QI in Newham
- Overview
- BBC London – Violence reduction in Newham – August 2018
- Newham QI Forum
- QI Roles and Responsibilities in Newham
- Cardio vascular mortality prevention in Newham Assertive Outreach Service
- My journey in preparation to engage with a QI Project
- Reducing bed occupancy and length of stay on a functional older adults’ psychiatric ward (BMJ Quality)
- Quality Improvement in Newham
- A Carers’ Perspective on Quality Improvement: A personal story
- Newham QI Wall artist Jonny Glover interviewed BBC Radio London
- Developing a Quality Control Strategy for Violence Reduction
- Perspectives from Newham Inpatient Unit…
- Violence reduction on older adult mental health wards
- The Grand Unveiling of Newham’s QI Wall
- Newham Violence Reduction Collaborative
- Mindfullness for Staff in Newham MHCOP
- My journey in preparation to engage with a QI Project
- Active QI Projects – June 2019
- Newham Occupational Therapy QI Project
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Welcome to QI in Newham!
Quality Improvement (QI) is at the heart of what we do in Newham and helps us to deliver the best possible care for our service users. Over recent years our QI projects have been instrumental in improving the experience and quality of care for service users, carers and staff, as well as driving innovative practice in response to service pressures. To build on this success the Directorate Management Team and I are always open to new ideas and interested in supporting projects.
The QI approach recognises that solutions to problems often come from staff who have direct knowledge and experience of working in a service, and equally values the contribution of service users and carers. QI provides an effective and systematic framework that encourages collaboration, helps to understand a problem, and then to try out ideas to find solutions to a problem. With the help of the QI team this page has been developed to keep you up to date on what is currently happening with QI in Newham, to celebrate our successes and to provide resources on how QI works locally. We look forward to seeing you at our monthly QI forum where all are welcome to come along and hear about projects and to discuss any ideas you may have.
Dr Dominic Dougall
Interim Clinical Director
Here’s an asset map for Newham created by our data team >>
Find out more about who has been trained in QI in our Directorate
BBC London – Violence reduction in Newham – August 2018
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Newham QI Forum
The QI forum in Newham is chaired by the Interim Clinical Director, Dominic Dougall. The forum takes place once a month. Please click on image to open PDF for more information.
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QI Roles and Responsibilities in Newham
Have a read about the QI roles and responsibilities in Newham.
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Cardio vascular mortality prevention in Newham Assertive Outreach Service
Please learn more about this completed ELFT QI project from the adjacent poster.
ELFT staff, service users and carers can access full details of this project on QI Life.The project code is 101092 please log onto your QI Life account before clicking the logo below.
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My journey in preparation to engage with a QI Project
Thana Narashiman, QI Communications Assistant, interviewed; Expert by Experience client Sonia on 17 July 2017, about her personal journey which she has gratefully shared.
This is my personal story….
I was going through a difficult time in my personal and professional life. I felt there was a breakdown in communications. I was worn and weary of self-employed work, not signing on for employment benefits and was looking for advice and support.
I informed my doctor that I was on a short fuse; shouting at people; had no money and no personal support. I needed some medication to help me feel calm and was referred to a mental health service.
In the meantime some other life events made me very angry. After phoning the police to seek a solution to an injustice, I later found myself sectioned to a hospital ward. This traumatised me.
How did you get involved with People Participation and Quality Improvement?
I knew about People Participation (PP) through my engagement with my Occupation Therapist (OT) which also provided me with an opportunity to learn about Quality Improvements.
I was also guided to engage with recovery group recommended and introduced to People Participation and Newham Working Together Group (WTG) for local service users and carers.
I really enjoyed engaging with the WTG which enabled me to get involved in a lot of different activities such as: Staff Induction Training; Meeting minute taking; Interview Panel Training; QI (Quality Improvement) training. You could say I enjoyed the QI training too much as I attended the same training course twice by accident!
What were the results and your personal feelings from service engagements?
It gave me focus! Two years prior to this I started a holistic care business which I had found challenging after moving to Newham from a different area.
It also helped with me make decisions on my self-employed small business. I decided to volunteer for therapy session at World Mental Health Day with fellow service users and carers. I managed to offer complimentary holistic therapy for about 9 people that day which was more clients in a month than I had seen with my own business.
My self-employment business was initially a good idea but now feel it will not work the way I initially thought. Following my experience and advice from groups, I now feel my business may not be viable in making money. In my view, alternative holistic therapy may only be viable in more affluent areas.
