Quality and Improvement conference 2024

23 May – County Hall, London

About the conference

This year, we held our first joint Quality and Improvement conference, marking the return of our lead quality event to face-to-face format since 2019. The conference brought together industry leaders, innovators, and experts to reshape the future of healthcare delivery.

Our theme, 'North Star', directed our focus towards embedding quality and improvement seamlessly into patient care. With a gathering of trust leaders from diverse sectors, we explored how ongoing service pressures impact the quality of care. 

Key Discussion Points 

  • Uniting national vision with local innovation.
  • Elevating quality: boosting efficiency, workforce well-being, and patient outcomes.
  • Balancing acts: sustainability vs. immediate gains.
  • Strategies for integrating quality of care and improvement in every conversation.
  • The context of NHS IMPACT reinforcing the principles that underpin a systematic approach to continuous improvement.

See resources from the conference here

Programme


09.30

Registration and networking

10.00

Welcome

10.10

Plenary one

Playing to our strengths: managing risk under pressure

How can a leadership focus on learning, improvement, risk management and shared endeavour support a culture of patient safety? The NHS is working under substantial pressure, with rising demand, significant workforce gaps and limited resources, creating a challenge in how it can provide consistently safe, high-quality care. This session explored some of the adaptive strategies that clinical teams and trusts can adopt as they seek to navigate this difficult landscape, manage risk and keep quality of care as their north star. 

10.50

Plenary two

Addressing spirals of silence and assuring freedom to speak up, from ward to board and beyond

Recent high-profile cases of failures in quality of care have raised a number of questions related to working cultures within the NHS. How can we create a culture of openness where staff feel confident in speaking up, where boards feel confident in how they are listening and problem sensing? How can we create a culture of openness across systems and nationally, where risks and issues are explored collaboratively and met with support?

11.30

Break

12.00

Breakout sessions 1

Deploying improvement approaches at pace

While it takes time to build improvement capability and experience, and to embed complex interventions, it is still possible to deploy improvement approaches at pace. This session brought together board members with experience of putting in place structures and support that have allowed their organisations to deploy individuals with improvement skills or improvement teams when sudden unexpected challenge arose to share their reflections and learning.

Identifying and calibrating organisational risk

How would your trust know something was wrong? How sensitive is your board to picking up and acting on the signals coming from its own service delivery and from local communities and partners? Where do biases and blind spots exist, and how can these be addressed? This session gave attendees the opportunity to consider how their view of risk is formed, and discuss practical ways of sensing quality and safety risks at board level.

Closing the gap: practical steps in addressing racial discrimination

Workforce diversity is essential for the delivery of high-quality care to all patients, many of whom are also from diverse backgrounds. This session supported trust leaders to better understand the existing disparity in the treatment of ethnic minority staff, providing insights and practical advice from those who have implemented strategies to improve the experience of ethnic minority staff and address structural racism and discrimination.

 

13.00

Lunch

14.00

Plenary three

Capturing the benefits and articulating the value of improvements

Despite the pressures, trusts continue to prioritise a focus on quality improvement and trust-wide improvement programmes, moving towards the cultures and conditions for continuous improvement to deliver better care for patients and better outcomes for communities. How do we capture the benefits of this improvement work in giving time back to care and financial cost savings? How does this support efforts to sustain progress? This session explored findings from a recent research project, with actionable insights for board members, and reflections from colleagues on their experience applying these in practice.

14.50

Breakout sessions 2

Working together to build a safety culture

Culture has a profound impact on safety and is a key component safety management systems. This session explored the connection between the board and the ward through a safety culture lens. Is trust governance fit for purpose in enabling clinical learning and patient safety? How are trusts actively enabling learning cultures? Are we creative and curious enough in the design, running and oversight of services? What successes have we seen in improving patient safety, and what are the opportunities for trusts to go further?

Evidence-empowered decision making

An evidence-based system harnesses the power of research in designing more effective organisations, improving services, and achieving better outcomes. This session began with colleagues sharing their experiences of the drivers and enablers of evidence-based approaches before moving to a facilitated table discussions to support peers in learning from each other.

Learning from others and each other

In this session, speakers will bring a range of examples to discuss how collaboration – and collaboration in a variety of forms – has supported and enhanced their work. We will then move to facilitated table discussions to support peers in learning from each other.

