An Illustrated Guide to Quality Improvement

At the conference we were excited to launch our illustrated guide to QI, produced by ELFT in collaboration with Sonia Sparkles. It’s an interactive picture book that takes you on a journey from ‘What is QI?’ through to improving the health of populations using Triple Aim. Explore the illustrated guide here >>

Thank you to all involved in the creation of this book, especially Sonia Sparkles for her wonderful illustrations. Watch this space for how to get your hands on a printed copy of the book!

ELFT in One Voice – Quality Conference 2019

Watch the #ELFTin1Voice performance at the Quality Conference here

A group of staff and service users from across the trust came together in one voice to give a rousing performance ending the morning of the 2019 Quality Conference. Over the past few months, singers met in Bedford and London to learn a specially composed piece of music by choir leader Leanne Sedin which highlighted the importance of co-production in health care. #ELFTin1Voice were excited to be joined by psychiatry trainee and rapper, Mandeep Singh, who created a spoken word vignette to open the piece and an improvised rap, reflecting on themes from the talks in the morning. Inspired by the theme of co-production, the performance also included improvised ‘music in the moment’, with singers working together to create a musical soundscape underpinning the improvised rap. ​

Reflecting on the performance, Jennifer French (Head of Arts Therapies, Tower Hamlets Directorate and Professional lead for Arts Therapies Trustwide) said:

“A huge thank you to everyone who took part in this amazing, inspiring and joyous performance rounding off the quality conference. It’s wonderful to see the creative capacities of our staff and service users being shared and celebrated in so many different ways as part of ELFT culture and values. Can’t wait for the next exciting adventure!”​

Highlights from our Quality Conference

Click on the images to open the full gallery

On Tuesday 14th May we were delighted to welcome over 400 people, including staff, service users, carers, governors and external guests to the 5th ELFT Quality Conference. This year’s event was special because it was co-designed with service users and carers, who helped shape the overall theme of the event as well as the content of main stage and project presentations.

The day started with a welcome from Mary Elford (Vice Chair) and Satwinder Kaur (Lived Experience), followed by a keynote talk on population health from Jason Leitch, QI World Cafe presentations from 19 project teams, a plenary session on Co-Production delivered by service users and carers, closing messages from our Chief Executive Navina Evans, who also launched our ‘Illustrated Guide to Quality Improvement‘. The conference was closed by the ELFTin1Voice choir who sang ‘See me as I am’, a specially commissioned piece of music which highlighted the importance of co-production in healthcare.

You can find full highlights from the event below. Thank you to everyone who was with us on the day and those that couldn’t be with us who are all contributing towards the ELFT mission to improve the quality of life for all we serve.

Quality Conference highlights!

Keynote presentation from Professsor Jason Leitch

We were delighted to welcome Professor Jason Leitch to the event who gave a keynote talk on population health, sharing experiences from Scotland and helping the Trust progress in our mission to improve the quality of life for all we serve. You can access a PDF of his presentation here >>

Jason is National Clinical Director of Healthcare Quality and Strategy for the Scottish Government, he has visited the Trust on a few occasions and also spoke at the 2016 Quality Conference.

Co-Production – What it is and what it isn’t

ELFT service users and carers presented the morning plenary session – Co-Production: What it is and what it isn’t. Introducing delegates to ‘The Ladder of Participation’ and used a game show format along with their own experiences to highlight the various steps on the route towards co-production.

Quality Improvement World Cafe

All delegates at the conference got the chance to be part of the QI Project World Cafe session. Nineteen QI project teams presented their work and learning around tables, with each delegate getting to be part of the discussion with up to three teams. All projects showcased Big I and Little I involvement and were presented by service users, carers and staff. You can find out more about the projects presented in these short videos produced by the teams themselves >>

Closing message from Dr Navina Evans

In her closing remarks, ELFT CEO Dr Navina Evans thanked all service users, carers and staff who shared their stories in the plenary session and in the World Café project presentation sessions. Speaking about the plenary session on Co-production, she said:

“You demonstrated what a struggle it is to properly do co-production. Out of that what I took is the incredible patience, understanding and kindness of our service users, carers and people participation colleagues, because sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back and you help us push to go forward again.”

She also thanked keynote speaker Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director of Healthcare Quality and Strategy in Scotland, who talked about Population Health and ELFT’s new mission.

“We are privileged to have Jason here, for giving us a few minutes to celebrate and then immediately getting us to the heat of the mater of what we want to do”

ELFTin1Voice

See me as I am!

