The Challenge
Barts Health NHS Trust runs five hospitals across the City of London and East London, making it one of the largest NHS trusts in England. Data flows through every part of the organisation, but not always as efficiently as it could.
Administrative and reporting staff were relying on convoluted, manual processes to pull together the data summaries, presentations and patient communications that clinical leads, operations managers and executives use to make decisions. Copy and paste workflows were eating into time that stretched teams didn’t have to spare, and every manual step carried a risk of error in an environment where accuracy really matters.
Barts Health wanted a way to work with data more effectively, without adding complexity or risk.
Our solution
We built a two-session, four-module programme for 24 trainees, designed entirely around Barts Health’s own data, workflows and tools rather than generic exercises.
The programme moved from the fundamentals to full application:
- Excel and PowerPoint fundamentals, building a confident base in the tools staff use every day
- Data storytelling, teaching a repeatable Context, Insight, Recommendation framework for turning raw data into clear, decision-ready reporting
- Microsoft Copilot, embedded across the M365 suite to show staff how AI could speed up their existing workflows
- A timed, end-to-end scenario, replicating the real tasks and challenges delegates were experiencing day to day, such as pulling together a monthly departmental performance summary for a clinical director, complete with peer review and personal action planning
Because the training used real, sensitive Barts Health data, careful anonymisation was built into every exercise from the outset.
Learning didn’t stop when the sessions ended. A 30-day reinforcement programme followed, including recap materials, challenge tasks tied to real scenarios, a Copilot prompt library and a confidence check-in, all designed to embed the skills rather than deliver a one-off session.
The results
24 trainees completed the programme, achieving an NPS of 65, with early signs that the training is translating into lasting behaviour change rather than a short-term boost.
Feedback from across the cohort echoed the same themes, with participants describing how the training helped them apply the content in their day-to-day work, evaluate data more fully, and feel far more confident in their reporting.
Beyond the immediate skills gained, the programme is supporting:
- A more data-driven reporting culture across administrative and operational teams
- Growing confidence and adoption of Copilot as part of everyday workflows
- Genuine intent to sustain the change, with participants continuing to practise techniques and use self-serve resources after the sessions ended
- A reusable four-module structure, ready to run again for future cohorts
The snapshot
Learn more about Upskilling
This is what our Upskilling programmes are built to do. Rather than generic courses, we design training around an organisation’s own data, tools and everyday workflows, so people leave with skills they can put to use immediately, not just a certificate. It’s an approach that works just as well for regulated, data-sensitive environments like the NHS as it does for fast-moving commercial teams, because the content is always shaped around the real work people do.
