Q Exchange
System Wide Improvement Training
- Idea
- 2018
Meet the team: #QIFaculty
Andrea Gibbons
Greg Cobb
Joanna Howarth
Josephine McHugh
Karen Taylor
Michael Walburn
Rachael Rowe
Helen Parsons
Rachel Johns
Charlotte Mitchell
William Lilley
Also:
- David Shannon, Director of Strategic Development at Taunton & Somerset NHS Foundation Trust & Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Peter Hillman, Patient Representative
- Jonathan Davies, Somerset CCG
- Vikki Hearn, Somerset County Council
- Louise Bulmer, PHE
- Tracy Evans, Somerset Partnership Trust (Mental Health / Community Services)
- Andrew Keefe, Somerset Partnership Trust (Mental Health / Community Services)
- Deborah Gidman (SW AHSN)
The need
There is a need to upskill patients and people working within the health and social care system with the improvement skills to deliver change projects successfully. This bid will enable QI training to be developed and delivered to individual staff members, teams and service users/patients in Somerset by adopting Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) methodologies and building on a platform of skills and experience already available in the region. Project support will be made available via digital platforms, access to coaching and mentorship and development of a local network of improvers to build a movement of improvement for the benefit of staff and service users or patients. The project is led by the ‘Somerset QI Faculty’ which consists of a network of senior leaders across health and social care services in Somerset who are passionate about, and highly skilled in improvement.
The objective
The objective is to develop and deliver a comprehensive programme of training, hard copy and digital project resources to reach at least 1000 people by December 2019 to enable them to use simple, tried and tested quality improvement methodology and empower them to deliver their own projects. This will be supported by a co-ordinated approach from the Somerset QI Faculty and the Somerset Academy, which is led by the Local Authority.
How will we achieve this?
We will deliver tiered or ‘dosed’ training which will be experiential and encourage attendees to work together in cross functional teams, linking their learning to deliver live projects aligned to the system strategic priorities. This will ensure that the training is purposeful, engaging, relevant and has real impact. The aim of the training is to truly empower and equip everyone, across the system to improve their own part of the system. We will not reinvent, but rather distil and build on the best practice from our partners and peers across the country.
By adopting a ‘dosed’ approach, we will have different, tiered levels of training so that there is focused face to face training available for you, whatever your role or organisation in the health and social care system Somerset. Linking learning to live projects likewise is proven to deliver a greater return on investment than training delivered in the abstract.
The training will be supported by a digital platform, designed to facilitate collaboration and equip improvers with the support and resources that they need. The digital platform will be aligned to the ‘Somerset Digital Roadmap’ which is the county wide platform for streamlining services. It will therefore allow us to link QI directly with some of the clinical platforms we use operationally. The digital platform will be complemented by ‘joining people up’ – for example providing mentoring and buddying with peers elsewhere in the system and running knowledge sharing events.
How will we use the funding?
If we get funding, this will help us professionalise our training and package it in a way that it can be shared outside of our own community. This includes creating professional materials and toolkits (for example cheat sheets, videos and online guides), allowing us to deliver the training in venues that allow a better learning experience, and providing funds to enable us to train champions and trainers elsewhere in the system.
The funding will also allow us to provide an online community for improvers to be able support each other and refresh and reinforce the skills that they have learnt from the training. The digital platform will provide access to webinars, podcasts, elearning, details of mentors and coaches and access to further information, as well as providing ongoing peer support. It will also link to the central business intelligence function that is being developed in Somerset which allows data to be shared across organisations to inform quality improvement.
Finally, as part of this bid, we will seek to support improvers to use evidence for improvement. We have an ‘evidence based improvement’ service in Taunton which has added tremendous value. Funding would allow us to help scale this up – allowing us to run formal knowledge sharing events, and create and provide resources for consumption outside of our own Trusts.
Summary
This project will create a ‘movement’ of QI skilled patients and health and social care professionals across the county of Somerset by developing and supporting patients and staff at all levels and in all parts of the system. The training will directly link to live work programmes that form part of the system strategic and operational priorities. This model therefore connects QI at the front line, to delivering the strategy for health and social care in Somerset – creating a sum which is much greater and more powerful than its constituent parts.
How you can contribute
- Feed into the design of the improvement training – if successful we will ask you to please take a few minutes to share your experiences in a surveymonkey survey
- Share tools, documents and guides that have worked for you
- Tell us about your improvement stories – failures as well as successes
- Speak as members of faculty on the courses or be interviewed for training materials
Further information
Somerset QI Driver Diagram (v0.3) (PDF, 229KB)
Comments
Andrea Gibbons 20 Jun 2018
Thanks Claire. You are right, the system is already coming together just by formulating this bid, and planning how it will look. Fingers and toes crossed it makes it to the next stage. Thanks for your support.
Claire White 19 Jun 2018
I like the approach that you are taking, and am excited about complementing the training with a digital platform. There is a really great opportunity here to embed QI in a whole county and be truly patient focused in our approach. And just creating the bid has helped to start to bring the system together. Good luck!