A group of staff and service users from across the trust came together in one voice to give a rousing performance ending the morning of the 2019 Quality Conference. Over the past few months, singers met in Bedford and London to learn a specially composed piece of music which highlighted the importance of co-production in health care. Learn more about how this all came together here >>

An illustrated Guide to Quality Improvement

The Quality Conference was also the launch of a new book that ELFT has developed in collaboration with Sonia Sparkles. You can find an interactive online version by clicking the front cover below.

Our Coborn QI Wall!

In April 2019 we were proud to complete the artwork for the Quality Improvement visibility wall at the Coborn Centre for Adolescent Mental Health in Newham.

Building on the experiences from previous QI wall projects at Robert Dolan House and Newham Centre for Mental Health, this work was a collaboration between young people at the Coborn, ELFT staff and Jonny Glover, a local artist who has worked on the previous QI artwork including the walls and Enjoying Work illustrations.

At the beginning of the project the QI team ran an introductory session on quality improvement for young people at the Coborn, who came up with some themes for the design of the wall, along with preferences for location.

Jonny took these ideas away and produced a design before beginning painting work during March. Young people got involved throughout the process, helping with painting and suggesting adaptations to the final design. You can find some more photos of the work in this gallery >>

Thank you to everyone involved in this fantastic work, we look forward to it celebrating and inspiring quality improvement work across the Trust and beyond!

QI mission statement written by young people at the Coborn

The Grand Unveiling of Newham’s QI Wall

On the 26^th April our Trust Chair, Marie Gabriel joined service users, carers , staff and international visitors for the unveiling of Newham’s Quality Improvement wall.

Over the last few months ELFT service users, carers and staff have been working together with Jonny Glover, a local artist, to create a QI visibility wall at Newham Centre for Mental Health. The purpose of the wall at Newham is to share the quality improvement work going on locally and encourage everyone to get involved. The finished design includes our version of the Newham Greenway, a popular footpath and cycle route that runs across the area. As we journey from one end of the Greenway to the other people are working together to improve their environment and celebrate achievements along the way.

At the opening event some of our service users involved in the project spoke about the design and their involvement. One service user talked about how well-known this area is in Newham, and that it was a memorable place in her recovery; she spoke about taking walks along the Greenway during her time on one of the wards. The themes of growth and nurture were encouraged throughout the design process and this is represented by people planting seeds and nourishing them. This growth from seeds also symbolises how small ideas for quality improvement can develop and really make a difference.

Another service user who contributed to the design of the wall spoke about the meaning behind the large tree; she described it as the tree of life and how the wall is not just about Newham, it’s about Quality Improvement, which she went on to describe is something that gives us hope.

Marie Gabriel said “It was wonderful to participate in the international opening of the Newham QI wall, what was most inspiring about the event was the theme of a journey of hope, both in the co-creation of the wall and in the diverse journeys it depicts.”

Jonny Glover gave us his reflections on the project too “It was a fantastic experience working with the QI team and all the volunteers. Having lots of people involved in the design was initially daunting, but it turned out to be great fun, and I think ultimately it’s lead to an image that is both singular and meaningful to Newham. I hope the wall is able to galvanise people to get started on their own projects and I look forward to hearing how they each develop.”

The wall demonstrates how people can work together to improve something and includes posters and details about some of the achievements and the current improvement projects taking place. See some of the pictures taken during the launch event below and find out more about how the ideas and designs of our service users & carers have led to this wonderful piece of work>>

Special thanks to everyone involved in the project, and especially to the artist Jonny Glover, whose work has been shortlisted for the 2017 World Illustration Awards. All the best Jonny!

Working Together on the Triple Aim at ELFT

Please find our illustrated version of the IHI Triple Aim for ELFT. The ideas for this illustration were inspired by staff, service users and carers at a half day workshop in February 2018. Illustrator Sonia Sparkles then took these ideas and created our patchwork version of the Triple Aim.

Find out more about the creation of this work in this short video>>

Introducing our Service User and Carer QI Project Meeting Role Plays

In the lead up to the 2017 annual quality conference some of our service users and carers came together to plan an hour long conference breakout session. They developed a session that included information on getting involved with People Participation at ELFT. Also looking at opportunities, benefits and barriers for service users and carers involved in QI. At the centre of their presentation were two role plays in which positive and negative experiences of involvement in QI project team meetings were acted out.

The learning materials developed and performance given by all involved was very well received at the conference. The group went on to repeat the session for an audience of international visitors during the International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare and they also picked up the Trust Chair’s Award for Project of the Year at the annual People Participation Awards.

The service user & carer team got back together recently to record these role plays for use as learning resources. Please find them below and see which one you think is a positive experience of involvement and which is not so positive…

You can find the whole service user & carer involvement conference session here>>