This month we’ve launched a new podcast, Leading Improvement in Health and Care, co-hosted by myself, and Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of NHS Confederation. This feels exciting and important for our community, and I’d like to share what you can expect from the series.

Our podcast is the latest part of Learning and Improving Across Systems, a partnership between the Health Foundation, NHS Confederation and the Q community to support health and care systems to learn and improve.

We know that change which spans boundaries is complex and there’s no clear blueprint. So, learning from the creative, practical solutions people are developing is an important source of inspiration and advice. Our podcast series offers a great format for delving into these examples and hearing about work underway.

Each episode spotlights people making changes across systems, as well as the challenges along the way. Joined by speakers from a variety of roles, we’ll explore the ways improvement can sustainably transform health and care.

We’ll hear practical stories of work people are doing in their area, on an issue of importance for the sector as a whole.

What’s coming up over the series

We kick off our first episode, Morale, by exploring staff engagement as the foundation for effective change. Annie Laverty, Director of Patient and Staff Experience at the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, shares some of the incredible work that’s happened in Northumbria, with tips on robust, real-time measurement to understand and address what really matters to staff.

Then John Drew, Director of Staff Engagement and Experience at NHS England, discusses using the NHS staff survey to steer improvement, and how we might engage people better on productivity. You can listen to Morale today. 

We’re inviting leaders from elsewhere in the sector to reflect on the example, with Matthew Taylor and myself making links to the wider context and evidence base for improvement.

We’re just finishing recording episode two that’s focusing on improving flow, particularly around discharge, with a spotlight on work in Cumbria and South Lancs. In the series we also plan to bring insights on improvement from Confed Expo, and then we’re heading to East London with a focus on using improvement to address health inequities.

Our format the reflects the spirit of our partnership: building shared learning and inspiration in a way that’s grounded in the specifics of what’s happening locally and the reality of making change happen.

Whether you’ve been leading improvement work for years, or are curious about its relevance to your role, this podcast is for you. It’s also one to share with senior leaders and others in your system.

As our conversations reveal, we should increasingly recognise we’re all system leaders. Given the size and complexity of the organisations we work in, the learning about how to improve across boundaries is relevant everywhere. Part of my job is to help bring alive improvement principles for those less close to it.

In this way, we’re helping to connect different parts and levels of the system and build the shared momentum behind improvement from within the sector that we believe is critical to finding sustainable solutions to the challenges we face.

Tune in and let us know what you think.

Listen and subscribe

NHS Confed’s podcast home page

Acast

YouTube

Apple podcasts