Members are at the heart of Q. Make real-world change and improve health and care by bringing your improvement challenges and help others solve theirs. Connect, share and discover with a group of like-minded people while contributing in a way that suits you. Join our community for free access to member-exclusive learning resources, funding opportunities, events and networking.

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Is it for me?

We welcome applications from across the health and care sector. If you have knowledge and experience of using different approaches and methodologies to improve the quality of health and care, Q may be for you.

The community is here to support you to deliver rapid change, help you navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead, and boost your skills and resilience. Together, we can build a stronger health and care system for the future.

Hear from some of our members about how Q has supported them.

For more guidance on whether Q is for you, take a look at the decision tree:

Who else is in the community?

Find more members of the community by browsing our directory, or find people with similar interests by exploring our areas of interest.

“The Q community gave me my network of other QI people, access to learning through webinars and a chance to go on some amazing Q Visits.”

Debbie Brazil, Head of Quality & Efficiency Improvement, Whipps Cross Hospital

“The connections I have made so far have been remarkable.”

Yvonne Morgan, Proactive Hospital Improvement Coach, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Find more members of the community by browsing our directory, or find people with similar interests by exploring our areas of interest.

How it works

Being a member of the Q community allows you to:

• Connect, share and learn with people from different disciplines and sectors, from across the UK and Ireland to help create real change.
• Tap into all that Q offers as a source of innovation and practical problem solving. Benefits include support with publishing your work, Q Visits and inspiring events scheduled throughout the year.
• Get involved in other activities including Special Interest Groups, the Q Lab Network and funding opportunities such as Q Exchange.
• Participate in ways that fit with your life and improvement priorities. Let Q grow with you as your career progresses and be flexible with your time commitment.
• Develop your improvement skills and help lead and develop others beyond Q.

We co-developed a Q compact with members of the community. This sets out the expectations and values of the community that are upheld by Q and all our members.

Joining Q – criteria

Joining Q is free and opportunities are open on a continuous basis. We welcome applications from people with improvement expertise based anywhere in the UK and Ireland.

You will need to complete an application that will be assessed by Q members experienced in improvement, from a range of different backgrounds.

Applications are submitted via our online application portal. You can save the application at any time and return to it later.

In the application we ask you to reflect on two key areas:

• Experience and knowledge
• Commitment

Experience and Knowledge: What is your experience to date of using structured approaches to enable improvement?

• We are looking for people with experience in using any of the many structured methods and approaches designed to improve things.
• You can draw on experience from voluntary as well as paid work, in the health system or beyond.
• As well as people who have been directly involved in work to improve services, Q is also open to people who have experience developing an environment that makes it easier for this sort of work to succeed. This may include for example people who are developing strategy and policy in relevant areas. Or who are helping to make organisations more supportive and well set up for improvement.
• Making things better often needs people with different skills and backgrounds to come together, including analysts, researchers, patients and service users, managers and practitioners. Q is open to people from all these backgrounds – in the example you give, please describe how the role you play is important to making things better.
• We ask people to demonstrate experience of work involving more than one team because this work is often more complex. Q is for people who have this more advanced experience under their belt. As Q is a community of people with many different perspectives, members will get more out of it if everyone involved has some experience of sharing information and collaborating with people from different backgrounds.
• Q values shared learning. When describing the outcome of your work, please reflect on what you have learnt.

Commitment: why you want to join Q?

• We are looking for people who have thought about what it could mean to be involved in Q. A good way to demonstrate this is to share what you understand about Q and things you might choose to participate in.
• Please share what you feel you can bring as well as what you hope to get from the community. How will joining the community support things that you are doing that may ultimately contribute to improving health and care?

You will hear the outcome of your application within six weeks.

Start your application

Looking for more? Check out our frequently asked questions or get in touch: joiningq@health.org.uk.