Penny Pereira
Managing Director, Q
Q
England - national
Biography
In 2022, while retaining overall responsibility for Q’s strategic direction, Penny will take on interim accountability for the Foundation’s portfolio of strategic initiatives, funding programmes and analysis aiming to improve the quality of health and care in the UK.
Penny is Q's Managing Director.
She has been at the Health Foundation since 2011 in various roles. Penny led our work on leadership and then our safety portfolio. She co-authored the Building Q and Challenges and Potential of Whole System Flow learning reports and the Health Foundation’s briefing on the Safer Clinical Systems programme.
Before joining the Health Foundation, Penny worked at a hospital trust in East London, where she was the Director of Strategy and Service Improvement. Penny has spent her career leading improvement work at local and national level in the NHS, with particular expertise in process and system redesign, leading strategic change across organisations and patient safety. While at the NHS Modernisation Agency, Penny managed a programme that worked with hospitals across England to encourage understanding of variation and flow and a more joined up approach to improvement.
Penny lives in South London with her husband and two children.
Q Exchange ideas
Blog posts
Improvement skills needed: turning election pledges into implemented plans
In this blog, Penny explores what improvement approaches and expertise will be needed for the health and care sector following the general election.
The power of improvement: highlights from International Forum
Exploring failure, rigour, breaking rules, improvement approaches, QMS and equity, Penny and the team highlight some of the key themes and learning from across the 2024 BMJ/IHI International Forum.
Your new improvement podcast: Leading Improvement in Health and Care
Leading Improvement in Health and Care, is a new improvement podcast co-hosted by Penny Pereira, Managing Director at Q, and Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of NHS Confederation. The first episode is all about staff morale.
Productivity: how improvement and Q can help
This blog shares resources from Q to give you inspiration and upcoming opportunities to learn together.
Learning and improving across systems: A new peer learning programme
Learning and improving across systems is a new peer learning programme from the Health Foundation, NHS Confederation and the Q community. Access peer support, coaching, and tailored resources to support practical implementation of improvement across health and care systems.
Redefining who and what counts when it comes to improvement
This blog shares resources to support us on the journey across the broad improvement landscape of which we are part.
A new partnership: improving equitably
Q and NHS Providers have joined forces to develop a new peer learning programme for provider collaboratives in England. Q’s Managing Director, Penny Pereira, tells us more about the partnership and what we plan to achieve.
In conversation with Sir Jim Mackey: improvement and reducing waits in elective care
Penny Pereira talks to Jim Mackey, NHS England’s National Director of Elective Recovery, about his views on NHS successes and challenges in tackling treatment delays – and how the improvement community can contribute.
The new NHS improvement approach: how can we make the most of this opportunity, together?
Penny Pereira, Q’s Managing Director, considers the new approach, its potential impact and what it means for members and others working to improve health and care in England and beyond.
10 principles at ‘the human heart’ of improvement: Tell us what you think
Q’s Managing Director Penny Pereira suggests principles that are key to the human side of improvement, drawing on insight from across the Q community, and invites you to share your thoughts.
Q’s collaborative improvement priorities: digital innovation, reducing waits and supporting integration
Q’s Managing Director Penny Pereira sets out how Q is getting to the heart of the biggest issues for our sector.
What’s new in Q in 2022? Five highlights to watch out for this year
Penny Pereira, Q's Managing Director, shares key things to look out for from Q this year and invites you to get involved.
How can we put improvement principles at the heart of recovery?
Drawing on insight from the community and across the UK and Ireland, Q Initiative Director Penny Pereira shares reflections on how improvement can help recovery efforts.
Apply to join Q’s newly evolved board
Could you help steer Q’s strategy and development? Penny Pereira, Q Initiative Director, shares how our governance is evolving and how members can get involved.
Q in 2021-22: what to expect
Q Initiative Director, Penny Pereira, shares 8 things to watch out for in Q over the coming year.
Service and staff recovery: how can improvement help?
Q Initiative Director, Penny Pereira, reflects on the role that improvement can play in charting a realistic path for recovery that puts people – both those receiving and delivering care – at the centre.
Watch sessions from the Q community event 2020: Sustaining momentum behind positive service change
How can we maintain momentum behind positive service change? Explore the presentations and conversations from the event on this theme.
How can we sustain momentum behind positive service change?
