Q Exchange is our £800,000 collaborative funding programme, supported by the Health Foundation and NHS England. We’re offering Q members the opportunity to develop and submit project ideas for up to £40,000 funding. We will be opening for ideas on Tuesday 14 February 2023.
This year we are focusing on an urgent challenge across all services and parts of the UK and Ireland. We need to find ways to ensure the millions of people who are waiting for care get the support they need, without placing unsustainable pressure on staff.
Success won’t depend on one or two big ideas. It relies on the work of Q members and others in their thousands, testing innovations and collaborating across disciplines and sectors.
We know that achieving change isn’t easy. But the improvement community have skills that are critical to addressing this challenge. Working together, we can bring the energy and solutions to address this urgent priority in ways that lead to sustainable and equitable improvement.
Q is here to practically support your work and fuel your energy for improvement over the months and years ahead. There is work underway in every part of the health and care system to reduce waits and delayed access to care. Through this year’s Q Exchange, we’re making it easier to enhance existing work and learn together as we go. We’re investing in activities that enable us to explore and develop sustainable, equitable, solutions that can be neglected when people are under pressure to deliver to short term deadlines.
The theme this year is:
How can improvement be used to reduce delays accessing health and care services?
Funding is available for proposals that reduce delays sustainably and equitably, focusing on one or more of the following areas:
- Redesigning care to best use the time and skills of those using and providing services.
- Understanding and improving how different parts of the system work together to meet patient/service user needs in accessing services.
- Improving the way waiting lists are prioritised and managed and supporting patients to wait better.
- Empowering and engaging the workforce to collaborate and use improvement methods in reducing waits.
Scope of the funding opportunity
Funding is available for improvement projects that either stand-alone or are part of a larger programme of work. You can test new ideas or adopt, adapt or scale an existing one. A lot of different project ideas will fit within these parameters.
There are delays across all parts of the system. So, this funding opportunity is open to all sectors and groups. Particularly activities that bring together people with different backgrounds, including patients and service users. We want to understand user needs, identify problems, and co-design solutions together. The funding can be used for evaluation and learning activities, so we know what works, and what doesn’t work. Q Exchange is designed to support sharing learning as we go, enabling others to learn from current work and make informed decisions about their improvement work.
The projects funded through Q Exchange are chosen by you, the Q community. Getting involved in the member-led shortlisting panels and then the community vote provides lots of opportunity to decide which projects should receive our support. Because of this, successfully funded projects often offer inspiration and learning in ways that will be useful in other contexts.
How you can get involved
Applications will open on Tuesday 14 February 2023. Start thinking and talking to fellow Q members, colleagues, patients and the public about ideas you could put forward. Or perhaps you want to talk to us about your idea? You can get in touch with the Q Exchange team to arrange a call.
If you’ve got an idea for Q Exchange, join our ‘How to apply for Q Exchange workshop’ on Wednesday 21 February, 12.00 – 13.00 to find out more about the application process, and meet other members.
We will share more information about the process of applying to Q Exchange, and the opportunities to get involved, and the roles you can play, in the next few weeks.
Project teams must be led by a Q member for the duration of the project but can involve people who are not yet part of the community.