A Sense of Urgency, A Sense of Hope – Our Latest Paper on Continuous Improvement for Health & Care

We’re delighted to announce the publication of A Sense of Urgency, A Sense of Hope; our latest paper by our Chief Executive David Fillingham CBE and Director Lesley Massey exploring how organisations can develop and support a culture and system for continuous improvement.

In the paper, David and Lesley take a look at recent best practise, changes to the health and care landscape, and distil over eight years’ experience of working with members as the North West’s quality improvement body, into five key domains where organisations can support and invest in a quality improvement system:

• Vision
• Leadership & Culture
• Capability
• Developing an Operating System
• Aligning Support Services

Download your copy here

Speaking on its publication, David said:

“We’re really excited to share our new paper, and hope it offers our colleagues across health and care an in-depth framework to help support their aims for continuous improvement.”

“Whilst we recognise the extreme pressure the NHS and wider care sector continues to face, we feel it’s important to still look for a light at the end of the tunnel. Therefore it is vital organisations invest in improvement, if we are to meet the demands of better, more efficient care and improved outcomes for patients.”

“We really believe this is possible and as we highlight throughout the text, there are a number of organisations we can look to for inspiration to achieve this together.”

Throughout the paper, the pair also look at case studies from our work with members, including from: Aintree Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Other examples also point to leading improvement organisations from other industries and sectors outside of health and care.

The paper was recently launched to over 100 delegates at a joint event with The King’s Fund; exploring successful approaches to quality improvement. Following the event, co-author Lesley Massey said:

“At the event delegates gave us some fantastic feedback on the framework and each of its five domains.

“We’re now developing a self-assessment diagnostic to support the framework, and would welcome interest from colleagues across the country who would be interested in testing this.”

If you would like to request a hard copy of the paper, or are interested in testing the self-assessment diagnostic, please get in touch via AQuA@srft.nhs.uk. Alternatively, feel free to share your thoughts with us via Twitter @AQuA_NHS.

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.