Penny Pereira shares what we’ll be discussing at the Q community event, where we’ll reflect on how we can maintain the momentum for positive service shifts
A four-year evaluation of Q: What we’ve learnt and how we’re responding
Q Initiative Director, Penny Pereira, shares key themes from RAND Europe's four-year evaluation of Q and how we're responding to what members told us.
Embedding and scaling COVID innovations: the mindset shifts behind the specifics
Q Initiative Director, Penny Pereira explores the mindset shifts that are enabling the spread of innovation across the UK and Ireland.
Weeknote, 22 May: The role of improvement in recovery and beyond
What's happening across improvement this week? Our summary of what is being shared from improvers across the UK and Ireland
Connecting the UK and Ireland on COVID-19
Q Initiative Director, Penny Pereira asks; what are national improvement leaders focused on at this point in the pandemic?
How can Q support our response to COVID-19?
Coronavirus is creating unprecedented demands on the health system and impacting on the focus of improvement efforts, and therefore Q members, across the UK and Ireland. This blog explores how Q might learn and share as we find ways to bring our improvement energy and expertise to a rapidly changing context.
The start of a conversation: a new framework for improvement in England
Following on from the Q member webinar in December with Hugh McCaughey, Penny Pereira reflects on the themes shared by the Q community on the development of a new improvement framework
Collaborative Improvement: what does the published evidence say?
Continuing to explore the themes of her opening plenary at the UK-wide Q community event, Penny Pereira shares some top sources that have influenced our thinking and the theory of change for Q.
Collaborative improvement
Drawing on the themes of her opening plenary at the UK-wide Q community event, Penny Pereira proposes three priorities for increasing the impact of the work improvers do individually and collaboratively.
Q: long term plans agreed with partners
Q initiative director, Penny Pereira, looks ahead to 10 more years of Q working with our partners.
Election fever: the Q way
As we get ready to open voting for Q Exchange on Monday 7 October, Initiative Director, Penny Pereira, gives us the lowdown on how the voting will work, and how you can help shape the final projects.
How to make your improvement project proposal compelling
Q's Programme Director, Penny Pereira shares reflections from the Q Exchange shortlisting panels.
Plans for Q’s future: coming into clearer focus
Q's Programme Director, Penny Pereira shares an update on plans for the future of Q and invites members to join a webinar on 12 June.
Q Exchange 2019: themes announced
Q Exchange will be even bigger and better in 2019. Penny Pereira announces the two themes and invites the Q community to get their thinking caps on.
Planning for the long-term future of Q: why? Why now?
Penny Pereira introduces our plans for the future of Q, explains how we are building on what members have told us and invites members to get involved in helping us shape the future.
What might the future hold for improvement?
As the year draws to a close, Q lead Penny Pereira shares six key ways the world of improvement appears to be evolving and reflects on what this might mean for Q.
Q, three years in – what we’ve learned so far
Ahead of the official launch of a new learning report from Q next week, Penny Pereira shares some of the latest developments and thoughts on what this 1000's strong community is revealing about the world of improvement.
Q Exchange: the shortlisted 25
The list of the final 25 projects in the running for the Q Exchange is now live! With an impressive 139 proposals put forward, shortlisting was a challenging task. Here, panel chairs Penny Pereria and Sarah Henderson share insights from the process.
Harnessing the power of feedback
Q Programme Director Penny Pereira shares her advice on making best use of feedback - drawing on the experience of co-designing Q.
Q Exchange – What might make for a winning bid?
Penny Pereira shares a few thoughts on the kind of projects we’re looking to support via Q Exchange and what might make for a winning bid.
Happy Q Year!
Penny Pereira, Programme Director for Q, looks at the year ahead, shares exciting plans for Q in 2018 and how members can get involved.
Improvement to the power of Q
Penny Pereira reflects on the types of power we are generating through Q.
Penny Pereira: Why I’ll be going on the Q visit to learn more about systems thinking
As a recently joined Q member Penny Pereira tells us why she will be going to the Q visit on systems thinking at Cambridge University on 29 September and why you might want to go too.
Future Q
Penny Pereira, Programme Director for Q, reflects on Q's progress so far and invites you to join her to talk about plans for the long term model for Q.
Q members’ survey 2021: what we heard
Thanks to all the members who shared their views with us. Here, you can find out some of the highlights from the data, and our response so far.
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External links
Areas of interest
- Acute care
- Collaboration and networking
- Improvement research
- Integrated care
- Leadership
- Long-term conditions
- Quality improvement