Developing Improvement Skills – Our Latest Paper on Embedding Quality Improvement

We’re pleased to announce the publication of Developing Improvement Skills; our latest paper on how health and care organisations can work with us to embed quality improvement.

The paper comes in response to two recent national publications; Making the Case for Quality Improvement: Lessons for NHS Boards and Leaders and Building Capacity by The King’s Fund and The Health Foundation, and NHS Improvement’s Capability for Improvement: Embedding Quality Improvement Skills in NHS Providers.

Speaking on the publication, Lesley Massey, Director, said:

“Quality improvement remains a major priority for health and care if we are to deliver safe, high quality and efficient care for patients, carers and service users, and we welcome the recent publication of these two reports by The King’s Fund, Health Foundation and NHS Improvement.

“Our own paper, Developing Improvement skills, sets out a clear vision for how AQuA’s work can support these recommendations, and how we can work alongside our members and customers to build capability and capacity for improvement across all staff roles and levels.”

Read our report here

In the paper, you can read more about:

• How our offers align to the 10 Lessons for NHS leaders
• Recommended capabilities, engagement and improvement outcomes for all levels of staff
• Practical approaches to embedding quality improvement in your organisation
• Key principles that guide our work with members and customers.

In March 2018 we’re also pleased to be partnering with The King’s Fund for Quality Improvement in Health and Care: Lessons on Leading & Implementing Solutions; an exciting event exploring successful approaches and strategies for embedding quality improvement in health and care.

We’ll be welcoming some of the leading quality improvement lights from across the North West, and AQuA members can also receive a 20% discount off their booking.

For more information about the event and how to claim the discount, please visit the event page.

AQuA Work on Mental Health Restraint Reduction Recognised by Care Quality Commission

We’re pleased to announce that we were recently recognised by health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for our work to reduce incidences of restraint across acute mental health settings in the North West. 

In their recent best practice paper, A Focus on Restrictive Intervention Reduction Programmes in Inpatient Mental Health Services, the CQC highlight the work of North West Boroughs NHS Foundation Trust as part of our Health Foundation-funded REsTRAIN YOURSELF programme, alongside Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Speaking on the announcement, Paul Greenwood, Mental Health Improvement Advisor, said:

Paul Greenwood,
Mental Health Improvement Advisor

“It’s fantastic to see our work with members recognised by the CQC, and a real credit to the hard work to improve mental health services by staff at North West Boroughs and Mersey Care.

“To have two of our members identified for best practice is a great achievement both for them and the North West, and we continue to work closely with a number of our mental health Trusts to improve care for patients.”

Alongside other best practice examples from across the UK, the paper highlighted North West Borough’s work to improve governance procedures and share learning around restrictive practice across the wider organisation.

For Mersey Care, who we have also supported on mental health restraint reduction, the paper looked at how the Trust developed their No Force First programme to reduce restraint on wards, alongside improving staff sickness.

For more information about our work on Mental Health or restraint reduction, please visit our website.

Alternatively, you can contact Paul Greenwood on paul.greenwood@srft.nhs.uk or via Twitter on @PaulG_AQuA. 

Blog - Thoughts from the Patient First Conference - Kayleigh Price

As the UK's largest patient safety event, the Patient Safety conference brings together patients, families and health and care professionals to share improvements in care. Fresh from the 2017 conference, our Improvement Advisor Kayleigh Price shares some of her highlights from the event.

Kayleigh Price, AQuA Improvement Advisor

Last week I was lucky to attend the annual Patient First conference in London, where alongside my colleagues Andrea McGuinness (@1McGuinness) and Jane Carthey, I was privileged to speak about the Maturity Matrix for the Measurement and Monitoring of Safety.

Our presentation came at the end of an exhilarating and engaging first day to the conference. Whilst there were just so many talks to go into detail on, highlights included a fantastic session by B.Braun Medical on Human Factors, as well as Moving from Safety 1 to Safety 2 from Trevor Date of Atrainability, which discussed how self-awareness and team development can improve the safety of care.

There were also lots of sessions from a number of Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSC’s); with the one from Wessex PSC  around deteriorating patients in non-acute settings, particularly home care environments, standing out in particular.

This posed the question of:

How can we track deterioration effectively in an environment where we are trying to minimise the ‘medicalisation’ of everyday life?

One answer seemed to be soft signals. If a client normally sleeps well but suddenly reports a restless night, this could be considered a flag. It doesn’t mean that they are deteriorating, but that we need to keep an eye on them. The talk was compelling and I can’t wait to get in touch with them directly to find out even more!

Our own talk was the penultimate session of the day in the plenary theatre, which holds up to 500 people (a mildly terrifying prospect!)  By the time we got started it was standing room only!

We were talking about the Safety Measurement and Monitoring Maturity Matrix (SMMMM) a tool designed by Human Factors Consultant Jane Carthey and Nick Downham of WDID, to assist teams with getting started using the Measurement and Monitoring of Safety Framework.

Click here to view an image of the Maturity Matrix

We shared our experience of supporting teams through using the matrix, as well as giving participants a run through of the process of using the tool. I have shared some twitter interactions below:

Day two of the conference was another high energy day packed with sessions. Highlights included a session from Patient Safety Learning's James Titcombe and Jonathan Hazan, about learning from deaths and their new patient safety learning organisation (see @ptsafetylearn for more info).

With the massive number of sessions from PSCs over both days, it was amazing to see the learning coming from these teams. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get around all of the sessions (I’m only one person after all) but I’m really looking forward to working more closely with PSC teams over the next year, as we collaborate nationwide on the Patient Safety Measurement Unit programme.  I’m even more excited for this piece of work now, and I didn’t think that was possible!

Overall the conference was really exciting and I left feeling inspired, engaged and ready to think differently- what more can you really ask for?

Further information on the maturity matrix (and the measurement and monitoring of safety framework) can be found at www.howsafeisourcare.com, or by attending our final sharing session in London on 30 November.

Were you at the conference or want to find out more about the Safety Framework? 

Feel free to share your thoughts with Kayleigh on Twitter via @KayleighPrice14 or Kayleigh.Price@srft.nhs.uk, or via @AQuA_NHS. 

AQuA Lived Experience Affiliate Starts Nursing Training

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is delighted to share news that Carl O’Loughlin, one of our Lived Experience Affiliates, will be taking his first step into nursing as he begins his training to become a Mental Health nurse at the University of Chester in February 2018.

Carl O'Loughlin, Lived Experience Affiliate

Carl, who started his career training to be a Chartered Accountant, has worked alongside our staff and members for a number of years, to help design our programmes and offers, and ensure patient experience is at the heart of our work. To support him during his studies, Carl has also been awarded one of the prestigious Margaret Parkinson Scholarship’s from the Royal College of Nursing Foundation.

Speaking on the news, Carl said:

“I am absolutely delighted to have been offered a place to begin my Mental Health Nursing degree. I am passionate about mental health care and I want to use my own personal lived experience of severe mental illness to try and make a difference to others suffering similar problems.

“My 'lived experience' roles at the Advancing Quality Alliance, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and CLARCH North West Coast have provided me with invaluable experience and have certainly been the driving force behind me wanting to become a mental health nurse.

“I am also extremely proud and honoured to have been awarded a Margaret Parkinson Scholarship from the Royal College of Nursing Foundation which will support me throughout the 3 years of the course.”

Paul Greenwood, Mental Health Improvement Advisor, said:

“We’re really pleased for Carl and wish him all the best as he takes his first step into nursing. It is a pleasure to work alongside him as part of our Lived Experience Panel as he brings such a wealth of experience to our work, both from his previous career as an accountant and through his own personal experience of mental health.

“We’re delighted that the work with us inspired him to take this decision, and I know he’ll have a lot to offer when he qualifies in the years to come.”

Carl will continue to work with us through the Lived Experience Panel throughout his training. To find out more about the panel, please visit our website, or contact Paul.Greenwood@srft.nhs.uk.

WATCH - Whole System Flow – Pecha Kucha Style

We’re pleased to bring you an exciting ‘Pecha Kucha’ video sharing some of our work and learning around Whole System Flow, presented by our Flow Programme Facilitator Scott Gregory. 

Scott Gregory, Flow Programme Facilitator

What is a 'Pecha Kucha'? It’s Japanese for ‘chit-chat’, and used to describe a fast-paced and concise presentation where 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, with a total run-time of six minutes 40 seconds.

On the back of our 18-month flow discovery programme with The Health Foundation, Scott shares some of our key learning from this, including some do’s and don’ts to successful flow, as well how this has evolved into our new 2017/18 Flow – Improving System Pathways programme with members.

Watch his presentation here

Scott adds:

“Since starting our initial work with The Health Foundation, we’ve really learnt a lot about flow and the many complexities of improving this in practice, and how it often means different things depending on your role and setting.

“Whilst it was quite a challenge to condense so much of this into a Pecha Kucha presentation, it also helped to keep it to our key learning points and what we think is really useful to members.

“We’re now looking to build on and test this work further with members across three pilot systems in Liverpool, Bolton, and Wigan hope to share how some of these findings can help improve care and outcomes for patients across our members and wider partners.”

Feel free to share your thoughts on the presentation via Twitter at @AQuA_NHS, or with Scott directly via @SG_AQuA.

For more information on Flow, please contact out Wendy Lewis, Flow Lead, on Wendy.Lewis@srft.nhs.uk.

RECAP - AQuA Welcomes The King’s Fund’s Chris Ham for Place Based Care

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) were delighted to welcome Professor Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, for an exciting masterclass exploring pace based health and care.

Chris addressed over 100 senior leaders from across health and social about the ten key design principles for successful place based care, and some of the challenges behind this at the event in Manchester; hosted alongside our partners NHS Mersey Internal Audit Agency (MIAA), NHS North West Leadership Academy (NHS NWLA), and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) North West.

Speaking after the event, Cathy Sloan, Head of System Transformation, said:

“It was fantastic to welcome Chris to Manchester for this masterclass. The King’s Fund have really led the way in the thinking behind place based care in the UK, and it was really good to hear about some of the key principles of how we can deliver these in practice.

“It was also inspiring to hear from our members in St Helens and at the Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership, on how these systems have started to be implemented in their localities.  Sarah Bullock from St Helens Cares and Tim Griffith from Greater Manchester described the very different ways their systems are developing place based care.”

Watch back Chris’s presentation below.

The Journey to Place Based Systems of Care: Learning from what works with @profchrisham #PlaceBasedCare https://t.co/Yd1wgxeyUT

— AQuA (@AQuA_NHS) September 21, 2017

Place based care is where local health and care providers, commissioners, local authorities and other organisations work together to establish coordinated systems and plan their services to address the healthcare needs of their local population.

If you missed the session, you can catch up on some of the key points from the day via our multimedia recap below.

AQuA Exhibiting Analytics Support at North West Informatics Conference

Two of our staff will be exhibiting our analytics work at this week’s Connect Conference in Blackpool, alongside a range of senior informatics colleagues from across the North West health and care sector.

Hosted by Intersystems and the NHS Skills Development Network, ‘Beyond the Boundaries’ takes place at the Hilton Hotel, Blackpool, on Thursday 21 – Friday 22 September.

Our Programme Director Nadine Boczkowski and Principle Business Intelligence Analyst Paul Hawgood will be showcasing our analytics and business intelligence work with our members from across the region.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Nadine said:

“We’re delighted to be attending Connect Conference and are looking forward to hearing about some of current priorities and to share supporting offers and services available to our members across the region.

“There are some fantastic speakers lined up over the two days, and we hope to see some really innovative analytical and technological developments and best practice.”

Sessions throughout the conference will explore a broad range of topics, including digital innovation, using informatics to improve performance and outcomes across health and care, and how to develop the necessary skills behind this now and in the future.

Nadine and Paul will be at Stand 21 in the reception exhibition area over the two days, and will also be taking part in sessions; with many of our member also delivering presentations throughout the conference.

You can follow Paul on Twitter @PaulHawgood, or for latest updates follow NHS Skills Development Network @ISDNorthWest. 

Could You Be Our Next Board Member?

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is seeking expressions of interest to join our Board from senior leaders from organisations signed up to AQuA membership.

Our Board plays a vital role in helping to set our overall vision for our work with members and customers, and is made up of five Directors taken from our member organisations across the North West, as well as four external independent Directors.

We are looking to appoint one member Director to replace Dr. John Dean, who stood down earlier this year to take up a new national role.

