Realising Q’s contribution to improving health and care outlines Q’s impact and ambitions to support those tackling the significant challenges faced by health and care systems across the UK and Ireland.
It highlights how Q’s benefits and activities have translated into improved practice at different levels and how our activities support members improvement work.
But we are yet to realise our full contribution at scale. And this acts as a continued call to action for us to realise and sustain impact and to make a clearer contribution to core system priorities. Q is a globally unique resource that continues to be what RAND Europe described as an ‘under-utilised’. This is reflected throughout the report.
Benefits of Q
While member perceptions of our impact on the system are generally positive, stakeholder perceptions of our impact are more mixed, with some sharing that more could be done to leverage Q’s potential.
Our members gain positive value from a wide range of networking and learning benefits. This report contains stories and reflections from some of the many members who have gained skills and connections through Q. We have a wide range of offers that respond to the changing needs of our members, organisations and systems, but fundamentally enable members to connect, learn, share, collaborate and support each other.
“Talking to people in the same realms of work was really reassuring. One, because you reinforce that improvement is the right thing to do, but also you have the opportunity to empathise with the challenge of embedding improvement mindsets and a quality culture in a difficult environment.”
– Lisa Mewton
“Q were trusted partners for us as we engaged with more than 1,200 leaders across the health and care system, both as credible convenors of sessions to stress test our emerging findings and as improvement experts and practitioners who shaped our approach. Q offers a line of continuity to years of work to embed and sustain continuous improvement across the NHS.”
– Kathryn Perera, Programme Director, NHS Delivery and Continuous Improvement Review (May 2022–February 2023).
Realising our impact
We’re dedicated to evidence-based approaches and constant improvement. The insight we’ve gained since 2020, detailed in this report, guides where we will focus and how we will deliver. We’ve set strategic goals for 2023-25 to have a bigger impact on health and care and its current challenges. Learning, partnerships, and improvement are key for us to build a sustainable future.
Through our strategic priorities for 2023-25 we will:
- focus on building capability through working on real-world issues to improve health and care.
- focus our resources and expertise on integration across all sectors that are brought together in local systems.
- increase the participation and engagement of the Q community.
- embed our commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion in our work.
- work with partners to bring our skills and experience to new audiences.
Promoting Q and improvement is vital for us to make a significant impact and meet current needs. We have made progress despite the challenges of recent years. And we are excited by the opportunities to build on these foundations to effect significant change in health and care.