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:
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.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Monday, July 24, 2017
AQuA Annual General Meeting (AGM) - 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.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
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.
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.
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| Margaret Heffernan (Image: MHeffernan.com) |
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.
Friday, July 7, 2017
Blog - Focus on the Human Factor - Brook Howells
Brook Howells is a Programme Manager for AQuA. In her first blog, she shares some of her thoughts on Human Factors from recent conferences, and how this has influenced care for patients. You can also see some of her updates from the conferences or tweet her at @BrookH_AQuA.
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| Brook Howells, Programme Manager |
In a health and care context, Human Factors refers to understanding how everyday human behaviour and environments can influence and impact on the safety of patients and care
I deliver the Introduction to Human Factors course for AQuA and am also keen on weaving HF thinking into our other programmes too, so I was really interested to see what extra knowledge and inspiration I could pick up.
The Haelo conference, held under the wings of a Concord at Manchester Airport, took each of several key aspects of HF – situational awareness, teamwork, communication, culture, interpersonal and inter-agency collaboration and so on – and used real life examples to add detail in a really meaningful way.
A lot was covered and it was clear that this is already a vast subject and one that will continue to grow; healthcare has a lot to learn!
It was really encouraging however to hear from the other industries that they are still very much learning too; it is and I think always will be an area for continuous improvement.
I deliver the Introduction to Human Factors course for AQuA and am also keen on weaving HF thinking into our other programmes too, so I was really interested to see what extra knowledge and inspiration I could pick up.
The Haelo conference, held under the wings of a Concord at Manchester Airport, took each of several key aspects of HF – situational awareness, teamwork, communication, culture, interpersonal and inter-agency collaboration and so on – and used real life examples to add detail in a really meaningful way.
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| Human Factors Conference 2017, Manchester Airport (Haelo) |
It was really encouraging however to hear from the other industries that they are still very much learning too; it is and I think always will be an area for continuous improvement.
It was also really interesting to hear how many presentations highlighted the need to combine HF thinking with quality improvement methodology and we can continue to support this for AQuA members.
The Patient Safety Congress was on a much bigger and broader scale but had a whole day’s workstream dedicated to Human Factors – specifically to how we can approach improvement in this area from a systems perspective.
Most interesting from me, given my other AQuA ‘hat’ of Person-Centred Care Programme Manager, was the emphasis throughout on the need to better involve patients to improve both safety and quality.
At AQuA we have recognised this link for a long time but I don’t think it has been made so explicitly on this sort of stage before. Even Sir Robert Francis QC made reference to it in his keynote speech!
The most inspiring parts of the day were hearing the experiences of two patients who had been brave enough to share their stories; Kathryn Walton and Susanna Stanford.
Kathryn was fortunate enough that once the error was recognised, an apology came swiftly and both the medic and his hospital trust sought to involve her in helping to understand and resolve the situation.
Susanna on the other hand spoke of the vulnerability of being a patient, the difficulty in speaking up even when you are in great danger or pain, and the impact of feeling totally isolated in a room crowded with professionals.
Susanna has made a video about her experience in conjunction with the Obstetrics Anaesthetists’ Association and I would urge you all to go and watch. I think the lessons to be learnt, about communication and humility and the opportunities to improve the service we offer to patients, should resonate with anyone involved in healthcare.
The Patient Safety Congress was on a much bigger and broader scale but had a whole day’s workstream dedicated to Human Factors – specifically to how we can approach improvement in this area from a systems perspective.
Most interesting from me, given my other AQuA ‘hat’ of Person-Centred Care Programme Manager, was the emphasis throughout on the need to better involve patients to improve both safety and quality.
At AQuA we have recognised this link for a long time but I don’t think it has been made so explicitly on this sort of stage before. Even Sir Robert Francis QC made reference to it in his keynote speech!
The most inspiring parts of the day were hearing the experiences of two patients who had been brave enough to share their stories; Kathryn Walton and Susanna Stanford.
Kathryn was fortunate enough that once the error was recognised, an apology came swiftly and both the medic and his hospital trust sought to involve her in helping to understand and resolve the situation.
Susanna on the other hand spoke of the vulnerability of being a patient, the difficulty in speaking up even when you are in great danger or pain, and the impact of feeling totally isolated in a room crowded with professionals.
Susanna has made a video about her experience in conjunction with the Obstetrics Anaesthetists’ Association and I would urge you all to go and watch. I think the lessons to be learnt, about communication and humility and the opportunities to improve the service we offer to patients, should resonate with anyone involved in healthcare.
Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or Tweet us at @AQuA_NHS.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Blog - Happy 69th Birthday to the NHS - Elizabeth Bradbury
Elizabeth Bradbury is a Director at the Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA). As the NHS turns 69, she reflects on her own career and how AQuA is supporting the NHS in the years to come. Feel free to share your own thoughts and tweet her @Elizabeth_AQuA.
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| Elizabeth Bradbury, Director |
The NHS is 69 years old today and some of the achievements are staggering. For example SimonEnright shared at the recent NHS Confederation Comms conference that when the NHS launched 69 years ago there were 480k in-patient beds…..now there are just 125k! In addition life expectancy has been rising by five hours a day!.