AQuA Chief Executive David Fillingham said: 

“This is a fantastic opportunity for senior members to use their experience and insight to help shape our work, and ensure we continue to offer the best possible support to help our members address a range of challenges across health and care.

David Fillingham, AQuA Chief Executive

“John has been with us since for over six years, and during this time has made a massive contribution to our work. Whilst we’re sad to see him go, we wish him all the best in his new role with the Royal College of Physicians.”

In order to ensure we have a balance of experience and perspectives, we would particularly welcome applications from members with a medical background. However, all expressions will be considered.

Further information about our Board, including current members, is available on our website. Full information about the role is available in the person specification.

To express your interest, please send a short CV and covering letter outlining why you wish to join our Board, and how you meet the requirements, to Carole.Maloney@srft.nhs.uk.

The deadline for expressions is Friday 13 October.

We would also welcome further discussions about this opportunity ahead of applications, which you can arrange with Carole via the above email, or by calling 0161 206 5187.

AQuA Staff Among Latest to Join Q Community

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to announce that its Safety & Mortality Improvement Lead Kayleigh Price is among the latest selected to join the prestigious Q Community.

Led by The Health Foundation, Q aims to bring together improvement practitioners from across the UK to share ideas, learning and best practice to support improvement projects and innovation.

Kayleigh Price, Improvement Lead

Kayleigh, who joins eight other AQuA staff who were previously selected for Q, said of the announcement:

“I’m really excited to be accepted as a member of Q and look forward to being a part of an exciting, diverse and dynamic community.

“I can’t wait to get going and start learning from others and sharing my own experiences too.”

Over the past year, The Health Foundation have been working alongside Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) across the UK, to coordinate recruitment to Q.

Kayleigh was part of the latest intake for the Greater Manchester AHSN area, with a previous intake held for the Innovation Agency (formerly North West Coast AHSN) footprint earlier this year.

Q now has almost 1800 members frmo across the UK, including a number from across the North West.

Our Chief Executive David Fillingham will also be speaking at the Q Community national event in Liverpool on 23 November, which will explore how members can learn from each other and do things differently to improve outcomes.

We’ll also be sharing further details about this event in the coming weeks.

For more information about Q, including a full directory of members, visit the Q Community website. You can also follow updates on Twitter via @theQCommunity.

Nominate Your Health & Care Projects for the 2017 iNetwork Innovation Awards

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is encouraging members to enter this year’s iNetwork Innovation Awards, by nominating their projects or services for the awards’ Health category.

The Innovation Awards celebrate the best in public sector innovation, with the dedicated Health Award recognising exceptional design and delivery of services to a particular population or place. Entries will be judged on how projects can evidence impact, the innovative nature of the work, and potential to be adopted by others.

Cathy Sloan, Head of System Transformation, said:

“Once again we’re delighted to be supporting the Innovation Awards. This is the second year we’ve seen a dedicated Health award, which recognises some of the fantastic work in improving outcomes and services for patients.

“Working with our members on a daily basis, we see first-hand some of the amazing improvements and innovations displayed by teams, projects and services across the region, particularly around work to improve place based care.

 “We want members to celebrate their achievements by nominating these for the Health award, and I hope we’ll see a strong turnout when these go to a public vote in September.”

Entries can be submitted via the link below:

Submit your Nomination

Members are also welcome to enter nominations for other awards categories, including:

• ·         Outstanding Contribution
• ·         Innovative Access to Public Services
• ·         Effective Service Redesign & Reform
• ·         Excellence in Information Sharing & Security
• ·         Connected Procurement & Commissioning
• ·         iStand Award (electronic data standards)
• ·         Partner Excellence

Nominations close midnight on Friday 15 September, after which entries will be open for a public vote on the iNetwork website.

Entries with the most votes will then go to a judging panel, who will produce a shortlist of finalists to be invited to the awards ceremony; taking place in Manchester on Wednesday 15 November, ahead of the iNetwork Annual Conference.

For full information about the awards, including highlights from the 2016 awards, please visit the Innovation Awards website.

iNetwork help support public sector organisations to improve local services, by encouraging collaboration and sharing best practice. Members can access their events and training for free through AQuA membership.

For more information, please visit the iNetwork website.

Three Liverpool Members Awarded Health Foundation Innovation Funding

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to announce that three of our Liverpool members have been selected for The Health Foundation’s £1.5 million Innovating for Improvement programme.