Therefore my involvement in my business may only be as a hobby rather than for a living. I feel this has now taken some pressure off me.
Please share your experiences with Quality Improvements (QI)?
The diagnosis, treatment and medication side effects meant that I was tired, sleepy and lethargic on most days. Due to health issues, I was not to complete a complimentary therapy course. My mind felt different and felt that I was not the same person who came in for initial treatment at the ward. The zest for doing the course went out of the window.
My introduction to QI is a very good thing and I also want to help with prevention of mental health issues by promoting exercise and eating well. It is all connected.
My engagement with the QI Service User and Carer Steering Group was via my Borough People Participation Lead, Leigh Bell. Leigh is positive and very consistent in informing about us about various activities.
Through my engagement with the QI Steering group, it gave me insightful knowledge to mental health treatment and Quality Improvement at ELFT. I was initially very nervous about joining the group but it now feels that my confidence has improved.
If I had not met my People Participation Lead I would have been more isolated and stayed indoors. I would need to find something else to do. With my children grown up, I was thinking what do I do with myself? I was not after an office job anymore.
What have I learnt about QI? It is something that’s already been done in the business world. It is the way forward to survive and adapt, help people engage, recover and provide a good quality service.
What are the barriers to working in a QI project?
I am involved at a Trust level project – the “Service User Carer QI Steering Group” but have not yet joined a formal QI project team.
Early on I just needed more time before getting involved, looking after my health and emotional wellbeing. There is more healing process to come and I feel a part time job will help me to be more regularly involved and boost my confidence.
I like to use the muscle analogy: If you don’t use it you lose it. I don’t want to lose my expert skills, but I am now more aware of my limits.
I am feeling more ready to get involved with a QI project, perhaps I can help for 1-2 days a week. I would be fine with that.
I feel this is positive work and we should not have to feel like its “Them and Us”, these barriers are slowly eradicating. It’s “Us and We”, staff, service users and carers are all looking after the mental health and emotional wellbeing of each other. I found the interactions are wonderful and very positive. It is about being human and thinking outside of the box.
What next?
People Participation has been an eye opener, I’ve learnt so much about mental health. The national media paints a negative picture but the curtain is opening. I was on the outside looking in but now I am on the inside. I want to get involved and give something back positively to other users of the service.
I feel it is important to be involved with other people. It’s good to highlight mental health issues like stress, deprivation, and reducing the general stigma. I think we need to honestly admit that we can get over these issues but not always.
The engagement through People Participation activities gave me purpose and allowed me to focus on what I really wanted to achieve. I sometimes feel like I am swimming in the deep end but feel that I have more to give.
Finally I wish to add this statement : “There is no Service without a Provider and no Improvement without Customer feedback!”
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Reducing bed occupancy and length of stay on a functional older adults’ psychiatric ward (BMJ Quality)
A quality improvement project was initiated on Ivory ward, a functional older adult psychiatric inpatient ward at Newham Centre for Mental Health, part of the East London NHS Foundation Trust. The project was started by staff on the ward after it had come to their attention that their ward had the highest bed occupancy and length of stay across similar wards in the trust. The mean bed occupancy in the 9 months before the project started was 87.7%. The mean length of stay on the ward in the 9 months before the project started was 70 days. The team used the model for improvement, which is the trust’s methodology of choice for quality improvement projects, to reduce bed occupancy and length of stay.
Click on the image to read the full article
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Quality Improvement in Newham
Dr Dudley Manns, Clinical Director for Newham Adult Mental Health Services, and a QI Sponsor, writes about the journey his Directorate have been on with quality improvement over the last few years.
The Quality Improvement journey in adult mental health services began in Newham in 2014 with three of our Directorate Management Team completing Wave 1 Improvement Science in Action training. The training was very well-received, leaving our colleagues inspired and energised. The first of a series of highly effective psychology/access QI projects was launched and an important project addressing healthy eating and lifestyle commenced on our inpatient unit.
As a directorate we made substantial gains in relation to the food on offer in our inpatient canteen, a range of physical health activities for inpatients was developed and waiting times for psychological therapies began to stabilise. Early learnings for the directorate were that QI projects underpinned by regular project team meetings and with strong leadership have the potential to enthuse teams to innovate in relation to the care they deliver. We were constrained by having so few QI-trained individuals and directorate infrastructure around our QI work was fragile. Unfortunately our healthy eating and lifestyle project faltered when the project lead moved on to a new post; it must be said that one ongoing challenge which we face is how to keep up project momentum when our clinical teams are so busy. Active project coaching and sponsorship have been key and it is notable that projects with actively engaged service users and carers tend to thrive, retaining their focus and energy.