As the birthday tributes are broadcast, I’ve paused to consider some of the changes during my 30 year NHS career and the way in which AQuA can support the NHS in 2017:
Collaborative Care Models
When newly qualified, I did some agency nursing shifts with a district nursing team in the east London docklands. I set out on foot with a map, list of patients to visit and a bag of door keys to gain access to the homes of people who couldn’t answer the door themselves.
For someone used to the high-tech, team based, specialist-on-tap world of A&E work, on the district was a culture shock! My abiding memory is the isolation and loneliness of the housebound patients and the disconnect between district nursing and other community based services.
I compare this to devolution or the neighbourhood and locality teams that are in place now, with the emphasis on partnering with patients using techniques, such as AQuA’s Shared Decision-Making programme or Wigan’s community asset based model.
AQuA’s Transformation and Integration team works closely with locality teams, on the collaborative design and implementation of new place-based care models e.g. commissions with the Wirral and Halton localities to develop accountable care.
A Systematic Focus on Quality
As a student I saw patients with truly horrendous pressure sores; hospital acquired infections were common and staff involved in incidents of patient harm were poorly supported.
Over the last decade or so we’ve seen an intensive focus on developing a system of organisational quality and shifting the quality curve to the right. Regional and national patient safety initiatives have targeted particular harms, whilst AQuA has worked with its members on campaigns such as community sepsis, restraint reduction in in-patient mental health units, and to support to the workforce with patient safety training e.g. its two- tier human factors programme.
It was a lightbulb moment for me when I saw a run chart on the wall of an US intensive care unit in the mid-2000s, showing the number of days between any patient developing a chest infection through the use of clinical care bundlesThey were trying to break their record of 300+ days.
AQuA’s Advancing Quality programme has been committed to high reliability clinical care for nearly a decade; working with hospitals, and more recently primary care, to define and embed clinical care bundles. See their results here.
We have undertaken several Well-LedReviews as part of NHS provider trusts’ corporate assurance process, enabling boards to take a proactive approach to establishing a quality culture and putting quality at the heart of all their work.
We are also working closely with NHS Improvement and member Trusts who have had a 'Requires Improvement' or 'Inadequate' CQC rating, helping them implement plans to improve the quality of care and the improvement capability of their workforce.
Building Improvement Capability
The NHS workforce has always featured in strategy and operational plans, but the language of quality and an emphasis on both doing your job to the best of your technical ability, and continuously improving how you do it (Batalden.P, 2004) were absent during my training.
AQuA’s work with its’ 70+ member organisations includes intensive workforce capability building in improvement theory and techniques e.g. customised work with the North West Ambulance Service and Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. Usually we work as partners building capability from foundation to expert level, and develop a plan for the member to become self-sufficient after several years of support.
System Leadership
In my early NHS career our focus was upon the success of our own organisation, often to the detriment of person-centred integrated care and the success of partner agencies. Now we see a focus on system leadership.
AQuA’s OD and practical system leadership support helps build trust and constructive relationships in multi-agency leadership teams, we also undertake extensive bespoke work with our members and their partners aligned to Sustainability and Transformation Partnership plans, e.g. recent work with the Mersey CCGs to explore alternative models of commissioning, and with the Wirral and Halton localities to lead accountable care models.
As the birthday tributes are broadcast, I’ve paused to consider some of the changes during my 30 year NHS career and the way in which AQuA can support the NHS in 2017:
Collaborative Care Models
When newly qualified, I did some agency nursing shifts with a district nursing team in the east London docklands. I set out on foot with a map, list of patients to visit and a bag of door keys to gain access to the homes of people who couldn’t answer the door themselves.
For someone used to the high-tech, team based, specialist-on-tap world of A&E work, on the district was a culture shock! My abiding memory is the isolation and loneliness of the housebound patients and the disconnect between district nursing and other community based services.
I compare this to devolution or the neighbourhood and locality teams that are in place now, with the emphasis on partnering with patients using techniques, such as AQuA’s Shared Decision-Making programme or Wigan’s community asset based model.
AQuA’s Transformation and Integration team works closely with locality teams, on the collaborative design and implementation of new place-based care models e.g. commissions with the Wirral and Halton localities to develop accountable care.
A Systematic Focus on Quality
As a student I saw patients with truly horrendous pressure sores; hospital acquired infections were common and staff involved in incidents of patient harm were poorly supported.
Over the last decade or so we’ve seen an intensive focus on developing a system of organisational quality and shifting the quality curve to the right. Regional and national patient safety initiatives have targeted particular harms, whilst AQuA has worked with its members on campaigns such as community sepsis, restraint reduction in in-patient mental health units, and to support to the workforce with patient safety training e.g. its two- tier human factors programme.
It was a lightbulb moment for me when I saw a run chart on the wall of an US intensive care unit in the mid-2000s, showing the number of days between any patient developing a chest infection through the use of clinical care bundlesThey were trying to break their record of 300+ days.