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust were among the 21 projects selected across the UK to receive the funding.

The Innovating for Improvement programme will run for 15 months. Each of the three projects in Liverpool will receive up to £75,000 of funding to support delivery, as well as the evaluation of how the innovation improves the quality of health care.

The three Liverpool-based projects set to benefit from the funding will each focus on improving a different area of health care for patients with respiratory health needs in the city.

NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will use this funding to build on the success of Liverpool’s Advice on Prescription in Primary Care project, which was set up in partnership with Liverpool’s Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to help alleviate poverty, hardship and other common social risk factors that negatively impact on a person’s health. The project will identify new care pathways that would benefit from the scheme, and test it in respiratory services.

Dr Janet Bliss, Clinical Director for Community Services at NHS Liverpool CCG said:

“We are delighted with the news of these three Innovating for Improvement funding awards, each of which will be used to help develop cutting-edge health projects that will directly benefit local patients.

“The Advice on Prescription Project is a ground-breaking scheme which enables all Liverpool GP’s to refer their patients to CAB advisors for help on a range of social issues such as housing, homelessness, job loss and debt.

“Being part of the programme will enable us to continue to build on the successful work already being undertaken through this scheme, with the aim of reducing many of the social risk factors that can negatively impact on people’s health and wellbeing.”

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust will use funding from the Health Foundation to improve how heroin smokers access chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) community services across Liverpool and help reduce the time they need to spend in hospital.

A large number of heroin users in Merseyside are at risk of developing and dying from COPD, a lung disease associated with smoking that causes symptoms such as cough and breathlessness.

The innovative project, which is being led by consultant respiratory physician Dr Hassan Burhan, is engaging with patients by working in partnership with drug services, NHS Liverpool CCG, and 2Bio Ltd’s Impact Science Team who provide innovation services to the Trust and have supported the development of this project.

Dr Hassan Burhan, Consultant Respiratory Physician, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust said:

"Heroin users often don’t engage with community services, which can lead to late diagnosis of COPD and missed opportunities to slow how the disease progresses. Up to one in two heroin smokers have COPD, and one in eight admissions with exacerbations of COPD to our Trust are in patients with a history of heroin smoking.

“We are really pleased to have secured this award and look forward to implementing our ideas to improve COPD management and outcomes in this hard to reach group of patients.”

Alder Hey Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will use the funding to help evaluate the effectiveness of their SCORE programme, a new healthcare model that empowers children with asthma to understand their condition, self-manage it and participate in activities. The model involves an initial consultation to set goals and optimise treatments, a peer-group educational intervention, and two blocks of activity.

Dr Ian Sinha, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said:

"We are delighted to have received this funding award for this new approach to asthma treatment, which is centred around children and communities. We hope to demonstrate that it is both clinically effective and cost-effective through the programme, and to be able to share this learning more widely.

“More than ever we need to be thinking creatively about new ways of working in health, and each of these innovative projects highlights that Liverpool is a forward thinking city with regards to new models of care.”

Sarah Henderson, Associate Director from the Health Foundation said:

“We are delighted to be supporting three fantastic projects in Liverpool to enhance care for patients in the local area, with a focus on improving respiratory services. We are keen to support innovation at the frontline across all sectors of health and care services, and I am pleased that we will be able to support these ambitious teams to develop and test their ideas over the next year.

“Our aim is to promote the effectiveness and impact of the teams’ innovations and show how they have succeeded in improving the quality of health care, with the intention of these being widely adopted across the UK.”

To find out more about the Innovating for Improvement programme, go to: http://www.health.org.uk/programmes/innovating-improvement  

Measuring Mortality Video Masterclasses – Episode Two Now Live

We’re pleased to bring you Episode Two of Measuring Mortality; our monthly video masterclass series designed to help health and care professionals get to grips with mortality data.

In this episode, Paul Hawgood and Andy Wilson from our Analytics team will be introducing you to Standardised Mortality Rates (SMRs), following last month’s episode on Crude Mortality Rates.

Speaking ahead of this latest video, Paul said:

“Unlike Crude Mortality Rates, which we covered in episode one, Standardised Mortality Rates allow you to compare data across different organisations by making adjustments to take into account differences in age, sex, type of admission and condition.

