News & Updates
Virtual Carers’ Event
18 May 2020
Applause for the Forensic Service The Forensic directorate are delighted to have started hosting virtual carers’ events using a virtual video conferencing platform. Carers had been anxious to hear how staff were managing the COVID19 outbreak and what impact it had had on the care for their loved ones. There have been two online events… Read More
Introducing the ELFT Working Well Handy Guide
13 May 2020
The Working Well Handy Guide has been developed to provide a practical bite-sized resource to help support individuals and teams build satisfaction and wellbeing using a Quality Improvement (QI) approach. This is an ELFT resource that takes learning we have gained from supporting over 40 Enjoying Work project teams over the past 4 years. This… Read More
QI Essentials: Shaping our future
7 May 2020
The last few weeks has demonstrated how incredibly dedicated and adaptable we can be, as citizens, service users and workers within the healthcare system. In responding to the enormity of the covid-19 challenge, the speed with which services and staff have changed and prepared has been quite breathtaking. Of course, the urgency of the situation… Read More
ELFT supporting ‘Fast Track Cities’ HIV prevention improvement collaborative
27 April 2020
by Marco Aurelio (Improvement Advisor) and Katherine Brittin (Associate Director of Quality Improvement) In 2016, for the first time in London, all the United Nations 90:90:90 targets (figure 1) were met. London is only one of three cities globally to achieve this. Despite this great progress, 43% of all new HIV diagnoses in England are… Read More
How the Data Team from QI have been supporting ELFT during COVID-19
27 April 2020
By Akkash Purani, Senior Improvement Data Analyst COVID-19 has caused us all to adapt in one way or another, and QI’s Data Team is no different. We’ve been helping to support ELFT during COVID-19. Forid Alom (Head of Improvement Analytics) and I have been, and continue to be, involved in a range of activities to… Read More
The Quality Assurance Team’s Experience of Recruiting Virtually
24 April 2020
On Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd April the Quality Assurance team followed in the footsteps of the Quality Improvement team in conducting our first set of virtual assessment centre and virtual interviews for 3 new staff members. We took a slightly different approach with Quality Assurance Manager Selina testing Webex and Quality Assurance Manager Ellie testing… Read More
Supporting Infection Prevention and Control webinars
23 April 2020
If you’ve been following our stories recently you will have seen that the QI Department have shared our learning on virtual working and our experience of running virtual learning events. During April we have been able to bring this experience to support colleagues in the Infection Prevention and Control team with a series of daily… Read More
Enabling Visualisation of our COVID-19 Data
23 April 2020
By Forid Alom, Head of Improvement Analytics Is data the new oil? A common analogy we hear, especially within Health Care. Whether this is true or not, there is no doubt data, in particular data visualisation, is crucial to decision making. Combine this improvement methodology and you’ve got yourself a powerful system. Throughout the trust,… Read More
Psst….Positive Gossip
22 April 2020
The Luton and Bedfordshire Senior Psychological Therapies team tested ‘positive gossip’ as part of their Enjoying Work project. The team was feeling very stretched and wanted a creative way to support each other. Two types of communication were included in the definition of ‘positive gossip’: Saying something positive about somebody to someone else, e.g. about… Read More
Continuing Improvement in Forensics
14 April 2020
By Nicola Ballingall, Improvement Advisor, Forensics Directorate Building on the story we recently shared from Morrison Ward at the John Howard Centre about how they are sharing good practice with each other during the COVID-19 crisis, find out how QI coaches are using improvement tools across the Forensics Directorate. Despite all the changes and challenges… Read More
Morrison Ward’s Daily Improvements during COVID-19
1 April 2020
The wards at the John Howard Centre, in our Forensics Service, are making sure to share good practice with each other during the COVID-19 crisis. For example, they’re all planning ahead in partnership with service users to find out what meaningful activities people would want if they were to be isolated. They’re hearing about skills… Read More
QI data team ‘tests’ virtual assessment centre & interviews
1 April 2020
As with other areas in the trust we must rapidly adapt to the current situation. So, on Wednesday 25th March the QI department conducted our first virtual assessment centre and virtual interviews. Applying improvement methodology enabled learning from this experience, important not only for the department but also the whole trust. Our theory was that we… Read More
Quality Improvement Department ‘tests’ virtual Pocket QI training
30 March 2020
During March we have all been presented with many differing challenges, one such challenge for the QI Department was to explore how we continue to build skills for QI within ELFT during such a challenging time. As with other areas in the trust we must rapidly adapt to the current situation. So, on the… Read More
QI/QA Department ‘tests’ remote working
23 March 2020
On Friday the 13th March (was that a sign?) we conducted our first ‘test’ of total remote working. Little did we know then that this way of working would quickly become the norm for millions of workers across the globe. It became apparent that we would need to do a longer test. So, based on… Read More
QI-Lite cherry picking techniques and tools
17 March 2020
Using an Appreciative Enquiry with Cancer and Palliative Care Nurses. Dr. Sara Rasool, from Macmillan Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Lead for Community Health Psychology Services. (Beds and Luton), updated the QI Department on how the use of an Appreciative Enquiry helped her and her team reflect at their team Away Day in February. Adopting tools… Read More
QI Essentials: Opportunity in adversity
13 March 2020
Moments of crisis and adversity have given rise to innovation and creativity at so many times in history and for so many organisations. Serious creativity, as Edward de Bono described it. De Bono is a physician and psychologist who originated the term ‘lateral thinking’. De Bono has developed many of the provocation techniques designed to… Read More
Congratulations to the latest Improvement Leaders!
4 March 2020
On Tuesday 3rd March the ninth Wave of the Improvement Leaders’ Programme (ILP, formally ISIA) and third Cohort of Enjoying Work came to a close with a graduation and celebration event. Since September 2019 around 140 staff, service users and carers have participated in 8 workshops designed to equip them with the tools and knowledge… Read More
Daily Improvement at Pocket QI
26 February 2020
In Module one of Pocket QI our Improvement Advisors, Jamie and Michelle, taught the delegates a range of tools. During this latest cohort the delegates were set the task of practicing at least one tool before coming back for module two. Notably one delegate used a pareto chart to look at which which diagnoses are… Read More
Making QI a way of being
26 February 2020
In October 2019, Craig Donohoe, a QI Coach and Service User, aptly summarised the sentiment that was being echoed from different parts of the organisation – “QI should be a way of being” The way we do quality improvement work at ELFT has been expanding to include everyday improvement activities that happen outside of formal… Read More
Working to improve the quality of life for people with serious mental illness in Hackney
26 February 2020
The City and Hackney initial Triple Aim project looks at improving the quality of life for people who experience serious mental Illness (SMI) in City and Hackney. The triple aim team consists of staff, service users, and community partners to help identify core needs for the serious mental illness (SMI) population, and ways to support… Read More
