What is the positive change that has emerged through new collaborations or partnerships during Covid-19 that your project is going to embed?

During the C19 pandemic, ten local NHS organisations, three Universities, and two Local Authorities established a centralised weekly Kent & Medway (K&M) PRG to review C19 projects across a range of project contexts, including research, QI, and audit. The emerging C19 pandemic highlighted the need for a responsive coordinated and collaborative forum for accelerated discussions, integrated 360 review, feedback and signposting by multi-disciplinary experts in R&D, clinical audit and effectiveness, improvement science, research methodology and perspectives.

Members receive advice on project design, the practicalities of study set-up, navigating NHS governance requirements, and linking with potential health and social care collaborators. Having a dedicated time and space – a virtual ‘one stop shop’ –  to access specialist expertise means high-quality projects, with direct patient benefit, can be set up quicker, with faster translation into practice.

The PRG has resulted in funded projects, publications, and support for local infrastructure across the Kent and Medway (K&M) region.

What does your project aim to achieve?

Expanding the reach:  To date, most PRG projects have been led by medical staff; we want to support more projects led by nurses, Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), and social care practitioners. Most importantly, we want to create a PRG service-user group to kick-start the co-production of lay generated ideas.

Expanding the depth: The PRG provides an integrated and cross-organisational approach to project peer review. We found that linking health and care organisations together has enabled faster project development and delivery for common K&M issues.

We feel that a dedicated website will act as a vehicle for 1) increasing awareness and interest in the PRG by disseminating it more broadly; 2) expanding the range of activities in linking organisations, groups and individuals with common interests;  3) publicizing the project outcomes and increasing the knowledge and appreciation of audit and improvement work, as well as small research, in health and social care organisations.

How will the project be delivered?

The PRG will create a smaller ‘Q-exchange’ group from its membership to oversee the project.

1. A number of service users and stakeholders will be invited to participate in the project.
2. An extended web development group, including service users, will be set up to create the content of the website.
3. The website will be created by a web company according to the specification agreed by all.
4. A webmaster will develop on-going content for the website, experimenting with different channels and connections
5. An evaluator will assess the process and impact of the new PRG website, overseeing the PDSA plan and refinement of activities linked to the website, as well as preparing short reports at three points during the project time line. The evaluator will be supporting the web development group in identifying suitable outcome measures for the tracking of the progress of the project and any outcomes.

How is your project going to share learning?

• The PRG, comprising of multi-organisation membership, will receive regular progress reports on the development of the web-site.
• PRG Members will disseminate emerging learning and tools (e.g. document templates, Terms of Reference and policies etc.) directly through the the website which would have UK and Ireland-wide reach, allowing Q members and others to ‘lift’, adapt and implement within their own services.
• The evaluator will produce reports utilizing the health services evaluation expertise across the three member universities.
• We plan to participate in at least two Q conferences and meetings to showcase our project journey, experiences and findings.

Through the website members will be able to make inquiries, submit ideas for review, view case studies, receive latest news and training opportunities as well as other relevant features. Through this we hope to grow our membership to be more inclusive of non-medical staff, and increase regional capacity for research and improvement work.