“In this episode, we’ll be giving you an overview of SMRs and how they are calculated, whilst in episode three we’ll take a look at some of the common types used across the NHS to help improve services.”

Watch Episode Two here:

If you missed the first episode of the series, you can catch up over on our Youtube channel.

You can also share your thoughts, comments and questions with Paul via 

paul.hawgood@srt.nhs.uk.

Feel free to share them on Twitter @AQuA_NHS or @PaulHawgood, or via the #MeasuringMortality hashtag.

AQuA Enhanced Recovery Expertise Published in US

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to announce that the work of one of our staff has recently been published by the American Society of Enhanced Recovery (ACER).

The work of our Flow Programme Lead, Wendy Lewis, was published in ACER’s Enhanced Recovery Implementation Guide; which gives a range of advice and guidance on implementing enhanced recovery, as well as examples and case studies from around the world.

Enhanced Recovery (ER) describes the modern, evidenced-based approach to help people recover more quickly after major surgery.

Wendy Lewis, AQuA

For the guide, Wendy worked alongside our partners J9 Consulting to contribute the UK learning and examples of successful implementation of ER. This was based on her experience of leading ER implementation at local and regional levels and as national improvement lead for Enhanced Recovery Partnership Programme with the Department for Health.

Speaking on the guide’s publication, Wendy said:

“It’s been fantastic to contribute some of my experience to the guide, and I think it really takes a comprehensive look at how this approach can work in practice, both in the US and abroad.

“The US has had a major focus on enhanced recovery for a number of years, but we also have some great examples where it’s been used to improve care for patients, and give them a much better experience during their recovery.”

“Last year I also had the opportunity to join a UK Trade and Industry study trip held in Philadelphia, USA, to start transferring learning from UK healthcare improvement with some of the leading experts behind enhanced recovery.”

The full 94 pages of the guide is only available to ASER members. However, you can view a preview of the first five pages on the ACER website.

For more information about this work, please contact Wendy.Lewis@srft.nhs.uk

Scoping for Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Improvement Programme – Join our Webinars

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is currently carrying out a scoping exercise with a view to developing a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) improvement programme for the North West.

Improving children and young people’s mental health outcomes by 2020 has been highlighted as a national priority for health and care.

In 2015, the Department of Health’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health & Wellbeing taskforce also highlighted the need for high-quality and accessible CAMHS services in their report Future in Mind.

In keeping with this agenda, AQuA will look to establish whether a three-year AQuA CAMHS improvement programme is needed for the North West, how this might be delivered, and the possible content of the programme.

Paul Greenwood, Mental Health Improvement Advisor for AQuA, said:

“Through this scoping exercise we’re really pleased to be exploring CAMHS support in more detail, and hope to gather some great insights and ideas from our members and partners across the North West.

“We want to establish whether there is a need for a dedicated improvement programme across the region, and how we might be able to support members in the improvement of their services.

“Over the coming months, our CAMHS Affiliate Sue Hooton will be meeting a range of colleagues, and we’ll also be hosting a series of webinars for them to find out more about this work and share their ideas.”

Scoping Webinar Sessions
We are also looking for members and partners to join us on two upcoming webinars, to learn more about this work and to share ideas on where improvement efforts would be most effective.

These are open to senior leaders, managers or frontline staff working across CAMHS services, including across health and social care providers, commissioners and third sector organisations.

Sessions will take place on the dates below. To book your place, please follow the links to the booking page:

• Wednesday 16 August, 10:30-12:00pm
• Wednesday 6 September, 2:00-3:30pm

As part of the review, we will also be hosting an exciting Hackathon event in late September, as an innovative session to help generate ideas to support this work. Further details of this event will be announced in the coming weeks.

If you would like more information about the CAMHS scoping review, please contact Sue Hooton, CAMHS Affiliate, on Sue.Hooton@srft.nhs.uk.

AQuA Annual General Meeting (AGM) - Thursday 3 August

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) would like to invite senior leaders from the across membership to attend our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 3 August.

At the AGM, we will be talking about our key achievements and programmes from 2016/17, as well as outlining our strategic direction with members and customers for the coming years.

Speaking ahead the meeting, Lesley Massey, Director, said:

“As a membership organisation, we really appreciate the insight and input we gain from our members.