15.50

Showcase reception and networking

16.30

Conference close

Speakers

Andrew Davidson
Andrew Davidson

Head of Employment, Hempsons

 
Andrew supports employers in the health, social care and private sector on employment law issues in his role as head of employment.

Andrew has a national reputation for his work in handling concerns about doctors (under the MHPS framework), dealing with discrimination issues, employment tribunal claims and TUPE in particular and he has considerable expertise across healthcare employment law. He regularly provides training for clients on a wide range of employment law and HR issues and is a regular speaker at national conferences.
Ashi Williams
Ashi Williams

Chief People Officer, Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

 
Ashi Williams is the chief people officer at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Ashi has 18 years' experience working in the NHS. She is a member of the West Midlands HPMA Committee supporting the development of HR and OD Professionals. She is a trustee for Aquarius, a charity supporting people and families with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions. Ashi is passionate about ensuring people have the right skills and resources to do their jobs well and that their health and wellbeing is looked after.
Ben Tipney
Ben Tipney

Founder and Managing Director, MedLed

 
Founder and Managing Director of MedLed, Ben is a former international athlete (Great Britain Rowing Team) who competed in several world championships, whilst studying Leadership and sports psychology at Reading University. After a decade of developing and delivering high performance programs in sport, education and business, he has spent the last 11 years specialising in working with teams and organisations in healthcare.

Ben has worked extensively with NHS trusts across the UK, independent providers and the Academic Health Science Networks. He is regularly asked to speak at national healthcare conferences, and been published in ‘The Ergonomist’ – the publication of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors - as well as in the Health Service Journal. He co-authored the MedLed White Paper on Human Factors For Healthcare, a critique on the application of Human Factors and safety science in the healthcare sector.
Bethany Carter
Bethany Carter

National Lead for Guardian Support and Policy, National Guardians Office

 
Prior to joining the NHS, Bethany served in both the Royal Navy, were she qualified as a nurse, and subsequently as a nursing officer in the British Army. Bethany has experience of working in a variety of clinical settings and has a keen interest in compassionate and inclusive leadership, patient safety, education, human factors, and behaviour change to influence good clinical practice and enhance patient safety. On retiring from the military after a 17-year career, Bethany joined Solent NHS Trust in January 2016 as head of infection prevention role at the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In September 2022 she took up the position of Lead Guardian for Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU).

In November 2023 Bethany took up her current position at the National Guardians Office as national lead for guardian support and policy, leading the guardian support and policy team in providing guidance and support to Freedom to Speak Up guardians across England including the development and implementation of training, guidance, and co-branded initiatives with partner organisations and stakeholders.
Professor Carrie Newlands
Professor Carrie Newlands

Consultant Surgeon, Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery at University of Surrey School of Medicine

 
Carrie has been a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon since 2003 and retired from NHS clinical practice in 2023, moving to the University of Surrey School of Medicine. In 2022 she co-founded the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct (WPSMS) in Surgery. The WPSMS research identifying widespread experience of sexual misconduct in the surgical workforce was published in 2023 in the British Journal of Surgery and accompanied by the “Breaking the Silence” report.
Dr Cat Chatfield
Dr Cat Chatfield

Director, HSR UK

 
Cat is director of HSR UK, a charity which convenes creators and users of health services and social care research, including NHS provider organisations.

Cat's previous roles have included quality improvement editor for The BMJ, clinical lead for BMJ Quality, and the International Forum for Quality and Safety in Healthcare’s International Steering Committee. Cat is also editor in chief of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Journals Library and used to practice as a GP.
Charles Kwaku-Odoi
Charles Kwaku-Odoi

Chief Executive Officer, Caribbean & African Health Network

 
Charles Kwaku-Odoi DL is chief executive of the Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN), a leading national Black health organisation at the forefront of reducing health inequalities and wider disparities. He is a deputy lieutenant of the County of Greater Manchester, an honorary member of the esteemed Faculty of Public Health (FPH), and the honorary Ecumenical Canon at Manchester Cathedral.

Charles has board roles including the NHS Race and Health Observatory; Manchester Foundation Trust Council of Governors; and Government SAGE Ethnicity Subgroup. He was named in the Health Service Journal 50 most influential Black Asian and Minority Ethnic people in health in the UK in 2022 and 2023.

