News & Updates
QI Essentials: What does a Chief Quality Officer do?
18 March 2019
What is the role of a CQO? There are still very few chief quality officers in the UK, although it’s a common role in the US. In this blog, Dr Amar Shah reflects on the role and responsibilities of a Chief Quality Officer… I figured it was probably about time to tackle this… Read More
Lea Ward Staff Introduce Sleeping Packs for Patients
8 March 2019
Innovative staff at Lea Ward in Tower Hamlets have introduced sleeping packs to help service users get the best rest possible as part of their mental health recovery. Service users at the male inpatient ward are given a pack including an eye mask, ear plugs, bag of lavender to put in the pillow case for… Read More
CAMHS Access and Flow series
8 March 2019
Here you can access seven stories about improving access and flow in our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Click on the icons to view.
Improving access and flow in the Tower Hamlets Neurodevelopmental CAMHS pathway
4 March 2019
In our last story of the Improving access and flow within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services series, discover how the Neurodevelopmental team (NDT) in Tower Hamlets CAMHS managed to reduce the percentage of missed appointments by 55% while also making changes to the team structure. Here’s the story: CAMHS Access and Flow series… Read More
Improving access and flow: Luton CAMHS story
26 February 2019
In our fifth story of the Improving access and flow within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services series, discover how the Luton CAMHS team found new ways to review referrals and achieved a 19% reduction from referral to second appointment. Luton and Bedford CAMHS also offered QI training to service users and now have a group of young people ready… Read More
First triple aim QI projects across the Trust
22 February 2019
In the early stages of the Triple Aim work at ELFT, we welcomed guidance from our strategic partners, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in a visit in February 2019. Read more about how teams are progressing with this work in this blog by our Improvement Advisor Jen Taylor-Watt. Teams from across ELFT welcomed Trissa Torres… Read More
QI Essentials: Learning systems for improvement
22 February 2019
Achieving change in behaviour and culture in complex organisations requires intentional design. In this blog, Dr Amar Shah shares some learning on key components of the design of learning systems for improvement. The pursuit of continuous improvement helps us create a learning organisation, described by Peter Senge as “where people continually expand their… Read More
Crisis Resolution/Home Treatment teams in Bedford reflect on their Enjoying Work journey
19 February 2019
How do you start an Enjoying Work Quality Improvement project? How do keep team members engaged? How are ideas generated and tested? Learn more in this piece by Emma Myers, Assistant Psychologist and QI Project lead in the Bedford CRHT team. What issues did the project aim to tackle when you first started with this?… Read More
City & Hackney CAMHS: Access and Flow project
19 February 2019
Here’s the fourth story of the Improving access and flow within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services series. In the newsletter below, find out how the City & Hackney team changed the way they operate to improve the experience of young people in the crisis pathway. Click to read: CAMHS Access and Flow series… Read More
Newham Child and Family Consultation Service in: The Busy Bees
12 February 2019
Here’s the third story of the Improving access and flow within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services series. The Newham Emotional & Behavioural Team share their journey of reducing cancellation rates and other improvements as part of their QI project. The team also recently threw open their doors for a week-long CAMHS festival, reaching out into their community,… Read More
‘Mission Improvable’: an entirely factual and anonymous blog
6 February 2019
Here’s an honest and humorous account of the highs and lows of a QI project journey in the Tower Hamlets CAMHS triage pathway. This is the second story of the Improving access and flow within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services series. Click below to read: CAMHS Access and Flow series – access all… Read More
Improving access and flow within CAMHS: the ADHD service story
28 January 2019
This is the first story of a series dedicated to improvement work in ELFT’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Each week you will be able to learn more about a different QI project through their learning and achievements. Here’s the first one… City & Hackney CAMHS reduced the waiting time from referral to assessment… Read More
Improving access and flow within Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services
28 January 2019
Graeme Lamb, Clinical Director for Children’s services, and Jamie Stafford, Improvement Advisor, reflect on the journey of teams who took part in a learning system to improve access and flow within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services directorate. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing some of these teams’ stories. Since June 2017,… Read More
What it takes…
21 January 2019
What does it take within a team to run a quality improvement project through to completion? Is it about brilliant ideas or the energy of a charismatic leader? Perhaps it’s about everyone having skills in quality improvement, or finding time to do the work? With so many organisations now recognising the potential… Read More
Testing ideas to increase satisfaction: the journey of the Community Children’s Nursing team
18 December 2018
Find out what the Enjoying Work team at the Community Children’s Nursing Service (CCNS) has done so far to increase staff satisfaction and engagement. Words by Rebecca Daniels, Community Children’s Matron. We started the enjoying work project because we wanted to improve our days at work, to improve morale and increase communication across the team…. Read More
Food and humour: Quality Assurance and their journey towards enjoying work
17 December 2018
Read about the how the Quality Assurance team have been impacted by their Enjoying Work project and get inspired by the change ideas they have been testing. Words by Charlie Merrick, Project Lead, and Kay Spearman, Project Team Member. How has having an Enjoying Work project been for you and the team? Charlie Merrick: As… Read More
Enjoying work in the City & Hackney Rehabilitation and Recovery Service
17 December 2018
Running an Enjoying Work project is not always easy. Here’s what the C&H Rehabilitation and Recovery Service have learned and achieved so far. Words by Patricia Simoes, Project Lead. What is your main aim with this project? The main aim is to increase the number of good days reported by staff over a period of six months…. Read More
Activating agency
17 December 2018
Over the last few weeks I have been reminded that, at its heart, quality improvement work is really all about connections, relationships and purpose. We may need the technical skills of quality improvement and the systematic method to navigate and learn our way through some really complex problems. But the true opportunity in quality improvement… Read More
Business Development Unit: creating meaningful connections
17 December 2018
Read about what motivated the team to start this Enjoying Work project and what they have tested so far in this blog by Lilu Wheeler, Business Development Projects Manager and QI project team leader. The main aim of this Enjoying Work project is for us to feel happier at work. Feeling happier makes for a… Read More
Improving population health: What is ELFT doing about it?
29 November 2018
This video is part of our November 2018 newsletter, available here. Our new mission at East London NHS Foundation Trust is to improve the quality of life for all we serve, with a new focus on population health. But what does this mean? Why are we doing this? And how will we get started? Here’s… Read More
