My Experience of the Improvement Leaders Programme

By Raguraman (Ram) Padmanabhan, our Interim Head of Therapies for Community Health Services in Newham Ram shares his experience of day 2 of the Improvement Leaders Programme. Ram talks about the learning and networking from day 2, and how he will take this back to his team.

Service Users Reflect on Therapeutic Engagement & Observations Work in Tower Hamlets

By Sarah McAllister (Senior Improvement Advisor) and three service users from Tower Hamlets   In Tower Hamlets, quality improvement (QI) work is changing the landscape of therapeutic engagement and observations.  Service users and carers are at the heart of this journey.  In this 3-minute read, three service users share their perspectives on why this work is… Read More

Newham Talking Therapies – QI project to increase the numbers of referrals from young black men aged 18-25

By Rachel Glover – Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner The journey began in 2021 and was inspired by a service audit completed using the Black Asian Minority Ethnic BABCP positive practice guideline, which evaluated best practices across IAPT services with a focus on race. The audit highlighted a lack of representation from Black males in Newham,… Read More

Improving trauma-informed support during pregnancy to women and birthing people from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds with moderate to severe fear of birth (tokophobia)

By Dr Amanda Spong (Principle Clinical Psychologist), Zareen Kazim (Assistant Psychologist), and Linnea Miklaucich (Improvement Advisor) Tokophobia represents a profound fear of childbirth. Women and birthing people who experience adverse events during childbirth have an increased risk of developing tokophobia in subsequent pregnancies. The risks of adverse events are higher for women and birthing people… Read More

Are Questionnaires Fit for Purpose? New Project Aims to Adapt New Approach in Autism Service

By Dr. Guy Ansah-Palmer (Locum Specialty Doctor in Aldgate and Moorgate Wards) with contribution from William Diaz (Improvement Advisor)  Problem  All service users on Aldgate Ward have a diagnosis of autism as well as, in some cases, comorbid mental illness. It was recently highlighted that the standardised questionnaires (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWS), the Simple… Read More

Removing barriers for under-represented groups accessing care in Tower Hamlets Psychological Therapies Service

Vahishta Pardiwalla (project lead), Abi Harris, Gabriel Meszaros, Louise Hamilton Vickers, Ayesha Pudaruth, Aurora Todisco (carer), Elliott White (sponsor), Dalila Magdu (coach) The Tower Hamlets Psychological Therapies (THPTS) service conducted an in-depth analysis of their caseload data in relation to the 2021 census data for Tower Hamlets. This revealed a significant disparity: Despite Bangladeshi individuals… Read More

Evergreen Inpatient Unit, Luton and Bedfordshire CAMHS – Working Together to Understand the Problem and Develop Change Ideas

By Sean Dumbell (Modern Matron)  We are a new ward and therefore the process of arriving at our change ideas was a little different to elsewhere. Unlike other areas, we didn’t really have much data that could give us insight into the culture around observations within our team. We put out a staff survey that… Read More

Relaying our way towards safer observations – a standard operating procedure for Tower Hamlet’s board relay 

By Mitchell Modja (Clinical Nurse Manager, Rosebank ward), Dadai Dandato (Borough Lead Nurse, Tower Hamlets) and Sarah McAllister (Senior Improvement Advisor)  See how Tower Hamlets Rosebank ward have used a board relay to improve therapeutic engagement and achieve zero missed observations in 7 months…  What is the problem?  Following a serious incident, Tower Hamlets joined… Read More

Twilight Testing: Empowering Engagement with Life Skills Recovery Workers Shift Innovations

By Chloe Preston (Improvement Advisor)  As part of the Trust-wide inpatient quality and safety programme, three wards in Bedford and Luton have been testing different shift patterns for their Life Skills Recovery Workers (LSRWs).  Ward staff recognised that many of their incidents occur in the afternoon and evening, when there are fewer activities for service… Read More

Newham Centre for Mental Health – Ideas to Improve Observation Practice

By Nichole Hendricks-Abulime (Mental Health Nurse) Morgan Duffield (Life Skills Recovery Worker), Omolara Makanjuola (Health Care Assistant) and Lucy Brewer (Improvement Advisor)  When staff in Newham asked the question ‘what gets in the way of completing observations’, one of the reasons was that the acuity and unpredictability of the ward contributed to staff forgetting do… Read More

Reviewing, Reflecting, and Re-Focusing – We Updated our Aim and Driver Diagram

By Rebecca Lingard (Borough Lead Nurse City and Hackney) and Linnea Miklaucich (Improvement Advisor) During a sunny afternoon in July, all the wards in City and Hackney came together for a “re-energising” workshop of the therapeutic engagement project. We had recognised that the work had started to slow down and wanted an opportunity to take… Read More

Improving Therapeutic Engagement Using Personalised Activity Boxes

By Happy Khatun, Activities Manager at Sally Sherman Ward In this video, Activities Manager Happy Khatun shares work from Sally Sherman Ward to improve therapeutic engagement using life histories and personalised activity boxes. Sally Sherman is a 19-bed ward that provides care for older adults with cognitive impairment who require specialist nursing care to support… Read More

How two service users have utilised QI in their recovery

Two incredible stories from Lenna Adley And Craig Donohoe. Lenna was able to use QI in her recovery  and is now working as a member of staff at ELFT . Craig’s journey from representing People Participation at ELFT and going on to lead QI projects is inspiring. In May, these stories were presented at the… Read More

A new QI Coaches reflections of applying QI in Integrated Care System (ICS) work

By Korkor Ceasar, Associate Director of Safeguarding Children ,NEL ICS Watch this brief 1 minute video of Korkor Ceasar’s who graduated on the Improvement Coaching Programme. From her perspective of working in the Northeast London Integrated Care System (NEL ICS), Korkor shares the additional benefits from the programme to her work in general, beyond coaching… Read More

Using data enabled us to understand our problem

By Curtis Reece, Modern Matron & Sarah McAllister, Improvement Advisor In this 3 minute video, learn how Curtis Reece and his team have used data to understand their problem of why there is a high number of people who do not attend (DNA) their appointments in a forensic podiatry clinic.

Driving Environmental Sustainability through Quality Improvement at ELFT

Videos By Siobhan Fenson, Senior Infection Prevention & Control Nurse; David Stevens,  Director of Estates, Facilities and Capital Development; Carlos Santos, Improvement Advisor  The first video features Siobhan Fenson, Senior Infection Prevention & Control Nurse, who demonstrates how QI is helping NHS address a critical issue: the unnecessary use of gloves in clinical settings.  The second video takes… Read More

Stats, Storytelling & Support: My ILP Journey by Dr Alex Harborne

Dr Alex Harborne (Clinical Director for Tower Hamlets Community Health Services) In this video, Dr Alex Harborne (Clinical Director for Tower Hamlets Community Health Services) shares her journey with the ELFT Improvement Leaders Programme. After realising that several teams had high rates of rejected GP referrals, Dr Alex started a quality improvement project to improve… Read More

How P2R are using QI to reduce inappropriate referrals

By Jon Keen (Senior Recovery Worker, P2R)  In this video hear about how Jon Keen, Senior Recovery Worker, has been using learning from the Improvement Leaders Programme (ILP) to reduce the number of inappropriate referrals received by the pathway to recovery team.  You can learn about the impact ILP has had,  what they’ve been doing… Read More

Improvement Leaders’ Programme: Graduate Poster Gallery 2023

Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service (BWS): Improving access for service users with long covid

By Sue Harry, Mental Health Nurse and David Walter, Clinical Lead – Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service (BWS) Lucy Brewer, Improvement Advisor In this short 3-minute video, you can hear how BWS used QI methodology to understand what prevented people being referred into their service, and what change ideas they tested. They reflect on their journey and… Read More