Charles is a great advocate for equity and fairness across a range of important health and wellbeing issues for people of the Caribbean and African Diaspora. He is involved in work that influences the research, policy, and practice at regional and national levels. His special interest includes civic and democratic participation, blood & organ donation HIV, domestic violence, modern slavery and hate crime. Reading, walking, and football are his hobbies.
Professor Charles Vincent
Professor Charles Vincent

Professor of Psychology at University of Oxford, Emeritus Professor Clinical Safety Research at Imperial College London and Emeritus Fellow at Jesus College Oxford

 
Charles Vincent trained as a clinical psychologist and worked in the NHS for several years. Since 1985 he has carried out research on the causes of harm to patients, the consequences for patients and staff and methods of improving the safety of healthcare. He established the Clinical Risk Unit at University College in 1995 where he was professor of psychology before moving to the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College in 2002. He is the editor of Clinical Risk Management (BMJ Publications, 2nd edition, 2001), author of Patient Safety (2ned edition 2010) and author of many papers on medical error, risk and patient safety. With Rene Amalberti he published ‘Safer healthcare: strategies for the real world’ Springer, Open Access (2016).

From 1999 to 2003 he was a commissioner on the UK Commission for Health Improvement and has advised on patient safety in many inquiries and committees including the recent Berwick Review. In 2007 he was appointed director of the National Institute of Health Research Centre for Patient Safety & Service Quality at Imperial College Healthcare Trust. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Emeritus National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator. In 2014 he took up a new most as Health Foundation professorial fellow in the Department of Psychology, University of Oxford where he continues his work on safety in healthcare and led the Oxford Region NHS Patient Safety Collaborative and was Director of Oxford Healthcare Improvement.
Dr Chike (Ify) Okocha
Dr Chike (Ify) Okocha

Chief Executive Officer, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

 
Dr Ify Okocha qualified in medicine in 1985 and after training in psychiatry and obtained his membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1992. He was appointed consultant in 1996 and in the same year obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree from the Institute of Psychiatry and King's College, London where he did his doctorate and post-doctorate research in psychosis and psychopharmacology respectively.

He has received commendations and won many national awards for the high-quality care clinical teams working for him deliver. These include: the National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care and Low Secure Units (NAPICU) Team of the Year award; the Care Services Improvement Partnership 'Positive Practice' award; commendation by Hospital Doctors Award Committee; award of the British Association of Medical Managers and the Royal College of Psychiatrist Medical Manager/Leader of the Year (2009). He is on the Roll of Honour of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

His previous position with the trust was as medical director and deputy chief executive, and before that was clinical director of Greenwich, where he demonstrated excellent leadership and management skills through his development of high-quality clinical service, innovative service developments and the implementation of evidence based clinical practice and research.
Dr Edile Murdoch
Dr Edile Murdoch

Consultant Neonatologist, NHS Lothian

 
Edile Murdoch is a consultant neonatologist with 23 years’ experience in NHS Lothian Edinburgh and previously Addenbrooke’s hospital Cambridge and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has been a clinical director of obstetric and neonatal services in NHS England and Scotland and a neonatal network lead.

Edile has developed a body of experience in external service and safety reviews, perinatal adverse event review, management and improvement and is chairing the NHS England “reading the signals” maternity and neonatal outcomes group. She chairs the Scottish perinatal network adverse event review group following publication of the maternity and neonatal (perinatal) adverse event review process: guidance 2021.
Dr Elizabeth Kendrick
Dr Elizabeth Kendrick

Medical Director, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

 
Dr Elizabeth Kendrick (MRCGP, DGM, DPM, DRCOG, DCH, MSc) was appointed medical director of Hertfordshire Community Trust in 2019. She is a GP by background with a special interest in older people. She has previously been the national specialist advisor for older people at Care Quality Commission (CQC) and end of life lead for the North East of England.

She was appointed as medical director just before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and has led in the setting up of new services within the trust including hospital@home services and remote monitoring. Elizabeth is also interested in using digital technology to improve and transform healthcare delivery and improving research and evaluation of new ways of delivering healthcare.
Fareeha Usman BEM
Fareeha Usman BEM

Head of EDI, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

 
Fareeha Usman, British Empire Medal recipient and Office for National Statistics (ONS) Census Purple Plaque holder, is an esteemed Entrepreneur for Good.

