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.