Our Improvement Unit helps wider health and care organisations including NHS trusts, health systems, integrated care boards (ICB’s), GP practices and primary care networks with a range of programme management and change expertise.

We have a track record of achieving excellent outcomes for our clients and supporting effective cross-organisational and cross-sector collaboration.  We achieve this by working in partnership with our clients to fully understand their needs and then developing tailored solutions – underpinned by our operational excellence ethos and drawing on our breadth of experience in project management and quality improvement principles.

Our offer to you

Being of the NHS, for the NHS, there are inherent benefits in using us over the larger consultancy houses:

• We focus on creating value – not profits – and delivering competitively priced, effective support at scale
• We share your values
• Our NHS experience and health system relationships are unparalleled
• Our place on all the major NHS and public sector procurement frameworks makes us very easy to access
• When you need people and resource quickly, we can help.

System improvement

• We work closely with system partners to develop and deliver improvements
• Redesign and strengthen system delivery to meet priorities, challenges and improve outcomes
• Co-develop, lead and monitor the effective delivery of transformation plans across place, systems and nationally
• Diagnostic support to identify gaps and opportunities 
• Support reductions in process variations to harmonise across organisations
• Provide quality improvement training, coaching and mentorship to allow teams and organisations to increase capabilities through designated programmes, or through ward to board culture shift

Strategy design and delivery

• Design and co-develop national, system & local strategies
• Stakeholder engagement to co-develop strategies and follow through to implementation
• Service re-modelling and design to meet strategic goals
• Financial and sustainable improvement through a structured change approach
• Support organisation development through change and transition

Strengthen system partnerships and collaboration

• Facilitate events to engage system partners
• Support mergers and formation of new organisations to understand shared values, form priorities and action plans
• Co-design and support implementation of system design
• Support achievement of shared patient-centred outcomes
• Provide a structured approach to reducing variation amongst system partners to enhance quality
• Establishing and strengthening provider collaboratives

Implement new ways of working

• Streamline pathways and clinical processes
• Undertake patient flow planning and modelling
• Design and utilise tools for the digital transformation of processes
• Develop and implement pilot schemes
• Facilitate workshops to address challenges and co-develop solutions
• Evaluate the impact of improvements and changes to recognise the benefits (including quality and financial)
• Ensure sustainability of the agreed methods

Improve performance, quality and efficiency

Quality and continuous improvement in key priority areas such as patient safety, elective and emergency care, primary care access and mental health through:

• Analysing key information to understand the root causes of system challenges
• Benchmarking, seeking best practices, and sharing learning to improve performance
• Partnering with stakeholders to co-develop means to improve
• Facilitate learning amongst system partners to identify interventions that provide service improvements, focus on outcomes and add value
• Apply Lean Six Sigma and other improvement methods to reduce waste and duplication in processes

Project and programme management

• All aspects of project and programme management – a complete package of targeted bespoke support
• Lead and deliver effective programme management office support for large-scale and complex programmes across footprints from place to nationwide in partnership with clients
• Use best practice tools & techniques to deliver sustainable improvements, change and efficiencies through best practice tools and techniques such as Prince2

The Improvement Unit is part of NHS Midlands and Lancashire Consulting Collaborative. See below for more information:

News and Publications

Please find our annual review below: