1016/j.seizure.2020.01.013 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2019See the project this came out of
Methods of usability testing in the development of eHealth applications: A scoping review
I. Maramba, A. Chatterjee, C. Newman · International Journal of Medical Informaticsdoi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.03.018 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Advocacy for Service Users and Carers in Community Learning Disability Team Meetings When Service Users and Carers Are Absent
C. Smart, H. Reed · Interprofessional Care and Mental Healthdoi:10.1007/978-3-319-98228-1_11 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Conversation Analysis of Psychological Formulation Discussions in Adult Learning Disabilities Teams
K. Peckitt, C. Smart · Interprofessional Care and Mental Healthdoi:10.1007/978-3-319-98228-1_7 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Decreasing the risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: structured communication of risk factors for premature mortality in people with epilepsy
R. Shankar, W. Henley, C. Boland, R. Laugharne and others · European Journal of Neurologydoi:10.1111/ene.13651 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Digital Care in Epilepsy: A Conceptual Framework for Technological Therapies
R. Page, R. Shankar, B. McLean, J. Hanna and others · Frontiers in Neurologydoi:10.3389/fneur.2018.00099 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Has the Time Come to Stratify and Score SUDEP Risk to Inform People With Epilepsy of Their Changes in Safety?
R. Shankar, C. Newman, A. Gales, B. McLean and others · Frontiers in Neurologydoi:10.3389/fneur.2018.00281 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Introduction: Problems and Prospects for Multidisciplinary Team Meetings
C. Smart, J. Dickenson, T. Auburn, N. Froomberg · Interprofessional Care and Mental Healthdoi:10.1007/978-3-319-98228-1_1 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Power Struggles in MDT Meetings: Using Different Orders of Interaction to Understand the Interplay of Hierarchy, Knowledge and Accountability
C. Smart, C. Pollock, L. Aikman, E. Willoughby · Interprofessional Care and Mental Healthdoi:10.1007/978-3-319-98228-1_5 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Sharing Information and Retelling Stories in a Memory Clinic MDT Meeting
J. Dickenson, C. Smart · Interprofessional Care and Mental Healthdoi:10.1007/978-3-319-98228-1_10 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy in children: a focused review of incidence and risk factors
A. Saxena, L. Jones, R. Shankar, B. McLean and others · Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatrydoi:10.1136/jnnp-2017-317702 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
Training for Enhanced Team Performance in Mental Healthcare Contexts: A Workshop and Its Fit with Interprofessional Care
C. Smart, H. Reed, B. Sztorc, D. Clancy and others · Interprofessional Care and Mental Healthdoi:10.1007/978-3-319-98228-1_15 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2018See the project this came out of
What a discursive understanding of interprofessional team meetings might reveal: an exploration of intellectual (learning) disability managers’ performances
C. Smart, N. Froomberg, T. Auburn · Journal of Interprofessional Caredoi:10.1080/13561820.2018.1500450 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2017See the project this came out of
Improving the quality of cognitive screening assessments: ACEmobile, an iPad‐based version of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination‐III
C. Newman, A. Bevins, J. Zajicek, J. Hodges and others · Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoringdoi:10.1016/j.dadm.2017.12.003 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2016See the project this came out of
Developing an Evidence-Based Epilepsy Risk Assessment eHealth Solution: From Concept to Market
C. Newman, R. Shankar, J. Hanna, B. McLean and others · JMIR Research Protocolsdoi:10.2196/resprot.5389 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2016See the project this came out of
Discovering Mental Ill Health: ‘Problem-Solving’ in an English Magistrates’ Court
T. Auburn, C. Smart, G. Santos, J. Annison and others · The Palgrave Handbook of Adult Mental Healthdoi:10.1057/9781137496850_33 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2016See the project this came out of
Safe and sound? A systematic literature review of seizure detection methods for personal use
C. Jory, R. Shankar, D. Coker, B. McLean and others · Seizuredoi:10.1016/j.seizure.2016.01.013 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2016See the project this came out of
Steps to prevent SUDEP: the validity of risk factors in the SUDEP and seizure safety checklist: a case control study
R. Shankar, M. Walker, B. McLean, R. Laugharne and others · Journal of Neurologydoi:10.1007/s00415-016-8203-3 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2016See the project this came out of
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: measures to reduce risk
B. Mclean, R. Shankar, J. Hanna, C. Jory and others · Practical Neurologydoi:10.1136/practneurol-2016-001392 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2015See the project this came out of
Can technology help reduce risk of harm in patients with epilepsy?
R. Shankar, C. Newman, B. McLean, T. Anderson and others · British Journal of General Practicedoi:10.3399/bjgp15x686413 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2015See the project this came out of
Keeping patients with epilepsy safe: a surmountable challenge?
R. Shankar, C. Newman, J. Hanna, j. ashton and others · BMJ Quality Improvement Reportsdoi:10.1136/bmjquality.u208167.w3252 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab) -
2014See the project this came out of
The design and implementation of a computer supported assessment of Dementia - ACEmobile
C. Newman, J. Hodges, S. Pearson, R. Noad · International Journal of Integrated Caredoi:10.5334/ijic.1784 (opens the publisher’s record in a new tab)
05Start the conversation
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