In May 2019, I was appointed as new Q Partner for the Q community in the North West Coast. I was excited to continue with the great work that had been completed through our large quarterly education events that focused on building capacity for quality improvement. However, after a dismal attendance rate of the last Q event, it was clear that we (myself and the community) needed to rethink this convening strategy. Why weren’t staff able to get to these sessions? How could we best support staff and give the support they need to improve their work?

Through feedback from the North West Coast Q community and valuable conversations on the Community of Practice Leadership Programme we came up with a “kitty fund” solution. The Kitty Fund, which launched in November 2019, offered the opportunity for members to apply for £200 seed money to help grow and support their quality improvement work and start up meaningful and specialised meetings that were more likely to be attended by front line staff.

The Kitty Fund so far has been well received with 8 successful applications that cover a wide range of disciplines such as Cancer Care Education, Autism in Adults, Maternity, Palliative Care, Digital health in AHP and Stroke, Patient Flow and Volunteering and collectively the events due to take place before March will enable participation from over 340 contributors.

To be eligible for the Kitty Fund all applicants are required to complete feedback and evaluation documentation for the achievements made and share information through social media using #qnorthwestcoast. Applicants are also responsible for promoting the Q community to non-Q members. To help design and facilitate the events each member is offered full support in design and facilitation.

We are excited to share the results of this new initiative after March and happy to share the journey so far – for more information please email me.