AQuA’s Advancing Quality programme has been committed to high reliability clinical care for nearly a decade; working with hospitals, and more recently primary care, to define and embed clinical care bundles. See their results here.
We have undertaken several Well-LedReviews as part of NHS provider trusts’ corporate assurance process, enabling boards to take a proactive approach to establishing a quality culture and putting quality at the heart of all their work.
We are also working closely with NHS Improvement and member Trusts who have had a 'Requires Improvement' or 'Inadequate' CQC rating, helping them implement plans to improve the quality of care and the improvement capability of their workforce.
Building Improvement Capability
The NHS workforce has always featured in strategy and operational plans, but the language of quality and an emphasis on both doing your job to the best of your technical ability, and continuously improving how you do it (Batalden.P, 2004) were absent during my training.
AQuA’s work with its’ 70+ member organisations includes intensive workforce capability building in improvement theory and techniques e.g. customised work with the North West Ambulance Service and Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. Usually we work as partners building capability from foundation to expert level, and develop a plan for the member to become self-sufficient after several years of support.
System Leadership
In my early NHS career our focus was upon the success of our own organisation, often to the detriment of person-centred integrated care and the success of partner agencies. Now we see a focus on system leadership.
AQuA’s OD and practical system leadership support helps build trust and constructive relationships in multi-agency leadership teams, we also undertake extensive bespoke work with our members and their partners aligned to Sustainability and Transformation Partnership plans, e.g. recent work with the Mersey CCGs to explore alternative models of commissioning, and with the Wirral and Halton localities to lead accountable care models.
You can follow all the latest on the NHS birthday celebrations on Twitter via #NHSbirthday. Feel free to share your own celebrations with us @AQuA_NHS.
Monday, July 3, 2017
AQuA Launches Interactive Guide to Support Patient Safety
The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to announce the joint launch of a new interactive guide to support improvements in patient care and safety, alongside our partners the UK Improvement Alliance (UKIA), Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Haelo and the Improvement Academy.
The guide, Better Questions, Safer Care, builds on our work for the Measuring and Monitoring of Safety Framework with The Health Foundation, and contains a range of useful resources to help health and care professionals to take a more holistic approach when looking at the safety of care.
Speaking on the announcement, Kayleigh Price, Safety & Mortality Improvement Lead, said:
“This is a fantastic resource to support colleagues across a range of clinical settings and organisations, to offer a new approach when looking at patient safety and how the framework can help support this.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve worked closely with our partners to create this, and feel it offers a real abundance of learning and practical advice to support everyday improvements to patient safety.
“We’ve really enjoyed testing the guide across our networks, and we hope that colleagues will find it a valuable tool in their work and can come along to our upcoming events to find out more about it.”
Designed in collaboration with Ward Downham Improvement Design (WDID), the principles and learning within the guide have been tested extensively across localities across the UK, including in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside, Yorkshire and Scotland.
It also offers detailed case studies and practical templates spanning roles from Board to ward, and across Ambulance, Acute, Mental Health, and Primary Care settings.
Full information about the Measuring & Monitoring of Safety Framework is available via the website www.HowSafeIsOurCare.com.
As well as launching the guide, we’re also supporting a number opportunities to learn more about the Measuring & Monitoring of Safety Framework, including:
The guide, Better Questions, Safer Care, builds on our work for the Measuring and Monitoring of Safety Framework with The Health Foundation, and contains a range of useful resources to help health and care professionals to take a more holistic approach when looking at the safety of care.
Speaking on the announcement, Kayleigh Price, Safety & Mortality Improvement Lead, said:
“This is a fantastic resource to support colleagues across a range of clinical settings and organisations, to offer a new approach when looking at patient safety and how the framework can help support this.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve worked closely with our partners to create this, and feel it offers a real abundance of learning and practical advice to support everyday improvements to patient safety.
“We’ve really enjoyed testing the guide across our networks, and we hope that colleagues will find it a valuable tool in their work and can come along to our upcoming events to find out more about it.”
Designed in collaboration with Ward Downham Improvement Design (WDID), the principles and learning within the guide have been tested extensively across localities across the UK, including in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside, Yorkshire and Scotland.
It also offers detailed case studies and practical templates spanning roles from Board to ward, and across Ambulance, Acute, Mental Health, and Primary Care settings.
Full information about the Measuring & Monitoring of Safety Framework is available via the website www.HowSafeIsOurCare.com.
As well as launching the guide, we’re also supporting a number opportunities to learn more about the Measuring & Monitoring of Safety Framework, including:
- A series of events in Edinburgh (14 September 2017), Birmingham (12 October 2017) and London (30 November 2017).
- Monthly video calls looking at a range of patient safety themes and topics
To find out more about these opportunities, please visit the Get Involved page of the website. You can also stay up to date on social media via the Twitter hashtag #THFSMP.
If you would like more information on any of these opportunities, please contact Kayleigh Price on 07717 866 379, or Kayleigh.Price@srft.nhs.uk.
If you would like more information on any of these opportunities, please contact Kayleigh Price on 07717 866 379, or Kayleigh.Price@srft.nhs.uk.
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