A directory of current support offers for boards in this area, within the NHS and the not-for-profit sector.
AQuA
AQuA is a network made up of 70 members based in the North West of England. It supports them to deliver high quality care and provides quality improvement expertise to NHS organisations. AQuA also works with organisations outside the north west on an associate membership model, providing co-designed bespoke support.
They provide intensive support to boards around the well-led domain and on systems and processes.
Themes for 2021-22:
- Building capability and organisational systems for improvement
- Delivering high quality care
- Accelerating system transformation and improvement outcomes
- Working as a system improvement partner
Full directory of offers available here. Specific support in response to COVID-19 includes the Rapid change learning package which details the key enablers observed to be driving rapid improvements, to help refocus quality improvement strategies.
Contact: 0161 206 8938 or aqua@srft.nhs.uk
East London NHS Foundation Trust QI microsite
Full of materials and resources accessible online, including stories of improvement, plus a subscription to a regular round up newsletter with news, events, helpful hints, tips and educational information, plus an archive of past issues.
Access the microsite here.
NHS Improvement and NHS England Improvement –
Fundamentals Programme
Developed and run by NHS England’s sustainable development team, Improvement Fundamentals is a programme of online, self-directed mini-courses in quality improvement for people working in heath or social care services. The courses are free to access via the QI Learning platform, and are delivered through videos, articles, discussions and practical exercise covering QI tools, spread, measurement and theory. There are also Lean and Getting started in large scale change modules via this platform.
NHS Quest (ex Haelo)
NHS Quest describe themselves as ‘the first member-convened network for NHS trusts who focus relentlessly on improving quality and safety. NHS Quest members work together, share challenges and design innovative solutions to provide the best care possible for patients and staff.’
Twelve NHS trusts are listed as members currently, and they work together as partners on improvement projects.
Contact: Andrea McGuinness at nhs.quest@nhs.net
Patient Safety Improvement Programmes
National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes (SIPs) are a key part of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, launched in July 2019 and recently updated in February 2021, to deliver safety and quality improvements across the NHS in England. They are managed and led by NHE England and NHS Improvement’s National Patient Safety Team.
SIPs aim to create continuous and sustainable improvement in settings such as maternity nits, emergency departments, mental health trusts, GP practices and care homes, with five national programmes working towards improvement in deterioration, maternity and neonatal, medicines, adoption and spread, and mental health. They are delivered by local healthcare providers working directly with the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes Team and through 15 regionally-based Patient Safety Collaboratives.
The SIPs support continuous and sustainable improvement through culture, evidence-based improvement, QI capability and system level change.
Contact: patientsafety.enquiries@nhs.net or visit each programmes’ FutureNHS
Collaboration page:
- Medicines Safety Improvement Programme
- Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme
- Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme
- Managing Deterioration Safety Improvement Programme
The Q Community
Q is an initiative connecting people, who have improvement expertise, across the UK and Ireland. There are over 4000 members and its mission is to foster continuous and sustainable improvement in health and care. It achieves this through creating opportunities for people to come together and form a community – sharing ideas, enhancing skills and collaborating to make health and care better. Q is delivered by the Health Foundation and supported and co-funded by partners across the UK and Ireland.
A wide variety of toolkits, methods, guides and other resources shared by Q members and the Q team are available online.
Quality, Service and Redesign (QSIR)
Run by NHS Improvement’s Advancing Change and Transformation (ACT) Academy, QSIR includes a range of service improvement programmes for clinical and non-clinical staff involved in service improvement within their organisation and/or system:
- QSIR Practitioner: a six month programme for staff working on a service change programme, consisting of five day-long workshops and support provided through virtual action learning sets.
- QSIR Fundamentals: a one day programme which introduces participants to service improvement tools and approaches.
- QSIR College: designed to develop candidates (both clinical and non-clinical) to become associate members of the QSIR teaching faculty and go on to upskill other staff across their organisation or within their system.
The training covers a range of topics including Leading improvement, and they have worked with Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS amongst others.
Contact: england.mixedmethods@nhs.net (with QSIR College as the subject of your email) if interested in developing a quality and service improvement capability teaching faculty or to organise a QSIR for boards session.
RUBIS.QI
RUBIS.QI is the external facing quality improvement delivery arm of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. It is the official support partner for the Health Foundation’s scaling up improvement programme which supports teams with approaches or interventions that have been successfully tested at a small scale, shown to improve care and are now ready to be implemented more widely. RUBIS.QI is also involved in the Quality Improvement in Surgical Teams (QIST) collaborative, a partnership between Northumbria Healthcare, British Orthopaedic Association, University of York trials unit and NHS Improvement to drive improvements for patients having joint replacement surgery. In partnership with The King’s Fund, RUBIS.QI delivered the first cohort of the NHS Improvement Leadership for Improvement Board Development Programme (2019-20).
Contact: via online form
The Improvement Academy
The Improvement Academy, established in 2013 as part of the Bradford Institute for Health Research to support innovation and improvement in delivery of health care services, is hosted by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The academy is the implementation arm of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration in Yorkshire and Humber and delivers the patient safety collaborative on behalf of the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Sciences Network (AHSN).
Over a number of years The Improvement Academy Model approach to implementation
and improvement has been developed. The academy offers a nine month Leading for
improvement advanced programme which works with organisations to develop those
leading in improvement, as well as various quality improvement training offers.
Contact: academy@yhahsn.nhs.uk
If your trust provides externally facing support or you recommend a not-for-profit supplier, we’d be delighted to add information to the directory.
Please contact twi@nhsproviders.org