Date of release: 28 July 2023
Spotlight on Our Quality Framework: AHP Milestones
By Ros Leslie
Shaped by contributions from over 700 Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors, the Quality Framework (QF) 2023-25 went live in April this year.
Underpinned by six pillars – Excellence in Care, Workforce, Culture, Education, Communication and Research and Innovation – it represents our shared vision for continuous improvement with the aim of providing safe, effective and high-quality care for all patients at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust (WHT).
AHP QF Project
There was significant AHP engagement in the development of the QF and, for the first time since the launch of its predecessor – the Clinical System Framework in 2021 – there is a separate AHP milestone plan.
The RWT AHP QF Project runs from 1 April to 30 September 2023, covering the first two quarters of the QF. As the QF runs across a two-year period, this means the QF continues for a further six quarters (18 months) beyond the life of the project.
The project is, therefore, working to clear timeframes with identified outputs to achieve the agreed success criteria and achieve sustainability across the whole of the QF lifecycle.
Project Lead, Charlotte Colesby, Speech and Language Therapy Services Manager at RWT, is seconded to the project one day per week to operationalise the QF for the AHP services within RWT.
In order to achieve this, the following success criteria have been identified:
- Metrics for collection are meaningful to each AHP service and agreed with the lead for each service
- A central, straightforward method of collection of metrics is set up, implemented and embedded within the life of the project
- Sustainability – there is an established process for:
- collection of metrics
- escalation of issues/concerns
- collation and analysis of collected metrics
- the dissemination of collated and analysed data
- Feedback is provided to key stakeholders throughout the project
Several meetings and discussions with WHT AHPs and the Quality team have taken place to support alignment across both organisations.
And, thanks to Charlotte’s guidance and encouragement, I’m delighted that all AHP services are now fully engaged across both RWT and WHT, with many of them agreeing that the framework will support and inform service planning.
Charlotte has advised me that all RWT AHP Leads have fed into the quarter one (Q1) metrics via the Trust SurveyMonkey tool. So I am now looking forward to viewing the collated results from Q1.
If you have an idea of what you would like to see included in my monthly blogs, or something, in particular, you would like me to highlight please email me at rosalind.leslie@nhs.net. Or better still if you see me around, come and say hello.