Quality Improvement in Newham has substantially developed over the past three years. Individuals from all of our inpatient and community teams have accessed QI training and coaches from a range of professional backgrounds have played a pivotal role in the development of QI work in the directorate. Projects addressing patient experience, recovery pathways, violence reduction, managing demand and capacity, service configuration have blossomed in the directorate. Our directorate QI forum has evolved and now offers rotating slots for the regular showcasing and review of our projects in addition to space for discussion of new QI ideas. The forum is well attended by our DMT and provides a strong foundation for our QI work.
The way in which we have involved service users and carers in our QI work continues to evolve; service user representation at our monthly QI forum has given an alternate perspective and generated new ideas, which has assisted us in our planning of a QI strategy within the directorate.
Over and above the gains in quality achieved through individual projects, QI now underpins our strategy and approach as a Directorate Management Team and has given us a an extremely helpful framework for approaching our performance and quality challenges alongside wider strategy. Our Psychology Lead and QI coach led on the innovative incorporation of QI into Trainee Clinical Psychologists’ Service Related Research Projects and this is another example of how QI has become an integral part of our work within the Directorate.
Our award-winning Newham Quality Improvement Wall, completed earlier this year by our service users & carers in collaboration with a local artist, is a powerful visual representation of the pride that is felt by our directorate and QI team and the achievements made over the past three years.
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A Carers’ Perspective on Quality Improvement: A personal story
Thana, QI Communications Assistant, interviewed Zhenreenah; a carer and expert by experience client in August 2017, about her abundant passion and energy for engaging with QI Projects at the Trust. She shared her expert advice in this personal story.
Zhenreenah
Carer | Expert by Experience
(Pictured with ELFT CEO Dr Navina Evans at the People Participation Awards)
Are you involved in any QI (Quality Improvement) projects currently? If yes, please could you share your story.
I am very passionate about Carers and based on my personal experience, I am committed to sharing my expertise to improving the service and Quality Improvement is the way forward.
One of the key issues for me was that Carers were not aware of what was happening in both the Trust and with Social Services in Newham. As carers we access services from both organisations. Services were in transitions and it was very challenging and we carers felt that there was a need to keep people/carers updated. There was a gap and we tried to address it.
One of the concerns was that previously integrated services were fragmented, as for example when social services were “disconnected” from East London Foundation Trust services (ELFT) without any communication with clients like us Carers. It was very confusing when it all suddenly disappeared including engagement with us carers’ group as we worked closely with both organisations.
Therefore, one of the early QI projects was the compilation of a carers’ pack which started as a mini project with a small group of passionate carers to address the confusion.
What was the project aiming to do?
Following suggestion from former ELFT staff, the need for a QI carer’s group was discussed and this led us to come together as carers to collect and share information about local services which we felt would be useful in our role caring for our families.
The key aim of the project was to collate the information about services which spanned various stakeholders so in essence we wanted to bridge the gaps in services so information was easily accessible.
We wanted to compile a reference document which clearly stated what carers were seeking and how best to access services. This led to the creation of the Carers’ Information Pack and quarterly Newsletters related to Mental Health in Newham.
What was your motivation to be part of the project?
I have a passion for carers. Many carers like myself are sometimes left in the dark and they need a voice to share their opinions. I now share my enthusiasm with others carers during the ELFT monthly induction sessions for new staff members joining the Trust.
This Carers’ Information Pack can provide information and help find carers who we don’t currently reach and also identify “hidden” carers who are not registered in the system as such. Many are just too busy caring, for their loved ones and have no clue that they’re Carers and in need of a statutory Carers assessment to acknowledge this.
It is estimated that there are currently approximately 24,000 carers. (Editor’s Note : This is not a definitive audited figure as we don’t have the authorised data) in the local community in Newham but we don’t have the number of carers who manage mental health within family members. I have tried many times to collect the information but have yet to succeed.
I am very grateful that previous ELFT staff member and Carers UK (an independent charity) guided us in forming this group. However the newsletter only goes out to 10 Carers who are member of the Carers Group and that is a low circulation considering there are over 24,000 carers in Newham. It would be good to get the newsletter to more Carers, the mental wards in Newham and for Carers who are “hidden” (not registered as Carers) and busy working.
