What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?​

Communication and engagement is integral to any change and has a really important role in facilitating, accelerating and embedding improvement, however taking a structured, evidence-and-insight-based approach to communication and engagement is not commonplace.

The Improvement Cymru communications and engagement team has begun developing a platform to host improvement communications and engagement toolkits, that will provide those delivering improvement with a first point of reference for advice and support for effectively using communications and engagement as part of successful delivery of their improvement work, across different contexts.

Under considerable, unrelenting pressure, mental health services in Wales face significant barriers to improvement. However, with Welsh Government currently consulting on new 10-year strategies regarding mental health and suicide, the requirement for improvement activity to realise the strategies is likely to grow.

What does your project aim to achieve?

We would like to test the use of a communication and engagement toolkit to engage stakeholders in improvement activity, and influence leaders. The Q Exchange funding would be used to fund the production of animated videos, graphic design of key assets, copywriting capacity, a modest communications campaign and engagement activity to co-produce with stakeholders and service users, and raise awareness of, an improvement communications and engagement toolkit that mental health settings across Wales.

The toolkit would support improvement across system boundaries through both enabling improvers within mental health settings to effectively communicate and engage with stakeholders across and beyond their system to engage them in improvement activity, and also facilitating spread of improvement within and across settings nationwide.

How will the project be delivered?

Project development via:

• Project management team to develop brief and on ongoing management
• Skilled and experienced communication team
• Analytics team to support data design, collections and evaluation
• Business support team to manage finance, commissioning and procurement of external content
• Focus group, people with lived experience and broader stakeholders across the mental health community

How is your project going to share learning?

Via

• Q community newsletter, events and meet ups
• Blogs, news stories  and social media
• Digital platform
• Mental health strategic programme, people with lived experience, Social Care Wales, Local authority partners, thirds sector and Welsh Government
• QI events, conferences eg IHI