She champions equality, diversity, and inclusion as the head of EDI at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, the founder of Being Woman Charity, an ambassador for neurodiversity and pioneer of neuro-inclusion pathway at London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

An alumna at King’s Fund, Usman’s initiatives include the free food-sharing app “Share Karo,” aiding those in need, she empowered over 100,000 women through digital skills and raised awareness around mental health and racial equity. Her accolades include Her Majesty the Queen’s baton bearer for the Commonwealth games. Usman is also a motivational speaker, embodying excellence, and philanthropy.
Professor Graham Martin
Professor Graham Martin

Director of Research, THIS Institute

 
Graham Martin is director of research at THIS Institute, a unit at the University of Cambridge funded by the Health Foundation to develop the evidence base for improving healthcare quality and safety. He has undertaken a wide range of research on organisational culture, speaking up, and how organisations can detect problems in quality and safety, including a Department of Health-funded evaluation of initiatives designed to improve openness in the English NHS following the Francis report.
Dr Heena Yousaf
Dr Heena Yousaf

Paediatric Specialty Registrar, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust and Civility Saves Lives

 
Heena is a current paediatric specialty trainee in London, having originally started her paediatric training in Nottingham. She has a keen interest in paediatric intensive care medicine and was one of the team who started Civility Saves Lives.

As a trainee she experienced sudden unexpected changes in her personal circumstances, which lead to an inter-deanery transfer. Through the support of her colleagues, supervisors, and senior management she has continued to progress in her career.

Heena is keen to share her experience and continues to work towards supporting fellow colleagues. She feels passionate about ensuring the help she received is available and accessible to all.
Professor Helen Bevan
Professor Helen Bevan

Strategic Adviser at Horizons and Professor of Practice in Health and Care Improvement, Warwick Business School

 
Helen Bevan is one of the most influential thought leaders globally in the practice of large-scale change in health and care. She has spent more than three decades working in England’s National Health Service, helping leaders to feel prepared, capable, and supported to deliver substantial improvements.

Helen is recognised internationally for her ability to seek out and blend new ideas on change with a deep understanding and track record of implementing change in complex systems.
Dr Henrietta Hughes
Dr Henrietta Hughes

Patient Safety Commissioner, Office of the Patient Safety Commissioner

 
Dr Henrietta Hughes OBE started in September 2022 as the first patient safety commissioner, an independent role recommended by the report First Do No Harm.

Acting as an independent champion for patients Henrietta leads a drive to improve the safety of medicines and medical devices by ensuring that patient voices are at the heart of the design and delivery of healthcare in England. A practising GP and a member of the Health Honours Committee and the guiding group of the Women’s Health and Care Leaders Network, Henrietta was previously the national guardian for the NHS and a medical director at NHS England. Henrietta has held executive and non-executive roles in the NHS and is chair of Childhood First, a children’s charity.
Jane McCall
Jane McCall

Chair, Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

 
Jane was appointed as Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust chair in January 2018. Jane has significant experience as a non-executive director in the NHS, including at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust as deputy chair. Her background is in social housing.

In addition to her role with the trust, she holds non-executive positions with the Information Commissioner’s Office, and was an external member of the House of Commons Commission until April 2021. In addition to her role with the trust, she is the chair of Peaks and Plains Housing Trust, a social housing provider based in Macclesfield.
Janine La Rosa
Janine La Rosa

Chief People Officer, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

 
Janine joined Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in November 2022, having previously been the strategic head of equality and inclusion for the NHS in London. Among other things, she provided leadership and expertise for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) activity across the capital. Janine has led culture transformation programmes in large and complex organisations.

Before working in the NHS, Janine was the diversity lead for Sky where she was responsible for ensuring the broadcast company represented the UK.
Dr John Ford
Dr John Ford

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Health Equity and Consultant in Public Health, Queen Mary University of London

 
Dr Ford is an academic public health doctor who leads a programme of health inequalities research focused on what works to address inequalities. He is currently leading a £1.3m grant looking at how hospitals can use quality improvement to address inequalities and a separate research project examining the impact of hospitals on their local economy. In addition to his academic research, he has worked at local, regional and national levels of the NHS and currently works with the national NHS England Public Health team.
Sir Julian Hartley
Sir Julian Hartley

