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.

Three More AQuA Staff Selected for Health Foundation Q Community

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to announce three of our staff are among the latest selected to join The Health Foundation’s prestigious Q Community.

(L-R) Cathryn Sloan, Wendy Lewis, and Wendy Stobbs

Cathryn Sloan, Wendy Lewis, and Wendy Stobbs join the exciting community, which aims to bring together improvement practitioners from across the UK to share ideas, learning and best practice to support improvement projects and innovation.

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

“Q is a fantastic initiative and I’m delighted to see three more of my colleagues join the community. We now have eight staff within their ranks, and this is a real testament to their knowledge and experience within the quality improvement landscape.

“We were also pleased to see a number of our members across the North West in this latest intake, and I think this just shows the drive and skill for improving health and care across the region.

“AQuA work closely with The Health Foundation on a number of initiatives. We’re thrilled to support Q in creating a national movement for quality improvement, and I look forward to seeing it grow in the future.”

Cathryn Sloan, Head of System Transformation, said:

“It’s great to be a part of Q and to be joining so many talented colleagues within health and social care across the country. Q now has over 1000 members and I’m looking forward to the chance to meet other members, and to share new ideas and perspectives on how we can make care better for patients.”

The three join Elizabeth Bradbury, Emma Walker, Amanda Huddleston, Liz Kanwar who were in last year’s intake, as well as founding member Andrea McGuinness.

This most recent intake was for the Innovation Agency (formerly North West Coast Academic Health Science Network) footprint, and their ranks are expected to grow further when the Greater Manchester AHSN intake is announced in August.

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.

AQuA 2017/18 Leadership for Improvement Fellows Announced

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is pleased to announce its 2017/18 cohort of our prestigious Leadership for Improvement Fellows programme.

(L-R) Caroline Greenhalgh, Elaine Whittaker, Caroline Poole, Deborah Lyon, Paula Simpson and Helen Lee

Now in its third year, the programme offers senior improvement leaders from across AQuA membership the exciting chance to develop their role around quality improvement, gain an international perspective on improvement with access to global experts, and receive support to put their learning into practice.

AQuA Chief Executive, David Fillingham, said:

“Our Leadership for Improvement Fellows programme is a fantastic opportunity for members to further their ambitions as leaders for improvement.

“The programme offers them the chance to learn from and meet some of the leading experts from around the world, and use this learning to develop and improve health and care across their own role and organisation.

“We’re delighted to welcome our new 2017/18 Fellows, and I’m pleased to see such a variety of roles and backgrounds. Last year’s Fellows found the programme hugely beneficial in supporting them to improve care, and I look forward to working with our new cohort as the year progresses.”

Fellows will tailor their studies to help them to meet a specific improvement aim or project within their organisation.

Our 2017/18 Fellows and their projects are:

• Caroline Greenhalgh, Head of Quality Improvement, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
  Increasing capability to deliver continuous quality improvement by expanding the Trust’s quality champions programme
  Follow her on Twitter @cargreenhalgh
• Caroline Poole, Clinical Improvement Lead, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
  Delivering person centred care and the enablers / barriers for system-wide adoption
  Follow her on Twitter @caroline123_NHS
• Deborah Lyon, Head of Service Transformation - Community and Social Care, The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
  Exploring support for system transformation and capability building for sustainable, system-wide improvement
  Follow her on Twitter @DeborahLyon14
• Elaine Whittaker, Senior Service Reform Manager, NHS Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group
  Improving commissioning in social care and nursing homes
  Follow her on Twitter @WhittakerElaine
• Helen Lee, Head of Quality Improvement and Experience, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust
  Understanding the key components for building improvement and co-design capabilities and empowering people to create a culture of continuous improvement
  Follow her on Twitter @helenlee321_lee
• Paula Simpson, Deputy Director of Nursing, Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust
  Creating an environment to facilitate system level change - supporting development of Wirral's Accountable Care System (ACS)
  Follow her on Twitter @nhs_paula

We’ll have more news and updates from our new Fellows throughout 2017/18 as they start the programme and explore their individual projects in more detail.

To find out more about the programme please visit our website, or contact Robert.Stoker@srft.nhs.uk.