Provider collaboratives: Improving equitably

There is a growing emphasis on continuous improvement as a route to tackle the current challenges facing the NHS. This includes health inequalities: avoidable, unfair and systematic differences in health between different groups of people. 

Improvement tools can reduce inequities, but not without deliberate aims. We believe that there can be no quality without equity.

Health and care providers, such as NHS hospitals, ambulance or community services, play a critical role in delivering high quality care for all, and there is already a lot of improvement work happening in these settings.

But providers do not exist in isolation. Many challenges will be shared by services within and beyond their local systems. By working together, providers harness greater insight, energy and experience to tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access.

The Q community has joined forces with NHS Providers, with support from the Health Foundation and NHS England, to support senior leaders at health and care providers on their improvement journey. 

The programme brings leaders together in provider collaboratives to develop shared improvement approaches with an equity lens embedded from the outset. 

Provider collaboratives: Improving equitably is aligned with NHS IMPACT [ref] NHS England. NHS IMPACT (Improving Patient Care Together). [/​ref], NHS England’s national approach to improvement, and provides:

• NHS Providers’ virtual knowledge hub which includes practical board resources and blogs about learning from across provider collaboratives.
• Recordings of six learning webinars presenting in-depth case studies of equitable improvement in practice, featuring emerging insight and expertise.
• The programme is also supporting five provider collaboratives with tailormade peer learning and coaching over nine months. 

Provider collaboratives: Improving equitably is designed to help senior leaders turn commitment to equitable improvement into meaningful, sustainable action. It is suitable for:

• Board members of health and care providers with a role in enabling and championing large-scale improvement
• Executive board-level leads for tackling health inequalities
• Directors at Provider Collaboratives, clinical leaders and improvement leaders