Chief Executive, NHS Providers

 
Sir Julian Hartley joined NHS Providers as chief executive in February 2023, having been chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals since 2013. NHS Providers is the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services that treat patients and service users in the NHS. We help those NHS foundation trusts and trusts to deliver high-quality, patient-focused care by enabling them to learn from each other, acting as their public voice and helping shape the system in which they operate. NHS Providers has all trusts in England in voluntary membership, collectively accounting for £104bn of annual expenditure and employ 1.4 million staff.
Professor Karen Dunderdale
Professor Karen Dunderdale

Group Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Chief Nurse at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust

 
Karen was appointed as substantive director of nursing for United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust in September 2020 after starting as interim in February 2020 and was jointly appointed as director of nursing, AHP and Quality for Lincolnshire Community Health Services in October 2022. She also holds the role as the deputy chief executive across both organisations. In addition, she held the role of vice chair of her local hospice for a number of years and was the director of nursing was at Walsall Healthcare Trust where her leadership supported the trust achieve Outstanding for Caring.

Karen qualified as a registered nurse in 1991 and her clinical experience has been in cardiology. She became a cardiac nurse specialist developing cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure services and has a PhD in Health Related Quality of Life in Chronic Heart Failure from York University. In 2017 Karen joined the national nursing team at NHS Improvement and in 2023, she was conferred as a visiting professor of nursing with the University of Lincoln.
Dr Kathryn Perera
Dr Kathryn Perera

Director, Horizons

 
In 2022, Kathryn was appointed the programme director of the national review of operational improvement across NHS services, commissioned by Amanda Pritchard. The Delivery and Continuous Improvement Review led to the creation of NHS IMPACT and the establishment of the National Improvement Board.

Prior to working at Horizons, Kathryn spent a decade working in politics and community organising, including as chief executive of Movement for Change, a national social enterprise, she is also a practising barrister by background.
Dr Mamta Shetty Vaidya
Dr Mamta Shetty Vaidya

Chief Medical Officer, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

 
Mamta is a consultant paediatric intensivist and joined Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust in May 2022 from The Royal London Hospital where she worked for 15 years, most recently as their deputy medical director.

Mamta has a wealth of experience having held roles as both a clinical and a divisional director and she led the clinical transformation team. She has also been a key figure in the Pan London Improvement Collaborative for children and young people that focuses on integrated care as a way of improving life chances for children and families.
Dr Maxine Power
Dr Maxine Power

Director of Quality, Innovation and Improvement, North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust

 
Maxine is an NHS board executive and improvement leader with over 30 year’s experience leading improvement. Initially trained as clinician, Maxine has had an eclectic career working across clinical practice, leadership and academia in a variety of settings. Maxine is the executive director of quality, innovation and improvement at the North West Ambulance service, with responsibility for patient safety, innovation, improvement and digital systems. Her work involves leadership across four integrated care boards in the North West.
Dr Mike More
Dr Mike More

Chair, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

 
Mike has been chair of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2017, having served in an interim capacity since 2016 and a Board role since 2014. He was also chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Sustainability and Transformation Partnership/ Integrated Care System from 2018 until 2022.

Mike has been chief executive of Westminster City Council and Suffolk County Council and held other senior positions in local government beforehand.
Dr Navina Evans
Dr Navina Evans

Chief Workforce and Training Officer, NHS England

 
Dr Navina Evans is the chief workforce, training and education officer at NHS England, leading the Workforce, Training and Education (WT&E) Directorate, with NHS England now taking on responsibility for all activities that were previously undertaken by Health Education England. Navina was Health Education England chief executive from October 2020 to April 2023 and previously was chief executive of East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) from 2016 to October 2020.

Navina has over 20 years of clinical experience in psychiatry, medicine and paediatrics and previously held the positions of deputy chief executive and director of operations. She has also worked as the clinical director for child and adolescent mental health Services at ELFT.

