In a year that has seen renewed interest in improvement, the Q community event 2023 will be one of our most exciting to date.

Showcasing work from across the community in the UK and Ireland, this event offers learning opportunities and chances for you to connect across geographical and organisational boundaries. Held online, in real time, you will hear from keynote speakers, take part in interactive activities and pose your questions to our expert panels.

Centred on collaborative improvement, our agenda will cover Q’s three themes:

• bringing improvement and digital together for sustainable change
• reducing waiting in ways that support broader transformation goals
• enabling integrated improvement across sectors.

What to expect at the event

For Penny Pereira, Managing Director of Q, this year’s event is a chance to come together to enable learning and change at scale:
‘The power of the Q community is in the spirit of openness, collaboration and curiosity that our members bring to their work. Improvement principles must now become part of the mainstream approach to the challenges facing the sector.

‘In the first session of this event, I’m looking forward to us reflecting together on how improvement is evolving, and our individual ‘improvement toolbox’.  Drawing inspiration from our collective strengths we’ll explore what this means for the impact we can achieve.

Q’s community – with our collective skills, knowledge and expertise – is key to the sustainable transformation of health and care.

Reducing waits

Darren Wright, Q Strategy and Development Lead, will be facilitating a session on the theme of reducing waiting in ways that support broader transformation goals:

‘Tackling waits in the health system is a key priority for Q and our members. This year we’ve focused Q Exchange funding on projects working on waits and brought together system leaders to support them in tackling big challenges.

‘With our workforce under intense pressure, I see this year’s event as an opportunity for members to have an engaging, honest discussion, re-energise ourselves and make progress on waits alongside other system challenges.’

Supporting digital change

Libby Keck, Q Head of Design and Collaboration, describes how members will be exploring ways to use co-design to support digital change:

‘Involving staff and patients in the development of digital technologies helps to build trust and confidence in them. I’m excited to bring together Q-funded members to share how they have used co-design to support effective implementation of digital technologies.

‘This is a chance to draw together the knowledge, collaborative energy and improvement skills of our members to ensure a health and care service designed around the individual, enabled by technology.’

Engaging staff in improvement

Matthew Hill, Head of Insight, Evaluation and Research at Q, explains the need to bring staff with you to improve health and care:

‘There is growing evidence that engaging staff well in major change is critical for the success and sustainability of health and care transformation. Our recent co-design project, with more than 300 people working in improvement, highlights the importance of honesty and transparency, diverse perspectives and co-ownership.’

‘Our session will present this new co-developed framework and share a range of perspectives and experiences from the work of Q members.’

Integrating improvement

Jen Morgan, Q’s Local System Lead, will be facilitating a session with several other guests that will illuminate how members can work effectively across local systems to develop shared improvement approaches:

‘With the NHS facing an unprecedented range of workforce, financial and performance pressures, new ways of working that integrate sectors through local systems are greatly needed.

‘During this session, several practitioners will be responding to our recent ‘five principles for shared improvement’ and we’ll also be revealing more about our upcoming partnership with the NHS Confederation and the Health Foundation.

I hope this session will inspire you, help you unlock new thinking, and support you with work you are doing to collaborate across systems.

Our platform

This year’s event is being hosted on a user-friendly digital platform, ensuring seamless connections and networking opportunities over two half days.
I look forward to connecting with you and scaling the impact of the Q community through this event.

Registration is free and open to Q members, so secure your spot today.