“The AGM is a great chance for senior leaders to find out more about our work from the past year, as well as our vision for the future; not just with their own organisation but across the whole membership footprint.”

Members will also have the opportunity to meet our Board, several of whom are also members, as well as meet our staff from across our teams and programmes.

The meeting will take place on Thursday 3 August, 11:30am – 12:30pm, at our offices in Sale, Greater Manchester.

If you would like to attend, please confirm your attendance by contacting Carole Maloney, on Carole.Maloney@srft.nhs.uk or calling 0161 206 5187 by the end of Monday 31 July.

Restraint Reduction - Video Blog 4 Now Live

We’re pleased to bring you the latest video blog (vlog) update from our mental health Restraint Reduction programme, with our Improvement Advisor Paul Greenwood.

Throughout these bi-monthly videos, Paul talks about our latest work with members participating in the programme, as well as what we have planned in the coming months.

Speaking ahead of his latest video, Paul said:
“In this fourth video I’ll be talking about our work to wrap up our 2016/17 Restraint Reduction programme, including some of the headline reductions in incidences of restraint and how we want to carry forward improvements into our other work.

“I’ll also be discussing our plans for our new 2017/18 programme looking at reducing restraint across learning disabilities and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) inpatient services, as well as some of our work with teams across the North West.”

Watch Vlog 4 here


If you missed Paul’s other vlogs, you can watch them back on our website. Feel free to share your comments with Paul via Twitter @PaulG_AQuA or Paul.Greenwood@srft.nhs.uk, or at @AQuA_NHS.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for the next Restraint Reduction vlog or to watch more of our videos.

AQuA Launches New 'Measuring Mortality' Video Series

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to bring you an exciting new video series to help health and care professionals get to grips with mortality data.

Measuring Mortality will bring you monthly videos to help you develop your own analytics skills and understanding to support improvements in mortality.


Measuring Mortality - Introduction from Paul Hawgood


Over the coming months, Paul Hawgood and Andrew Wilson from our Analytics Team will guide you through a range of topics, including Crude Mortality, Standardised Mortality Rates (such as SHMI and HSMR), discuss some of the myths and misconceptions around the data, and more.

The series is ideal for anyone involved in reporting, monitoring or improving the quality of mortality care, particularly senior managers, information and business intelligence officers, and commissioners.

Episode One – Crude Mortality Rates


Videos will be published each month on our YouTube channel. You can contact Paul with your thoughts, comments and questions via Paul.Hawgood@srft.nhs.uk.

You can also share them on Twitter via @AQuA_NHS or @PaulHawgood, or via the #MeasuringMortality hashtag.

System Leaders Welcome International Speaker Margaret Heffernan

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) was delighted to recently welcome back international speaker and businesswoman Margaret Heffernan for an exciting system leadership event, alongside our partners NHS North West Leadership Academy (NWLA), NHS Mersey Internal Audit Agency (MIAA) and the Association of Directors for Adult Social Services (ADASS) North West.

Margaret Heffernan (Image: MHeffernan.com)

Over 100 senior leaders from across AQuA membership and wider health and social care organisations attended the session, held at the University of Manchester; to hear from Margaret and explore the key skills and approaches to successful system leadership, and discuss the challenges in achieving this.

Speaking after the event, Helen Kilgannon, Strategic Portfolio Lead, said:

"We were thrilled to welcome Margaret for this session. She really is an inspirational speaker and described our complex systems, and the various challenges faced by leaders really well.

"She also highlighted a lot of learning from business, and how day-to-day bureaucracy hampers our ability to do a good job and the right thing for people and staff."

Starting her career in television and radio production, Margaret is now also a successful chief executive and author, with her last book The Big Impact of Small Changes, released in 2015. She also regularly delivers talks at a range of high profile conferences across a number of sectors, including the popular TED talks.

Below you can find a multimedia round of some of the tweets and photos from the event, or catch full highlights from the day via the #SL2017 hashtag.

In September, we will also be welcoming The King’s Fund Chief Executive Chris Ham, for the second of our Transformation masterclasses, The Journey to Place Based Care, with NWLA and MIAA. For more information or to book your place, please visit our website.

For more information about Margaret Heffernan, please visit her website or follow her on Twitter @M_Heffernan.