Navina acts as a trustee for Think Ahead Organisation which develop straining programmes for mental health social work. She was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2020. She is a senior fellow at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. Navina uses her voice in support of staff wellbeing and coproduction with patients,
advocating for the best possible quality of life and creating a culture of enjoying work for staff. She was awarded the Commander of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List for services to NHS Leadership and the black, Asian and minority ethnic community.
Nicky Littler
Nicky Littler

Executive Director of Workforce, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

 
Nicky is executive director of workforce at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust and has worked within mental health, learning disability and autism services in the NHS for 22 years. Prior to joining the NHS she worked in human resources within the local authority. Nicky is keen to support people from the local community and those with lived experience into opportunities within the NHS and has recently become a governor at a local college.
Paul Whiteing
Paul Whiteing

Chief Executive, Action against Medical Accidents

 
Paul has been the chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) since December 2022. He is an experienced senior leader and former chief executive of a telecoms regulatory body. Prior to joining AvMA, Paul was a lead ombudsman and director of casework at FOS – the UK’s financial ombudsman, where amongst other responsibilities, Paul led FOS' work on vulnerable customers and the service they received.

Paul's focus at AvMA has been on creating the next five-year strategy and at the same time ensuring that the charity has a long-term plan to ensure that it can remain financially sustainable.
Professor Ramani Moonesinghe
Professor Ramani Moonesinghe

National Clinical Director, Critical and Perioperative Care, NHS England

 
Ramani is a clinician scientist and health service leader. She is the national clinical director for critical and perioperative care at NHS England, a professor at University College London (UCL) and a consultant in anaesthetics, perioperative and critical care medicine at UCL Hospitals (UCLH). She is the inaugural director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Central London Patient Safety Research Collaboration, theme lead for Critical and Perioperative Care at the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, and head of the Centre for Perioperative Medicine and Research Department for Targeted Intervention at UCL.

Ramani has a broad range of academic interests including risk prediction, improvement studies and the development and evaluation of complex interventions aimed at improving surgical outcome and reducing health inequalities. She was awarded the honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2021 for services to anaesthesia, perioperative and critical care.
Ranjit Kirton
Ranjit Kirton

Workplace Behaviour Innovator, The Behaviour Garage Ltd

 
Ranjit is the founder of The Behaviour Garage Ltd and specialises in behavioural psychology and safety - eliminating bullying, harassment, and discrimination from the workplace. Ranjit is on a mission to eradicate all forms of psychological harm by behaviour at work, having spent 28 years within our NHS, starting as a junior and rising to senior leadership, now specialising in embedding psychological safety. Ranjit is registered with the British Psychological Society, with a MSc Psychology.
Saffron  Cordery
Saffron Cordery

Deputy Chief Executive, NHS Providers

 
Saffron is NHS Providers deputy chief executive, part of the senior management team and sits on our board. She has extensive experience in policy development, influencing and communications and has worked in the healthcare sector since 2007. Before moving into healthcare, Saffron was head of public affairs at the Local Government Association, the voice of local councils in England. Her early career focused on influencing EU legislation and policy development, and she started working life in adult and community education.

She has a degree in Modern Languages from the University in Manchester, for ten years was a board member and then chair of a 16–19 college in Hampshire and is a trustee of GambleAware, a leading charity committed to minimising gambling-related harm.
Scott Watkin BEM
Scott Watkin BEM

Head of Engagement, SeeAbility

 
Scott is head of engagement for SeeAbility and has been with the organisation for over 10 years. Scott currently leads a programme that ensures those who are supported by SeeAbility have their voice heard both externally and internally.
Shawnna Gleeson
Shawnna Gleeson

Deputy Director of Workforce and OD, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

 
Shawnna Gleeson, formerly a graduate trainee at Manchester City Council, ascended to deputy director through dedication and merit. Recognised with prestigious awards like PPMA’s Excellence in People Award and Director of the Future, she excelled in fostering inclusivity and diversity.

Joining the NHS as deputy director of workforce and organisational development (OD), Shawnna champions EDI, prioritising values and person-cantered approaches. Her unwavering vision and commitment to effecting tangible change underscore her leadership, driving impactful transformations within organisations.
Professor Suzette Woodward
Professor Suzette Woodward

Visiting Professor, Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College University London

 
Suzette, a former paediatric intensive care nurse who has worked in the NHS for 45 years with 25 years in patient safety. She provides patient safety consultancy in the UK and internationally. Previous roles include: national patient safety director at the NPSA, and national clinical director for the Sign up to Safety Campaign. She has a doctorate in Patient Safety, masters in clinical risk, and honorary doctorate of science and has written three books on patient safety.
Tricia Whiteside
Tricia Whiteside

Non-Executive Director, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

 
Tricia is a transformational leader with a wealth of financial services experience having held a number of senior leadership roles within large Fortune 500 and FTSE100 organisations.