How would you describe your experience of being involved in this QI project?
The project progressed well initially with a couple of meetings. However, as time progressed I found it more difficult to attend meetings at ELFT’s Head Office alongside my other carers’ commitments which can arise suddenly and unexpectedly.
Because of hospital appointments and other issues going on, the enthusiasm started to fizzle out and I was emotionally drained and the meetings were impacted. I tried my best to keep asking how the project is going and for me to attend, but found the project was almost finalised.
I feel Carers should be given more freedom to shape their projects within the group and then come together and meet staff for brainstorming at agreed schedules. One of my recommendations would be to encourage carers to find time when they can catch-up to access project developments outside of formal meeting times designated by ELFT staff and whether meetings can be localised in their own areas and then to rotate venues.
This will allow carers to decide what works best for them in view of their own commitments.
What are your thoughts on the value and importance of QI work within ELFT?
Based on my experience, I feel it is very valuable as I like to see positive changes.
I have many ideas (Editorial note : Zhenreenah has compiled over 51 QI ideas for this interview) and with my abundant positive energy, I want to see services develop for the benefit of service users and carers, as well as staff. My aim is to help people get better and recover and move on. For us carers, emotional wellbeing is also very important.
To me, it is good that service users engage with their treatment and use opportunities within the Trust to access training, prevent isolation and help people to move on; understand their own mental health, and see what the trust has to offer, e.g. voluntary jobs, training, etc. etc. I see this as gentle nudges to help vulnerable people regain confidence.
My experience of the Service User & Carer QI training is that it generated energy and ideas amongst participants, but we felt that guidance as to what to do next was not obvious and we felt slightly unsupported.
Service Users & Carers like me have many ideas to improve services but following the training it would be helpful to be directed towards people providing local designated QI support who can help us develop our QI ideas. We need more guidance as to what the process is or I worry that people will lose the motivation.
What advice would give to other project teams on how to engage service users/carers effectively in QI projects?
I would strongly urge that we need to be very diligent when we engage with vulnerable people who we are asking to engage and contribute. Let’s not forget the 6 “C” for compassionate care. (Editorial Note : https://www.england.nhs.uk/6cs/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/03/introducing-the-6cs.pdf)
We need proper support system in place and be mindful not to treat service users/carers as “numbers” but to listen well and provide the necessary support so that they feel comfortable to engage. To me, it is very important to be aware that service users/carers can be on medication and so we need to be mindful of this and for us to treat people with respect and dignity.
Equally, when we encourage service users/carers to apply for opportunities/positions, we need to consider providing post interview feedback and coaching if for example they are not successful as it can have a detrimental impact on their emotional wellbeing.
We must develop the procedures to encourage, engage and prompt people to progress. If service users/carers don’t feel confident, they will lose the trust in staff and in the system. This will be sad loss for QI projects when you are trying to engage our experts by experience, service users and carers.
Is there anything else you would like to share with others across ELFT about your experiences that haven’t yet been mentioned?
Once Service Users & Carers have engaged and are contributing towards improvement projects I feel it’s important to provide them with access to the resources needed to do the job. I am ready to start a project and would like to know how to start one up please.
For example, myself and other carers have invested our time in compiling and editing our Newham Mental Health Carers Newsletter. However, we were not initially provided with access to computers and resources related to printing and distribution but some ELFT staff kindly volunteered to assist us and distribute our first edition.
I would like to use my concerns about the needs of people in supported housing. I’ve also recognised that we need to do more for people with mental health issues during their stay in physical health hospital environments. I would like to use my energy and expertise to help people make improvements in these areas but need guidance. I would like to know how are people supported when starting a project and it fell on the way side? What is the procedure to get them back on board?
I would also like to thank all staff that has helped me and other carers since joining the trust. The training, the awards, the services, and all of the other engagements.
Editorial Note
I have always been very impressed with Zhenreenah’s energy and passion to suggest improvements to services.
As a carer myself, I can resonate with many of the issues articulated in this article and I hope it gives you an insight into the invaluable and compassionate work of Carers.
The opportunities to engage both within QI Team and People Participation offers many opportunities like that provided to me to assist the QI team with my expertise. By sharing the unique stories we can collaboratively improve the services by exposing the gaps and integrating the various pathways to improve the client journey.
As Zhenreenah mentioned, we need to be mindful always to treat service users/carers with compassion and to provide the support to guide then forward at their own pace as it is easy to be myopic and focus too much on statistics and charts.
