The event brought the Q community together over two half days, in real time, to showcase work, offer learning opportunities and provide chances to connect across geographical and organisational boundaries.

This was my third annual community event and it was great to see members making the time to come together despite the pressures we know many are facing.

There was a lot of energy and engagement in the sessions, especially in the session about reducing waits, which I’ll talk about more below. It was also great to hear from members about what they get from Q and from this event in particular.

Helen Hay from HSE in Ireland said:
‘It was a very interesting conference. I attended everything and it was good to hear what tools people are using as well as to feel the positivity that comes with Q and to connect with likeminded people.

I was pleased to see the event reinforcing the co-production side of things with service users – it’s important to keep hammering co-production home and provide examples that bring it all to life.’

The improvement toolbox and landscape

Q’s Managing Director Penny Pereira opened the event, describing improvement as a movement that was collaborative and evolving.

‘Improvement is a field that feels really exciting, adaptive, inclusive of all sorts of different methods and domains,’ she said. ‘We’ve come a really long way as a movement and those people who think that improvement is just doing small projects with PDSAs need to catch up.’

Libby Keck, Q’s Head of Design and Collaboration, explored the wide range of ‘tools, methods and approaches that we use to do our improvement work.’ She invited participants to visualise and document their improvement toolbox as a chance to reflect on their improvement practice.

Watch the video from the opening session below.

Tackling waits

Tackling waits in the health system is a key priority for Q and our members and attendees heard from Chris McCann from Healthwatch and Dr Stephen Black about how to address this. We saw a real commitment from both panellists and attendees to exploring and addressing health inequalities with many recognising how waits are affecting certain demographics disproportionately.

Darren Wright, Q’s Strategy and Development Lead, said:
‘Improvement has a crucial role to play in trying to resolve this. We recognise that there is not unlimited resources in terms of money or people that can ride to the rescue around this. So a lot of the progress we are going to make is going to be led by improvement, it’s going to be led by the improvement community and that is you.’

Watch the video from the improving waits session below.

Using co-design

Event attendees also explored ways to use co-design to support digital change. Five members supported through Q Lab and Q Exchange shared their experiences of developing technology to better meet the needs of their populations.

Panellists talked about allowing users to shape the technology, letting go of your assumptions and preconceptions, being comfortable with the unknown and overcoming digital exclusion.

Watch the video from the co-design session below.

Shared improvement approaches

Attendees were introduced to a new co-developed framework for integrating improvement across all sectors and considered how this can be brought together in local systems.

The five principles developed in partnership with Q, The Health Foundation and the NHS Confederation are designed to help unlock new thinking, and support with collaboration across systems.

Watch the video from the shared improvement approaches session below.

Engaging staff well in change

If you effectively engage staff in change, the likelihood of success of that change increases. Event attendees were introduced to a new framework co-developed with over 300 people working in improvement. Participants had a chance to discuss the 10 principles for involving staff in major change and hear how these can be put into practice.

They heard from Q’s head of Insight, Evaluation and Research Matthew Hill; Annie Laverty from the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board; Julia Wood, convenor of Q’s Special Interest Group on Joy in Work and Vardeep Deogan from North Bristol NHS Trust.

Watch the video on the staff engagement session below.

Ceara Gallagher, AHP Consultant at Public Health Agency Northern Ireland said of the event:

‘Guddi Singh in the Powering Up session and Julia Wood on Joy at Work really stood out for me. I also loved the positive energy that Q events always bring! The event also helped me to recognise the value of Q’s Special Interest Groups and I’ve since joined a couple of SIGs.’

Learn and connect

Watch the videos from the sessions on our YouTube channel and continue the discussions on our Special Interest Groups (SIGs).