Blog: Meet our Service Improvement Team

How long have you worked in Service Improvement?

I have worked in SI specifically for 2 years but since 2012 my roles have specifically involved service improvement and development.

What is your favourite thing about SI?

The ability to improve small and large scale situations and demonstrate a positive impact to staff and patient experiences and outcomes.

What are you working on at the moment?

Developing a more effective way for the Trust to demonstrate its ability to comply with NICE Guidance, rolling out the self-managed teams within Physical Health Services starting with the Community Care Teams and leading on Element 2 of the QI Strategy – Building QI Capability across the Trust. 

Why should someone who’s never heard of SI before get involved?

Getting involved with SI/ QI will have a positive impact on the way that you work and will really support the potential changes you may want to make. It will help you structure and evidence your ideas to achieve positive outcomes, sharing any learning and sustaining and spreading your ideas as appropriate. 

An interesting fact about yourself?

I was born in Iran and didn’t speak English until I was 8 years old.

How long have you worked in Service Improvement?

I joined the Trust in 2013 and have worked within Effective Services in roles involving service improvement and development for nearly 5 years.

What is your favourite thing about SI?

Supporting teams and services across the Trust with getting new ideas off the ground, generating new learning and achieving improvements in experience and outcomes for service users, families and staff.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am involved in a range of different projects, ranging from the Red2Green patient flow initiative across all inpatient wards in CWP and rolling this out further to achieve similar improved outcomes, to supporting with the redesign of the ADHD service and leading on Element 2 of the Quality Improvement Strategy in helping to build QI capability across the Trust to equip staff at all levels with the confidence and competence to undertake continuous quality improvement.

Why should someone who’s never heard of SI before get involved?

I am passionate about quality improvement being everyone’s responsibility and seeing the positive impact that making, often, simple improvements can have on service delivery and outcomes is motivation to get involved in itself.  We all have ideas for improvements and using a simple approach can help you to drive forward your ideas, evidence the improvements being made and support the spread and sustaining of these improvements to ultimately impact on the care and experiences of service users and families.

An interesting fact about yourself?

I used to be a primary school teacher before undertaking a Masters in Educational Psychology and working in the Local Education Authority for 6 years prior to making the move to the NHS!

How long have you worked in Service Improvement?

I have worked on transformation projects since June 2013

What is your favourite thing about SI?

Identifying inefficiencies and making processes work more efficiently, plus engaging with a wide range of people

What are you working on at the moment?

Redesigning adult and older adult mental health inpatient provisions across the trust is my main project, which includes the redesign of services in East Cheshire. I am also supporting crisis work, IGB and PICU bed improvement projects and personality disorder service improvement projects 

Why should someone who’s never heard of SI before get involved?

Because it’s interesting, it makes staff jobs easier and more efficient and it can free up time to do more patient care which is what most staff come to work to do

An interesting fact about yourself?

I have a PhD in analytical chemistry in male fertility.

How long have you worked in Service Improvement?

I’ve been working in service improvement for a couple of years now, working in construction, child care and social care previously. 

What is your favourite thing about SI?

That service improvement is not always about fixing things that are broken, but often trying to better a service. Not settling for things working to a passable level, but striving to make an ‘improved’ iteration of what came previously.  

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment I am working on the Responsive Care in Communities Project which is reviewing the ways in which CMHTs work across the trust and implementing a trust wide operating framework to reduce unwarranted variation. I am also working on other projects including the Wirral SPA Project which is looking to work collaboratively across trusts to create a Single Point of Access (SPA) to acute, mental and social services in Wirral. 

Why should someone who’s never heard of SI before get involved?

Service improvement can be mutually beneficial. It can enhance our services for the patients which we care for. In contrast, it can make your work life simpler and more efficient. Who doesn’t want that!?

An interesting fact about yourself?

In one of my varied previous jobs, I used to work at a surf camp just outside Sydney.

How long have you worked in Service Improvement

I joined the trust in 2014 as a graduate placement from Chester University and my role was to support innovation and I then joined the Service improvement team 2 years ago.

What is your favourite thing about SI?

Being able to support Clinical staff to implement the improvements that they want within their services that make a real difference to patient care.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m working on a variety of projects including working with NTW and the ADHD service to improve their pathways, as well as with Stephen Levitt in the CLDT team looking at their assessment processes and supporting the spread of the Red2Green initiative to all wards within CWP. We are also supporting the development of QI initiatives within the care groups and delivering Quality Improvement Training.

Why should someone who’s never heard of SI before get involved?

It’s a great opportunity to make positive changes within your services and empowers you to improve your care for patients.

An interesting fact about yourself?

I once lived in France for 6 months but didn’t do well in learning French!

 

How long have you worked in Service Improvement?

I’m the newbie of the team. I started in August this year.

What is your favourite thing about SI?

Definitely the variety of projects I can get involved with. From NICE Guidance to working collaboratively with Cheshire Wildlife Trust – it’s certainly a mixed bag.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m doing a lot of work getting up to speed with delivering our Improvement Readiness and i2i courses so that we can spread what we’re doing to more people in the Trust.

Why should someone who’s never heard of SI before get involved?

Two main reasons stand out for me. 1 – You’ll be actively contributing to making your patient’s care experience better. 2 – The satisfaction you’ll get from knowing that you’ve improved your job (and possibly made your life a little easier in the process!)

An interesting fact about yourself?

I passed my driving test when I was 16. One of the benefits of going through education on the Isle of Man!