The human element – the person – should always remain at the core and form the epicentre of the 6 “C” Quality of Care mantra.
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Newham QI Wall artist Jonny Glover interviewed BBC Radio London
Jonny Glover, the artist behind our Newham Centre for Mental Health Quality Improvement Wall was interviewed about his work on BBC Radio London recently.
Jonny talked to Robert Elms about this fantastic project which won a prize at the 2017 World Illustration Awards
You can listen to the interview below and visit Jonny’s exhibition at Somerset House in London from 31 July to 28 August. Further details here>>
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Developing a Quality Control Strategy for Violence Reduction

Jen Taylor-Watt & Andy Cruickshank
by Jen Taylor-Watt, QI Lead for City & Hackney and IAPT and Lead Improvement Advisor for Violence Reduction &
Andy Cruickshank, Associate Director of Nursing for QI and Senior Improvement Advisor for Violence Reduction
In order to hold the gains we’ve achieved through the Violence Reduction Collaboratives, it’s key that we develop strong structures and processes for understanding the health of our inpatient systems, enabling teams to identify quickly when there are risks of things going out of control. A key step we have used to do this to date has been the unitwide safety huddles, and we are now taking this a step further with the introduction of visual management strategies within unitwide huddles.
A key structure; the unitwide huddle
Like on a ward level, unitwide huddles help the whole unit to come together to understand what the concerns and issues are and to agree actions to be taken as a team. It enables managers and staff from across the unit to be conscious of problems and to support each other to address these; thereby functioning more as a whole system, rather than isolated wards.
For example, at a unit-wide huddle in City & Hackney last week, the representative from Bevan PICU (Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit) raised the fact that a service users’ glasses had been broken on the ward and this was understandably leading to unhappiness and agitation, because they couldn’t see properly. Bevan was low on staff that day though, so couldn’t safely release anyone to escort the service user to replace his glasses. The unitwide huddle quickly agreed it was a priority for the unit to sort this as quickly as possible and another Ward Manager immediately agreed to release a member of their staff to support the PICU address the person’s needs.
Quality Control through visual management; the Quality Control Board
The QI team is working with the units in Tower Hamlets and City & Hackney to look at how we can strengthen our Quality Control strategy further, through using the ideas of visual management by developing Quality Control Boards, as shown in figure 1, Tower Hamlets, and figure 2, City & Hackney.

Figure 1 – Tower Hamlets Quality Control Board, June 2017

Figure 2 – City & Hackney Quality Control Board, August 2017
As you can see from these images, Quality Control Boards attempt to bring together all the key data, which gives a sense of how a system is functioning. Rather than just relying on the information that individuals decide to bring to the huddle, teams go through a process of reflecting on the data they need every time to understand how their system is functioning. This therefore mitigates against the risk of important information and connections being missed. It provides a more objective framework that the whole team can work with to see what is important and what needs discussion. It therefore helps to more systematically manage the control of the hospital as a system and focuses staff on what they need to pay attention to.
Staff from Tower Hamlets, who are the furthest ahead with developing their approach to using Quality Control Boards, have reflected that the Quality Control Board also really helps the unit learn, and that use of the board is a step up from previous huddles, making them better aware of unit wide issues. They have fed back that it is also improving their problem solving and critical thinking, and helping them to more fully consider and keep track of follow-up plans.
Tower Hamlets staff are keen to emphasise that they’re nowhere near finished with refining their Quality Control Board. It is very much a process of getting started, seeing what is useful and reflecting on ways in which it could be strengthened even further. Becks Lingard, Matron for Rosebank PICU and Brick Lane Ward in Tower Hamlets, kindly supported City & Hackney leadership to get going with their Quality Control Board, so we now have the opportunity to share the learning across the two units as they both take this forwards. Newham also plans to start soon.
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Perspectives from Newham Inpatient Unit…
The power of safety huddles; identification, prediction & strengthening team work.
By Emma Binley, QI Lead for Newham & Improvement Advisor to the Newham Violence Reduction Collaborative
& Paul McLaughlin, Borough Lead Nurse & Lead of the Newham Violence Reduction Collaborative
The safety huddle is one component of the safety bundle that has been tested on the inpatient wards across Newham. All of the wards in Newham are now using safety huddles and are trying to huddle at least three times a day.
Where do safety huddles come from?