Andrea Gibbons 18 Jun 2018
Hi Helen. Thanks so much for your input. I'm sure we will be taking you up on your offer of support in due course!! Integral to the ethos of this bid is taking the very best of what is out there already and coming up with a solution that works for the whole system. So we will absolutely be directing people to the best on line courses and resources out there. There will also be an important face to face element led by the emergent Somerset QI faculty. This part will build on the needs of the whole system and be co-designed with patients, and will be delivered by QI leaders locally. We hope that this will help join the system up, create common priorities and start to build a common culture based on improvement. Thanks again. Andrea
Helen Smith 17 Jun 2018
Hi all
This is a great project. There are lots of free online QI courses of good quality already developed, will you be sign posting people to these rather than spending time developing your own? Then you can spend more time and energy developing your infrastructure which seems to me to be the most important element?
As always happy to be involved in any way I can to support this programme if successful
Jonathan Broad 14 Jun 2018
You have a great faculty and wonderful team of professionnals and I have had the pleasure of working with many of you. I completely support your idea and know the importance of QI training for clinical teams, you know whats coming though, please ensure there is space in your programme to have patients involved and active as QI experts because only together can we truly make the difference for everyone.
Happy to help and join you if it is needed.
Jono Broad
Andrea Gibbons 15 Jun 2018
Thank you Jono. You're absolutely right, we are blessed with a fabulous team and are very fortunate to have genuine system wide engagement and commitment to this. Patients are an integral part of the design and will be the centre of what we are doing. Thanks so much for your offer of help, we may well take you up on it! Andrea
Thomas John Rose 30 May 2018
Can you explain 'Dosing Theory' please. I've never heard of it. Regards Tom
Andrea Gibbons 13 Jun 2018
Hi Tom. Thanks for your comment (& apologies that the term dosing crept in without explanation)! This project / training is a system wide collaboration with all of the various stakeholders and organisations working together to co-create the content and form - based on the system needs and best practice elsewhere. We are in the process of gathering this together so are not yet at the stage of module headings although we would of course be very happy to share these as we agree them. Are there any specific examples of best practice that you would suggest that we look at, or any areas that you were particularly interested in?
Thomas John Rose 13 Jun 2018
Andrea, Thanks for your replies to my comment. You use the term in your driver diagram. I've now researched the term and have an understanding of it's meaning. Can you provide some idea of your QI training content please? Maybe just module headings. Regards Tom
Andrea Gibbons 6 Jun 2018
Hi Tom. Is it perhaps the dosing approach to training that you are referring to?
The IHI concept of 'Dosing' is defined on p 6-7 here: http://wessexahsn.org.uk/img/projects/NHSI%20Resource%2001-NHS107-Dosing_Document-010917_K_1.pdf
If you have access to the IHI here is a link to a May 2018 article that discusses it: http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Publications/Dosing-Approach-to-Building-Improvement-Capacity-and-Capability.aspx
If you'd like me to send you either of the documents, do email me at andrea.gibbons@tst.nhs.uk
Andrea Gibbons 5 Jun 2018
Hi Tom. I'm not sure either... where did you read it? Many thanks, Andrea
Sarah Williams 24 May 2018
Hi
We have some system teams on our current QI training - so have some learning we'd be happy to share. And would be interested to collaborate on this, as you aren't far away and it is something we are trying really hard to develop
BW
Sarah
Andrea Gibbons 5 Jun 2018
Hi Sarah. The more we can share and collaborate the better. I'll message you directly to discuss further! Many thanks, Andrea
Andrea Gibbons 23 May 2018
Hi Liz and Deborah. Thanks so much for your comments. As you will see from the membership of our team, we are very fortunate in having whole system enthusiasm and support for this idea - from the County Council, CCG, PHA, the SWAHSN and primary and secondary care - all of whom have actively contributed to this bid. And perhaps most importantly patients are on the team. We are absolutely planning to co-design so that we address the concerns raised by Liz about bringing together and building on the current approaches already in place. It would be fab to follow up with both of you if you have further thoughts, and in particular draw on the fantastic experience that AQuA have. Thank you!
Eizabeth Bradbury 17 May 2018
Sounds a good idea, how will you measure the impact both in terms of capability building (knowledge and application) and whether there is an actual change in what teams are trying to improve?
A standardized approach across localities or STPs sounds valuable, how will you build on the different approaches that partner orgs might take currently? Have you considered co-design and co-production with service users in health and care? Our Lived Experience Panel has been hugely valuable in doing this and challenges AQuA on whether we are really person-centred in all we do.
AQuA have lots of experience of capability building (QI, change management, patient safety related etc etc) so would be happy to contribute in any of the ways you request. AQuA@srft.nhs.uk or via the Q network. Good luck!
Deborah Shaffer 20 May 2018
Strongly agree with Elizabeth's questions and comments here. Co-design and co-production with patients would also be an important consideration.
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