Her experience gathered over 25 years includes owning aspects of global control frameworks and assuring compliance to the expected standards of control, establishing Strategic Change Portfolios, operational delivery of integration programmes following organisational merges / acquisitions and lead upon significant business transformation. Over the last 10 years she successfully established her consultancy business which provided interim management support, with focus on setting up new operational functions and building sustainable internal capabilities, creating portfolios of strategic change to improve operational performance and financial stability, strengthening governance and control regimes, consulting on risk management strategies, and positively responding to increased regulatory scrutiny. Tricia is the chair of the trust’s Finance and Performance Committee.
Dr Vivek Patil
Dr Vivek Patil

Deputy Chief Medical Officer / South East Regional Clinical Advisor NHS England, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

 
Vivek is deputy chief medical officer for Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and has keen interest in quality improvement and patient safety. He has been working as an urgent care physician for the last 12 years with the trust and has established a same day emergency care unit in Crawley.

Vivek has wealth of experience in cross boundary, working across primary, community and secondary care. For the last three years he has also been working as regional clinical advisor (Prehospital Medicine) NHS South East, and has been instrumental in establishing out-of-hospital offers across South East region.

Showcase

As part of the conference, we hosted our Quality and Improvement showcase. A key part of the conference, the showcase is opportunity for trusts to submit case studies of their best practice and learnings to raise their trusts' profile as part of our conference exhibition

This year's showcase focused on embedding quality and improvement throughout delivery of patient care and was a chance to promote learnings and engage in discussions with peers. We sought to learn how trusts have demonstrated the ways in which they have used systematic improvement approaches to meet organisation-wide priorities and strategic objectives.

Our six finalists were:

  • Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
  • Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
  • Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
  • South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
  • South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

 

Learn more about our showcase finalists' and their case studies here

 

Exhibitors

BD

BD logo

 

 

 

 

 

BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics, and the delivery of care. The company develops innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD has 65,000 employees and a presence in virtually every country around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. They help customers enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. 

Get in touch: www.bd.com/en-uk

BD are one of our Connect partners. Learn more about our partnerships here

 

Hempsons

Hempsons' logo

 

 

 

 

 

Hempsons, a specialist health and social care law firm working across the public, private and third sectors, acts for over 200 NHS organisations nationwide on strategic and operational issues including integrated care, collaborations, service reconfigurations, patient safety, estates projects and workforce. Hempsons is a longstanding partner of NHS Providers and support them on a range of activities where legal issues are an important consideration. Please see Hempsons' webinars and podcasts for advice on a range of legal issues

Get in touch:
www.hempsons.co.uk
@hempsonslegal 

Hemspons' are one of our Transform partners. Learn more about our partnerships here.

NHS South, Central and West (NHS SCW)

NHS SCW logo

 

 

 

 

 

Recovering and restoring services, the changing needs of populations, squeezed budgets, a workforce that's struggling to cope with demand. These are just some of the many challenges keeping you up at night. NHS SCW know that, more than ever, you need support to find solutions to your pinch-points. As an NHS organisation bringing together some of the brightest and best in health and social care, they are perfectly placed to help you define your issues and co-design solutions. As partners, they're dedicated to supporting you at every step of your journey to address your most pressing problems, and ultimately, to help you provide the best possible care to people.

Get in touch:
www.scwcsu.nhs.uk
@NHSscw

NHS SCW are one of our Collaborate partners. Learn more about our partnerships here.

Patchwork Health

Patchwork logo

 

 

 

 

 

Patchwork Health is on a mission to make flexible and sustainable working a reality for all healthcare staff. Their fully integrated workforce management solution helps optimise outcomes for organisations, managers, staff and patients. Built by a team of healthcare veterans, and co-created with the NHS, their technology and services have been embraced by over 100 healthcare sites. 

Get in touch:
www.patchwork.health
www.linkedin.com/company/heypatchwork
@heypatchwork

Patchwork Health are one of our Connect partners. Learn more about our partnerships here.

Contact us

For further information or for any questions relating to the conference, email our events team at events@nhsproviders.org. You can also follow us on X and see our hashtag #Quality24 to see highlights from the conference.