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.