Safety Huddles are used in other areas of healthcare to encourage effective communication and teamwork and, funnily enough, the idea of huddling originally stems from completely different contexts like American Football and the US Army. Any time you have a group of people trying to achieve a shared aim, you need to have an effective means by which they are encouraged and supported to work together – specifically to take a pause, reflect on what is going on and then to develop strategy and ensure everyone is clear on their roles. This is what happens in American Football – and now this is happening on almost all of our inpatient wards, where we are working together to deliver the best possible care and striving to keep our patients and staff safe and free from harm.
How we structure safety huddles in adult mental health settings?
We believe we’re one of the first organisations around the world to use safety huddles in adult mental health settings. The safety huddle, developed at ELFT, is really focused on providing staff with a structure to help identify and predict when there are risks that are likely to result in violence and aggression and then to take action on these as a team. To do this, we focus on two key questions; staff in the huddle ask “Are you safe?” and “Will anyone be dissatisfied with their care today?”
The first question is prompting staff to reflect on whether there are any pressing risks on the ward, both in terms of individual patient’s behaviour which is likely to result in violence, and ward issues, such as staffing levels or ward occupancy. The second question is drawing on ideas around the importance of human needs and how when needs are unmet, this can lead to agitation, aggression and ultimately violence. If we can better connect with these needs, do what we can to meet them, and show empathy and understanding if we can’t, our work has shown we can prevent incidents. So, the first step is to identify when a need is not being met; reflecting whether anyone one the ward is unhappy really helps us to do that.
Experiences using safety huddles in the Newham Violence Reduction Collaborative
At one of the collaborative learning sets in Newham, staff from Sapphire ward spoke about how the huddles had improved team working on the ward, as it enables them to create and agree on a plan to ensure the safety of others. They also expressed how the huddles create an opportunity to learn new things about the service users on the ward; for example if a staff member knows that a particular service user enjoys something or finds something helpful in a time of distress they are able to share this more effectively with the team.
The safety huddles promote collective leadership and also ensure that risks and concerns are not individually managed but are shared and owned by the entire team. Staff in Newham have spoken about how they feel that the safety huddles are most effective when they are multidisciplinary, as this improves the efficiency of decision making. Ruby Triage spoke positively about how consultants help to initiate the huddle each day at a set time which works really well.
Not only have the huddles strengthened team work they have also provided an opportunity to create dispersed leadership. The safety bundle has empowered some of the more junior staff in Newham to lead on the violence reduction work and they have played a vital role in supporting the ward teams to become more reliable with using the change ideas. One of key learning points identified from the teams is that the improvements and reliability cannot be sustained when it relies on one individual; it needs to be a team effort.
In addition to the fantastic reductions in physical violence on many of the wards in Newham, the safety bundle, collaborative learning sets and empowering leadership has transformed the culture on the inpatient wards, with safety and teamwork being at the heart of this.
At the last collaborative learning set, Opal ward reflected on what works well on days when they do not have incidents of physical or non-physical violence and the group asked if they did anything different on these days. The staff shared that there is the feeling on these days that everyone is on the ward and together working towards making everyone else’s day better.

Learning together at the Newham Violence Reduction Collaborative
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Violence reduction on older adult mental health wards
The Safer Wards project aimed to increase the safety of patients with mental health needs, specifically tackling the level of violence and aggression on older adult wards in Newham and Hackney, sites covered by our East London mental health trust. We developed a strategy to tackle this issue based on Quality Improvement methods, to better understand the issues underlying the problem, and plan a service improvement that would be feasible within financial and resource constraints. The specific aim of the work was a 20% decrease in violent incidents on the 3 wards in City and Hackney, and Newham
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The Grand Unveiling of Newham’s QI Wall
On the 26th 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!
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Newham Violence Reduction Collaborative
This projected was presented at the 2017 Annual QI Conference. Since June 2016 Newham’s Inpatient wards have been part of planned experiment to test and evaluate the Safety Culture Bundle which was originally developed in Tower Hamlets. Each ward is testing out different combinations of the below change ideas
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Mindfullness for Staff in Newham MHCOP
Please learn more about this completed ELFT QI project from the adjacent poster.
ELFT staff, service users and carers can access full details of this project on QI Life.
The project code is 100957, please log onto your QI Life account before clicking the logo below.
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My journey in preparation to engage with a QI Project
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Active QI Projects – June 2019
This is the monthly report generated from Life QI, showing all active projects within all the directorates.
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Newham Occupational Therapy QI Project
Click on this poster to learn about a QI project presented at our Annual QI Conference, March 2016
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