Join Q – our national improvement community

The Q initiative provides opportunities for people working in health and care who have experience and are enthusiastic about improvement work to connect, network and collaborate, so that they can accelerate their improvement activities and maximise their impact.

The initiative is led by the Health Foundation and co-sponsored by NHS Improvement. The West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has been chosen as one of three AHSNs across the country, along with North East & North Cumbria and South West, to lead the next phase.

The Q community is free to join and is open to anyone with experience of doing improvement work. This includes front line health and social care staff, managers, patient leaders, researchers, policy makers and others.

Member benefits include:

• Being part of a diverse community of health care improvers – a hub for inspiration, support and cross boundary learning
• Flexible continuing professional development
• Access to resources including online materials, national and regional networking events, masterclasses, workshops and exchange activities
• Opportunities to share ideas, enhance knowledge and skills, and collaborate on improvement projects.

The Q community is growing. It is designed to complement other national and local improvement initiatives and networks, so people can pool knowledge and energy, to make a real difference to patient care.

The online application process takes approximately one hour and can be completed over a number of sessions.

The application window is open from Thursday 3 November to Monday 5 December 2016. Applicants will be advised of the decision in early February 2017 and an initial networking event is being organised for the spring.

Find out more at www.weahsn.net/q-community/