Q Exchange
Spreading QI capability via an ICS-wide Improvement Repository
- Proposal
- 2019
Meet the team
Also:
- Steve Upton
- Linda Pitchford
- Ann Fewtrell
What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to your chosen theme?
QSIR is the preferred vehicle for delivering QI training in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS across boundaries – 160+ staff have qualified as ‘QSIR Practitioners’. We hold events for 50-100 staff from different organisations, so that we use the same QI language and approach, reducing silo working and disempowerment if staff are not familiar with the terminology; this is critical for undertaking multi-system working. Bringing staff together has generated joint projects within areas of mutual interest.
We want to build a resource so that we can capture both impact and learning from these projects, which would involve people being able to view, submit and interact with a fit for purpose, future-proof web based platform that would not fall at the first fire wall, and would not rely on people having licenses or passwords to access. Unlike current platforms like ‘LifeQI’ it would need to be a sharing resource for current projects, but also an archive of completed projects.
What does your project aim to achieve?
A connected QI community across boundaries, to be measured by both the projects within the information system and the impact in terms of tangible and quantifiable outcomes and learning. It reduces the need to have separate organisational QI repositories (with upkeep and management) and information on improvement will be readily available and accessible to each organisation; we currently have no sight of these, at organisational or at a system level.
With the archive, we would manage knowledge of what had been tried before in services, together with the outcomes and learning. This would mean that any future work would start from an informed basis, with a shared understanding of lessons learned.
Current QI libraries or resources are good (NHS Academy of Fab Stuff) but either rely on staff needing to have licenses to view (Life QI) or do not enable local networks to be enhanced and to connect.
The aim is to build a connected community of practice, regardless of organisational boundaries
How will the project be delivered?
The proposal has sign up from all Nottinghamshire provider organisations, to demonstrate a connected approach.
We consulted users of other services (Lancashire Community Trust and ELFT for LifeQI) and followed up suggestions from the Q Community; this has confirmed that there are limitations in current approaches. Life QI provides value as a sharing point for people directly involved in improvement, but these staff must have a license to operate, whereas we want open access. We are also seeking to build on a local network, connecting people with similar improvement agendas and interests that can generate new knowledge and projects. We will:
Develop a service specification with partner organisations of a set of minimum requirements that fulfil collective needs
Review current web based offers – Googledocs, WordPress
Commission a technical expert to develop the solution in a way that meets user needs, or commission a current service
Test the resource across the organisations
Share widely
What and how is your project going to share learning throughout?
The premise of this project is to generate, share and manage knowledge. Currently, this is done within organisational silos, and there is a vacuum to generate ideas, interact and to save knowledge as a system. In its simplest terms, if a member of staff – a GP or AHP undertook improvement work a few years ago, and we had a record of who was involved, the outcomes and learning, this would be a significant platform with which to start any future improvement work. As it is, we often ‘go in blind’ and this is a huge waste of our knowledge assets, as well as re-work.
This platform would enable QI and OD people to understand the context and readiness for change, and to seek out early adopters or champions. It would also enable us to quantify the initiatives currently being undertaken that we have no sight of, at both organisation and system-level. Who are the super connectors? How do we celebrate successes or learn from failures if we do not curate learning?
How you can contribute
- We have received feedback from the Q Community on some current web based products that they are using and that may fulfil some of our requirements, but would appreciate more experiences from users, especially around some of the web based platforms that could get through the organisational firewall conundrum.
- We lack technical skills in being able to develop our own system, and would appreciate some guidance on this specific issue.
Plan timeline
30 Apr 2019 | Launch solution across ICS |
---|---|
29 Sep 2019 | Review all potential ideas aand current web based resources |
29 Sep 2019 | Set-up and Plan - Project Launch |
11 Oct 2019 | Agree specifications for solution |
31 Oct 2019 | Sign off specification across organisations |
3 Nov 2019 | Option appraisal completed on potential solutions |
29 Nov 2019 | Preferred options signed off by organisations |
9 Dec 2019 | Commission contractor to design solution |
31 Jan 2020 | Complete design process |
9 Feb 2020 | Test solution in organisations |
31 Mar 2020 | Formal review of solution |
6 Apr 2020 | Agree operational and Comms Strategy |
30 Jun 2020 | Lessons learned and Handover |
Comments
Carol Herbert 22 Apr 2021
Hi all
i see this post is 2 years old but would really be interested in finding out how it’s worked for you and any learning.
John Lodge 19 Jun 2019
I really like this - and I suspect Simon Dodds will be interested too. He created the Journal of Improvement Science https://www.improvementscience.co.uk/jois/ which you should definitely take a look at, and maybe join forces?
Ceri Feltbower 1 Jul 2019
John
Thanks for sharing this, and it certainly looks an interesting resource. I will be delving into some of the projects myself. The staff groups that we were thinking of targeting are often frontline, with limited prior knowledge of QI, so I don't know if this is may be a bit too advanced, but will test out with them.
Anna Burhouse 16 Jun 2019
Dear Ceri, Charlotte, Joe and Luke,
its exciting to read your proposal. I think the idea of having a common improvement language across and ICS is a great idea. I know some other parts of the country are experimenting with this too. In the ‘Improving improvement capability across boundaries’ special interest group, we have heard about Surrey Heartlands and Gloucestershire. There might be people in the group you can connect with to find out more. Don Berwick visited Gloucestershire STP with the Kings Find to hear about their approach and their is a nice YouTube film of his speech and thoughts about system wide improvement approaches.
There are a lot of AHSNS who have used LIfeQi over the last few years to share information about improvement work across their regions, so there maybe some learning there too, about whether this helps with training, scaling up of improvements (or not) and what the limitations of the platform are. I have also heard of people using other platforms or creating their own repository of resources via ‘source for networks’. I’d be interested to hear what you find out as this is definitely an area of interest.
Good luck!!!!
best wishes
Anna
Ceri Feltbower 1 Jul 2019
Anna
I am glad that you like our proposal; we have had an incredible response to the QI training across the system, with many organic projects arising just from staff groups connecting and making a commitment to do some joint work, and having a common approach certainly helps.
We are exploring Life QI, but the license situation may not mean that everyone is able to access the platform to maximise learning.
We really appreciate your support!
Ceri
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